Provided by: ovn-common_24.09.0-1_amd64 
NAME
ovn-sb - OVN_Southbound database schema
This database holds logical and physical configuration and state for the Open Virtual
Network (OVN) system to support virtual network abstraction. For an introduction to OVN,
please see ovn-architecture(7).
The OVN Southbound database sits at the center of the OVN architecture. It is the one
component that speaks both southbound directly to all the hypervisors and gateways, via
ovn-controller/ovn-controller-vtep, and northbound to the Cloud Management System, via
ovn-northd:
Database Structure
The OVN Southbound database contains classes of data with different properties, as
described in the sections below.
Physical network
Physical network tables contain information about the chassis nodes in the system. This
contains all the information necessary to wire the overlay, such as IP addresses,
supported tunnel types, and security keys.
The amount of physical network data is small (O(n) in the number of chassis) and it
changes infrequently, so it can be replicated to every chassis.
The Chassis and Encap tables are the physical network tables.
Logical Network
Logical network tables contain the topology of logical switches and routers, ACLs,
firewall rules, and everything needed to describe how packets traverse a logical network,
represented as logical datapath flows (see Logical Datapath Flows, below).
Logical network data may be large (O(n) in the number of logical ports, ACL rules, etc.).
Thus, to improve scaling, each chassis should receive only data related to logical
networks in which that chassis participates.
The logical network data is ultimately controlled by the cloud management system (CMS)
running northbound of OVN. That CMS determines the entire OVN logical configuration and
therefore the logical network data at any given time is a deterministic function of the
CMS’s configuration, although that happens indirectly via the OVN_Northbound database and
ovn-northd.
Logical network data is likely to change more quickly than physical network data. This is
especially true in a container environment where containers are created and destroyed (and
therefore added to and deleted from logical switches) quickly.
The Logical_Flow, Multicast_Group, Address_Group, DHCP_Options, DHCPv6_Options, and DNS
tables contain logical network data.
Logical-physical bindings
These tables link logical and physical components. They show the current placement of
logical components (such as VMs and VIFs) onto chassis, and map logical entities to the
values that represent them in tunnel encapsulations.
These tables change frequently, at least every time a VM powers up or down or migrates,
and especially quickly in a container environment. The amount of data per VM (or VIF) is
small.
Each chassis is authoritative about the VMs and VIFs that it hosts at any given time and
can efficiently flood that state to a central location, so the consistency needs are
minimal.
The Port_Binding and Datapath_Binding tables contain binding data.
MAC bindings
The MAC_Binding table tracks the bindings from IP addresses to Ethernet addresses that are
dynamically discovered using ARP (for IPv4) and neighbor discovery (for IPv6). Usually,
IP-to-MAC bindings for virtual machines are statically populated into the Port_Binding
table, so MAC_Binding is primarily used to discover bindings on physical networks.
Common Columns
Some tables contain a special column named external_ids. This column has the same form and
purpose each place that it appears, so we describe it here to save space later.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Key-value pairs for use by the software that manages the OVN Southbound
database rather than by ovn-controller/ovn-controller-vtep. In particular,
ovn-northd can use key-value pairs in this column to relate entities in the
southbound database to higher-level entities (such as entities in the OVN
Northbound database). Individual key-value pairs in this column may be
documented in some cases to aid in understanding and troubleshooting, but
the reader should not mistake such documentation as comprehensive.
TABLE SUMMARY
The following list summarizes the purpose of each of the tables in the OVN_Southbound
database. Each table is described in more detail on a later page.
Table Purpose
SB_Global Southbound configuration
Chassis Physical Network Hypervisor and Gateway Information
Chassis_Private
Chassis Private
Encap Encapsulation Types
Address_Set
Address Sets
Port_Group
Port Groups
Logical_Flow
Logical Network Flows
Logical_DP_Group
Logical Datapath Groups
Multicast_Group
Logical Port Multicast Groups
Mirror Mirror Entry
Meter Meter entry
Meter_Band
Band for meter entries
Datapath_Binding
Physical-Logical Datapath Bindings
Port_Binding
Physical-Logical Port Bindings
MAC_Binding
IP to MAC bindings
DHCP_Options
DHCP Options supported by native OVN DHCP
DHCPv6_Options
DHCPv6 Options supported by native OVN DHCPv6
Connection
OVSDB client connections.
SSL SSL configuration.
DNS Native DNS resolution
RBAC_Role RBAC_Role configuration.
RBAC_Permission
RBAC_Permission configuration.
Gateway_Chassis
Gateway_Chassis configuration.
HA_Chassis
HA_Chassis configuration.
HA_Chassis_Group
HA_Chassis_Group configuration.
Controller_Event
Controller Event table
IP_Multicast
IP_Multicast configuration.
IGMP_Group
IGMP_Group configuration.
Service_Monitor
Service_Monitor configuration.
Load_Balancer
Load_Balancer configuration.
BFD BFD configuration.
FDB Port to MAC bindings
Static_MAC_Binding
IP to MAC bindings
Chassis_Template_Var
Chassis_Template_Var configuration.
SB_Global TABLE
Southbound configuration for an OVN system. This table must have exactly one row.
Summary:
Status:
nb_cfg integer
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
options map of string-string pairs
Common options:
options map of string-string pairs
Options for configuring BFD:
options : bfd-min-rx optional string
options : bfd-decay-min-rx
optional string
options : bfd-min-tx optional string
options : bfd-mult optional string
options : debug_drop_domain_id
optional string
options : debug_drop_collector_set
optional string
Options for configuring ovn-sbctl:
options : sbctl_probe_interval
optional string
Connection Options:
connections set of Connections
ssl optional SSL
Security Configurations:
ipsec boolean
Details:
Status:
This column allow a client to track the overall configuration state of the system.
nb_cfg: integer
Sequence number for the configuration. When a CMS or ovn-nbctl updates the
northbound database, it increments the nb_cfg column in the NB_Global table in the
northbound database. In turn, when ovn-northd updates the southbound database to
bring it up to date with these changes, it updates this column to the same value.
Common Columns:
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
See External IDs at the beginning of this document.
options: map of string-string pairs
Common options:
options: map of string-string pairs
This column provides general key/value settings. The supported options are
described individually below.
Options for configuring BFD:
These options apply when ovn-controller configures BFD on tunnels interfaces.
options : bfd-min-rx: optional string
BFD option min-rx value to use when configuring BFD on tunnel interfaces.
options : bfd-decay-min-rx: optional string
BFD option decay-min-rx value to use when configuring BFD on tunnel interfaces.
options : bfd-min-tx: optional string
BFD option min-tx value to use when configuring BFD on tunnel interfaces.
options : bfd-mult: optional string
BFD option mult value to use when configuring BFD on tunnel interfaces.
options : debug_drop_domain_id: optional string
If set to a 8-bit number and if debug_drop_collector_set is also configured,
ovn-controller will add a sample action to every flow that does not come from a
logical flow that contains a ’drop’ action. The 8 most significant bits of the
observation_domain_id field will be those specified in the debug_drop_domain_id.
The 24 least significant bits of the observation_domain_id field will be zero.
The observation_point_id will be set to the OpenFlow table number.
options : debug_drop_collector_set: optional string
If set to a 32-bit number ovn-controller will add a sample action to every flow
that does not come from a logical flow that contains a ’drop’ action. The sample
action will have the specified collector_set_id. The value must match that of the
local OVS configuration as described in ovs-actions(7).
Options for configuring ovn-sbctl:
These options apply when ovn-sbctl connects to OVN Southbound database.
options : sbctl_probe_interval: optional string
The inactivity probe interval of the connection to the OVN Southbound database from
ovn-sbctl utility, in milliseconds. If the value is zero, it disables the
connection keepalive feature.
If the value is nonzero, then it will be forced to a value of at least 1000 ms.
If the value is less than zero, then the default inactivity probe interval for
ovn-sbctl would be left intact (120000 ms).
Connection Options:
connections: set of Connections
Database clients to which the Open vSwitch database server should connect or on
which it should listen, along with options for how these connections should be
configured. See the Connection table for more information.
ssl: optional SSL
Global SSL configuration.
Security Configurations:
ipsec: boolean
Tunnel encryption configuration. If this column is set to be true, all OVN tunnels
will be encrypted with IPsec.
Chassis TABLE
Each row in this table represents a hypervisor or gateway (a chassis) in the physical
network. Each chassis, via ovn-controller/ovn-controller-vtep, adds and updates its own
row, and keeps a copy of the remaining rows to determine how to reach other hypervisors.
When a chassis shuts down gracefully, it should remove its own row. (This is not critical
because resources hosted on the chassis are equally unreachable regardless of whether the
row is present.) If a chassis shuts down permanently without removing its row, some kind
of manual or automatic cleanup is eventually needed; we can devise a process for that as
necessary.
Summary:
name string (must be unique within table)
hostname string
nb_cfg integer
other_config : ovn-bridge-mappings
optional string
other_config : datapath-type optional string
other_config : iface-types optional string
other_config : ovn-cms-options
optional string
other_config : is-interconn optional string
other_config : is-remote optional string
transport_zones set of strings
other_config : ovn-chassis-mac-mappings
optional string
other_config : port-up-notif optional string
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Encapsulation Configuration:
encaps set of 1 or more Encaps
Gateway Configuration:
vtep_logical_switches set of strings
Details:
name: string (must be unique within table)
OVN does not prescribe a particular format for chassis names. ovn-controller
populates this column using external_ids:system-id in the Open_vSwitch database’s
Open_vSwitch table. ovn-controller-vtep populates this column with name in the
hardware_vtep database’s Physical_Switch table.
hostname: string
The hostname of the chassis, if applicable. ovn-controller will populate this
column with the hostname of the host it is running on. ovn-controller-vtep will
leave this column empty.
nb_cfg: integer
Deprecated. This column is replaced by the nb_cfg column of the Chassis_Private
table.
other_config : ovn-bridge-mappings: optional string
ovn-controller populates this key with the set of bridge mappings it has been
configured to use. Other applications should treat this key as read-only. See
ovn-controller(8) for more information.
other_config : datapath-type: optional string
ovn-controller populates this key with the datapath type configured in the
datapath_type column of the Open_vSwitch database’s Bridge table. Other
applications should treat this key as read-only. See ovn-controller(8) for more
information.
other_config : iface-types: optional string
ovn-controller populates this key with the interface types configured in the
iface_types column of the Open_vSwitch database’s Open_vSwitch table. Other
applications should treat this key as read-only. See ovn-controller(8) for more
information.
other_config : ovn-cms-options: optional string
ovn-controller populates this key with the set of options configured in the
external_ids:ovn-cms-options column of the Open_vSwitch database’s Open_vSwitch
table. See ovn-controller(8) for more information.
other_config : is-interconn: optional string
ovn-controller populates this key with the setting configured in the
external_ids:ovn-is-interconn column of the Open_vSwitch database’s Open_vSwitch
table. If set to true, the chassis is used as an interconnection gateway. See
ovn-controller(8) for more information.
other_config : is-remote: optional string
ovn-ic set this key to true for remote interconnection gateway chassises learned
from the interconnection southbound database. See ovn-ic(8) for more information.
transport_zones: set of strings
ovn-controller populates this key with the transport zones configured in the
external_ids:ovn-transport-zones column of the Open_vSwitch database’s Open_vSwitch
table. See ovn-controller(8) for more information.
other_config : ovn-chassis-mac-mappings: optional string
ovn-controller populates this key with the set of options configured in the
external_ids:ovn-chassis-mac-mappings column of the Open_vSwitch database’s
Open_vSwitch table. See ovn-controller(8) for more information.
other_config : port-up-notif: optional string
ovn-controller populates this key with true when it supports Port_Binding.up.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common Columns at the beginning of
this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Encapsulation Configuration:
OVN uses encapsulation to transmit logical dataplane packets between chassis.
encaps: set of 1 or more Encaps
Points to supported encapsulation configurations to transmit logical dataplane
packets to this chassis. Each entry is a Encap record that describes the
configuration.
Gateway Configuration:
A gateway is a chassis that forwards traffic between the OVN-managed part of a logical
network and a physical VLAN, extending a tunnel-based logical network into a physical
network. Gateways are typically dedicated nodes that do not host VMs and will be
controlled by ovn-controller-vtep.
vtep_logical_switches: set of strings
Stores all VTEP logical switch names connected by this gateway chassis. The
Port_Binding table entry with options:vtep-physical-switch equal Chassis name, and
options:vtep-logical-switch value in Chassis vtep_logical_switches, will be
associated with this Chassis.
Chassis_Private TABLE
Each row in this table maintains per chassis private data that are accessed only by the
owning chassis (write only) and ovn-northd, not by any other chassis. These data are
stored in this separate table instead of the Chassis table for performance considerations:
the rows in this table can be conditionally monitored by chassises so that each chassis
only get update notifications for its own row, to avoid unnecessary chassis private data
update flooding in a large scale deployment.
Summary:
name string (must be unique within table)
chassis optional weak reference to Chassis
nb_cfg integer
nb_cfg_timestamp integer
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
name: string (must be unique within table)
The name of the chassis that owns these chassis-private data.
chassis: optional weak reference to Chassis
The reference to Chassis table for the chassis that owns these chassis-private
data.
nb_cfg: integer
Sequence number for the configuration. When ovn-controller updates the
configuration of a chassis from the contents of the southbound database, it copies
nb_cfg from the SB_Global table into this column.
nb_cfg_timestamp: integer
The timestamp when ovn-controller finishes processing the change corresponding to
nb_cfg.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common Columns at the beginning of
this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Encap TABLE
The encaps column in the Chassis table refers to rows in this table to identify how OVN
may transmit logical dataplane packets to this chassis. Each chassis, via
ovn-controller(8) or ovn-controller-vtep(8), adds and updates its own rows and keeps a
copy of the remaining rows to determine how to reach other chassis.
Summary:
type string, one of geneve, stt, or vxlan
options map of string-string pairs
options : csum optional string, either true or false
options : dst_port optional string, containing an integer
options : is_default optional string, either true or false
ip string
chassis_name string
Details:
type: string, one of geneve, stt, or vxlan
The encapsulation to use to transmit packets to this chassis. Hypervisors and
gateways must use one of: geneve, vxlan, or stt.
options: map of string-string pairs
Options for configuring the encapsulation, which may be type specific.
options : csum: optional string, either true or false
csum indicates whether this chassis can transmit and receive packets that include
checksums with reasonable performance. It hints to senders transmitting data to
this chassis that they should use checksums to protect OVN metadata. ovn-controller
populates this key with the value defined in external_ids:ovn-encap-csum column of
the Open_vSwitch database’s Open_vSwitch table. Other applications should treat
this key as read-only. See ovn-controller(8) for more information.
In terms of performance, checksumming actually significantly increases throughput
in most common cases when running on Linux based hosts without NICs supporting
encapsulation hardware offload (around 60% for bulk traffic). The reason is that
generally all NICs are capable of offloading transmitted and received TCP/UDP
checksums (viewed as ordinary data packets and not as tunnels). The benefit comes
on the receive side where the validated outer checksum can be used to additionally
validate an inner checksum (such as TCP), which in turn allows aggregation of
packets to be more efficiently handled by the rest of the stack.
Not all devices see such a benefit. The most notable exception is hardware VTEPs.
These devices are designed to not buffer entire packets in their switching engines
and are therefore unable to efficiently compute or validate full packet checksums.
In addition certain versions of the Linux kernel are not able to fully take
advantage of encapsulation NIC offloads in the presence of checksums. (This is
actually a pretty narrow corner case though: earlier versions of Linux don’t
support encapsulation offloads at all and later versions support both offloads and
checksums well.)
csum defaults to false for hardware VTEPs and true for all other cases.
This option applies to geneve and vxlan encapsulations.
options : dst_port: optional string, containing an integer
If set, overrides the UDP (for geneve and vxlan) or TCP (for stt) destination port.
options : is_default: optional string, either true or false
When there are multiple encaps for a chassis with different IPs, this option
indicates if the encap is the default one that matches the IP in external_ids:ovn-
encap-ip-default column of the Open_vSwitch database’s Open_vSwitch table.
ip: string
The IPv4 address of the encapsulation tunnel endpoint.
chassis_name: string
The name of the chassis that created this encap.
Address_Set TABLE
This table contains address sets synced from the Address_Set table in the OVN_Northbound
database and address sets generated from the Port_Group table in the OVN_Northbound
database.
See the documentation for the Address_Set table and Port_Group table in the OVN_Northbound
database for details.
Summary:
name string (must be unique within table)
addresses set of strings
Details:
name: string (must be unique within table)
addresses: set of strings
Port_Group TABLE
This table contains names for the logical switch ports in the OVN_Northbound database that
belongs to the same group that is defined in Port_Group in the OVN_Northbound database.
Summary:
name string (must be unique within table)
ports set of strings
Details:
name: string (must be unique within table)
ports: set of strings
Logical_Flow TABLE
Each row in this table represents one logical flow. ovn-northd populates this table with
logical flows that implement the L2 and L3 topologies specified in the OVN_Northbound
database. Each hypervisor, via ovn-controller, translates the logical flows into OpenFlow
flows specific to its hypervisor and installs them into Open vSwitch.
Logical flows are expressed in an OVN-specific format, described here. A logical datapath
flow is much like an OpenFlow flow, except that the flows are written in terms of logical
ports and logical datapaths instead of physical ports and physical datapaths. Translation
between logical and physical flows helps to ensure isolation between logical datapaths.
(The logical flow abstraction also allows the OVN centralized components to do less work,
since they do not have to separately compute and push out physical flows to each chassis.)
The default action when no flow matches is to drop packets.
Architectural Logical Life Cycle of a Packet
This following description focuses on the life cycle of a packet through a logical
datapath, ignoring physical details of the implementation. Please refer to Architectural
Physical Life Cycle of a Packet in ovn-architecture(7) for the physical information.
The description here is written as if OVN itself executes these steps, but in fact OVN
(that is, ovn-controller) programs Open vSwitch, via OpenFlow and OVSDB, to execute them
on its behalf.
At a high level, OVN passes each packet through the logical datapath’s logical ingress
pipeline, which may output the packet to one or more logical port or logical multicast
groups. For each such logical output port, OVN passes the packet through the datapath’s
logical egress pipeline, which may either drop the packet or deliver it to the
destination. Between the two pipelines, outputs to logical multicast groups are expanded
into logical ports, so that the egress pipeline only processes a single logical output
port at a time. Between the two pipelines is also where, when necessary, OVN encapsulates
a packet in a tunnel (or tunnels) to transmit to remote hypervisors.
In more detail, to start, OVN searches the Logical_Flow table for a row with correct
logical_datapath or a logical_dp_group, a pipeline of ingress, a table_id of 0, and a
match that is true for the packet. If none is found, OVN drops the packet. If OVN finds
more than one, it chooses the match with the highest priority. Then OVN executes each of
the actions specified in the row’s actions column, in the order specified. Some actions,
such as those to modify packet headers, require no further details. The next and output
actions are special.
The next action causes the above process to be repeated recursively, except that OVN
searches for table_id of 1 instead of 0. Similarly, any next action in a row found in that
table would cause a further search for a table_id of 2, and so on. When recursive
processing completes, flow control returns to the action following next.
The output action also introduces recursion. Its effect depends on the current value of
the outport field. Suppose outport designates a logical port. First, OVN compares inport
to outport; if they are equal, it treats the output as a no-op by default. In the common
case, where they are different, the packet enters the egress pipeline. This transition to
the egress pipeline discards register data, e.g. reg0 ... reg9 and connection tracking
state, to achieve uniform behavior regardless of whether the egress pipeline is on a
different hypervisor (because registers aren’t preserve across tunnel encapsulation).
To execute the egress pipeline, OVN again searches the Logical_Flow table for a row with
correct logical_datapath or a logical_dp_group, a table_id of 0, a match that is true for
the packet, but now looking for a pipeline of egress. If no matching row is found, the
output becomes a no-op. Otherwise, OVN executes the actions for the matching flow (which
is chosen from multiple, if necessary, as already described).
In the egress pipeline, the next action acts as already described, except that it, of
course, searches for egress flows. The output action, however, now directly outputs the
packet to the output port (which is now fixed, because outport is read-only within the
egress pipeline).
The description earlier assumed that outport referred to a logical port. If it instead
designates a logical multicast group, then the description above still applies, with the
addition of fan-out from the logical multicast group to each logical port in the group.
For each member of the group, OVN executes the logical pipeline as described, with the
logical output port replaced by the group member.
Pipeline Stages
ovn-northd populates the Logical_Flow table with the logical flows described in detail in
ovn-northd(8).
Summary:
logical_datapath optional Datapath_Binding
logical_dp_group optional Logical_DP_Group
pipeline string, either egress or ingress
table_id integer, in range 0 to 32
priority integer, in range 0 to 65,535
match string
actions string
tags map of string-string pairs
controller_meter optional string
flow_desc optional string
external_ids : stage-name optional string
external_ids : stage-hint optional string, containing an uuid
external_ids : source optional string
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
logical_datapath: optional Datapath_Binding
The logical datapath to which the logical flow belongs.
logical_dp_group: optional Logical_DP_Group
The group of logical datapaths to which the logical flow belongs. This means that
the same logical flow belongs to all datapaths in a group.
pipeline: string, either egress or ingress
The primary flows used for deciding on a packet’s destination are the ingress
flows. The egress flows implement ACLs. See Logical Life Cycle of a Packet, above,
for details.
table_id: integer, in range 0 to 32
The stage in the logical pipeline, analogous to an OpenFlow table number.
priority: integer, in range 0 to 65,535
The flow’s priority. Flows with numerically higher priority take precedence over
those with lower. If two logical datapath flows with the same priority both match,
then the one actually applied to the packet is undefined.
match: string
A matching expression. OVN provides a superset of OpenFlow matching capabilities,
using a syntax similar to Boolean expressions in a programming language.
The most important components of match expression are comparisons between symbols
and constants, e.g. ip4.dst == 192.168.0.1, ip.proto == 6, arp.op == 1, eth.type ==
0x800. The logical AND operator && and logical OR operator || can combine
comparisons into a larger expression.
Matching expressions also support parentheses for grouping, the logical NOT prefix
operator !, and literals 0 and 1 to express ``false’’ or ``true,’’ respectively.
The latter is useful by itself as a catch-all expression that matches every packet.
Match expressions also support a kind of function syntax. The following functions
are supported:
is_chassis_resident(lport)
Evaluates to true on a chassis on which logical port lport (a quoted string)
resides, and to false elsewhere. This function was introduced in OVN 2.7.
Symbols
Type. Symbols have integer or string type. Integer symbols have a width in bits.
Kinds. There are three kinds of symbols:
• Fields. A field symbol represents a packet header or metadata field. For
example, a field named vlan.tci might represent the VLAN TCI field in a
packet.
A field symbol can have integer or string type. Integer fields can be
nominal or ordinal (see Level of Measurement, below).
• Subfields. A subfield represents a subset of bits from a larger field. For
example, a field vlan.vid might be defined as an alias for vlan.tci[0..11].
Subfields are provided for syntactic convenience, because it is always
possible to instead refer to a subset of bits from a field directly.
Only ordinal fields (see Level of Measurement, below) may have subfields.
Subfields are always ordinal.
• Predicates. A predicate is shorthand for a Boolean expression. Predicates
may be used much like 1-bit fields. For example, ip4 might expand to
eth.type == 0x800. Predicates are provided for syntactic convenience,
because it is always possible to instead specify the underlying expression
directly.
A predicate whose expansion refers to any nominal field or predicate (see
Level of Measurement, below) is nominal; other predicates have Boolean level
of measurement.
Level of Measurement. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_measurement for the
statistical concept on which this classification is based. There are three levels:
• Ordinal. In statistics, ordinal values can be ordered on a scale. OVN
considers a field (or subfield) to be ordinal if its bits can be examined
individually. This is true for the OpenFlow fields that OpenFlow or Open
vSwitch makes ``maskable.’’
Any use of a ordinal field may specify a single bit or a range of bits, e.g.
vlan.tci[13..15] refers to the PCP field within the VLAN TCI, and
eth.dst[40] refers to the multicast bit in the Ethernet destination address.
OVN supports all the usual arithmetic relations (==, !=, <, <=, >, and >=)
on ordinal fields and their subfields, because OVN can implement these in
OpenFlow and Open vSwitch as collections of bitwise tests.
• Nominal. In statistics, nominal values cannot be usefully compared except
for equality. This is true of OpenFlow port numbers, Ethernet types, and IP
protocols are examples: all of these are just identifiers assigned
arbitrarily with no deeper meaning. In OpenFlow and Open vSwitch, bits in
these fields generally aren’t individually addressable.
OVN only supports arithmetic tests for equality on nominal fields, because
OpenFlow and Open vSwitch provide no way for a flow to efficiently implement
other comparisons on them. (A test for inequality can be sort of built out
of two flows with different priorities, but OVN matching expressions always
generate flows with a single priority.)
String fields are always nominal.
• Boolean. A nominal field that has only two values, 0 and 1, is somewhat
exceptional, since it is easy to support both equality and inequality tests
on such a field: either one can be implemented as a test for 0 or 1.
Only predicates (see above) have a Boolean level of measurement.
This isn’t a standard level of measurement.
Prerequisites. Any symbol can have prerequisites, which are additional condition
implied by the use of the symbol. For example, For example, icmp4.type symbol might
have prerequisite icmp4, which would cause an expression icmp4.type == 0 to be
interpreted as icmp4.type == 0 && icmp4, which would in turn expand to icmp4.type
== 0 && eth.type == 0x800 && ip4.proto == 1 (assuming icmp4 is a predicate defined
as suggested under Types above).
Relational operators
All of the standard relational operators ==, !=, <, <=, >, and >= are supported.
Nominal fields support only == and !=, and only in a positive sense when outer !
are taken into account, e.g. given string field inport, inport == "eth0" and
!(inport != "eth0") are acceptable, but not inport != "eth0".
The implementation of == (or != when it is negated), is more efficient than that of
the other relational operators.
Constants
Integer constants may be expressed in decimal, hexadecimal prefixed by 0x, or as
dotted-quad IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses in their standard forms, or Ethernet
addresses as colon-separated hex digits. A constant in any of these forms may be
followed by a slash and a second constant (the mask) in the same form, to form a
masked constant. IPv4 and IPv6 masks may be given as integers, to express CIDR
prefixes.
String constants have the same syntax as quoted strings in JSON (thus, they are
Unicode strings).
Some operators support sets of constants written inside curly braces { ... }.
Commas between elements of a set, and after the last elements, are optional. With
==, ``field == { constant1, constant2, ... }’’ is syntactic sugar for ``field ==
constant1 || field == constant2 || .... Similarly, ``field != { constant1,
constant2, ... }’’ is equivalent to ``field != constant1 && field != constant2 &&
...’’.
You may refer to a set of IPv4, IPv6, or MAC addresses stored in the Address_Set
table by its name. An Address_Set with a name of set1 can be referred to as $set1.
You may refer to a group of logical switch ports stored in the Port_Group table by
its name. An Port_Group with a name of port_group1 can be referred to as
@port_group1.
Additionally, you may refer to the set of addresses belonging to a group of logical
switch ports stored in the Port_Group table by its name followed by a suffix
’_ip4’/’_ip6’. The IPv4 address set of a Port_Group with a name of port_group1 can
be referred to as $port_group1_ip4, and the IPv6 address set of the same Port_Group
can be referred to as $port_group1_ip6
Miscellaneous
Comparisons may name the symbol or the constant first, e.g. tcp.src == 80 and 80 ==
tcp.src are both acceptable.
Tests for a range may be expressed using a syntax like 1024 <= tcp.src <= 49151,
which is equivalent to 1024 <= tcp.src && tcp.src <= 49151.
For a one-bit field or predicate, a mention of its name is equivalent to symobl ==
1, e.g. vlan.present is equivalent to vlan.present == 1. The same is true for one-
bit subfields, e.g. vlan.tci[12]. There is no technical limitation to implementing
the same for ordinal fields of all widths, but the implementation is expensive
enough that the syntax parser requires writing an explicit comparison against zero
to make mistakes less likely, e.g. in tcp.src != 0 the comparison against 0 is
required.
Operator precedence is as shown below, from highest to lowest. There are two
exceptions where parentheses are required even though the table would suggest that
they are not: && and || require parentheses when used together, and ! requires
parentheses when applied to a relational expression. Thus, in (eth.type == 0x800 ||
eth.type == 0x86dd) && ip.proto == 6 or !(arp.op == 1), the parentheses are
mandatory.
• ()
• == != < <= > >=
• !
• && ||
Comments may be introduced by //, which extends to the next new-line. Comments
within a line may be bracketed by /* and */. Multiline comments are not supported.
Symbols
Most of the symbols below have integer type. Only inport and outport have string
type. inport names a logical port. Thus, its value is a logical_port name from the
Port_Binding table. outport may name a logical port, as inport, or a logical
multicast group defined in the Multicast_Group table. For both symbols, only names
within the flow’s logical datapath may be used.
The regX symbols are 32-bit integers. The xxregX symbols are 128-bit integers,
which overlay four of the 32-bit registers: xxreg0 overlays reg0 through reg3, with
reg0 supplying the most-significant bits of xxreg0 and reg3 the least-significant.
xxreg1 similarly overlays reg4 through reg7.
• reg0...reg9
• xxreg0 xxreg1
• inport outport
• flags.loopback
• pkt.mark
• eth.src eth.dst eth.type
• vlan.tci vlan.vid vlan.pcp vlan.present
• ip.proto ip.dscp ip.ecn ip.ttl ip.frag
• ip4.src ip4.dst
• ip6.src ip6.dst ip6.label
• arp.op arp.spa arp.tpa arp.sha arp.tha
• rarp.op rarp.spa rarp.tpa rarp.sha rarp.tha
• tcp.src tcp.dst tcp.flags
• udp.src udp.dst
• sctp.src sctp.dst
• icmp4.type icmp4.code
• icmp6.type icmp6.code
• nd.target nd.sll nd.tll
• ct_mark ct_label
• ct_state, which has several Boolean subfields. The ct_next action
initializes the following subfields:
• ct.trk: Always set to true by ct_next to indicate that connection
tracking has taken place. All other ct subfields have ct.trk as a
prerequisite.
• ct.new: True for a new flow
• ct.est: True for an established flow
• ct.rel: True for a related flow
• ct.rpl: True for a reply flow
• ct.inv: True for a connection entry in a bad state
The ct_dnat, ct_snat, and ct_lb actions initialize the following subfields:
• ct.dnat: True for a packet whose destination IP address has been
changed.
• ct.snat: True for a packet whose source IP address has been changed.
The following predicates are supported:
• eth.bcast expands to eth.dst == ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
• eth.mcast expands to eth.dst[40]
• eth.mcastv6 expands to eth.dst[32..47] == 0x3333
• vlan.present expands to vlan.tci[12]
• ip4 expands to eth.type == 0x800
• ip4.src_mcast expands to ip4.src[28..31] == 0xe
• ip4.mcast expands to ip4.dst[28..31] == 0xe
• ip6 expands to eth.type == 0x86dd
• ip expands to ip4 || ip6
• icmp4 expands to ip4 && ip.proto == 1
• icmp6 expands to ip6 && ip.proto == 58
• icmp expands to icmp4 || icmp6
• ip.is_frag expands to ip.frag[0]
• ip.later_frag expands to ip.frag[1]
• ip.first_frag expands to ip.is_frag && !ip.later_frag
• arp expands to eth.type == 0x806
• rarp expands to eth.type == 0x8035
• ip6.mcast expands to eth.mcastv6 && ip6.dst[120..127] == 0xff
• nd expands to icmp6.type == {135, 136} && icmp6.code == 0 && ip.ttl == 255
• nd_ns expands to icmp6.type == 135 && icmp6.code == 0 && ip.ttl == 255
• nd_ns_mcast expands to ip6.mcast && icmp6.type == 135 && icmp6.code == 0 &&
ip.ttl == 255
• nd_na expands to icmp6.type == 136 && icmp6.code == 0 && ip.ttl == 255
• nd_rs expands to icmp6.type == 133 && icmp6.code == 0 && ip.ttl == 255
• nd_ra expands to icmp6.type == 134 && icmp6.code == 0 && ip.ttl == 255
• tcp expands to ip.proto == 6
• udp expands to ip.proto == 17
• sctp expands to ip.proto == 132
actions: string
Logical datapath actions, to be executed when the logical flow represented by this
row is the highest-priority match.
Actions share lexical syntax with the match column. An empty set of actions (or one
that contains just white space or comments), or a set of actions that consists of
just drop;, causes the matched packets to be dropped. Otherwise, the column should
contain a sequence of actions, each terminated by a semicolon.
The following actions are defined:
output;
In the ingress pipeline, this action executes the egress pipeline as a
subroutine. If outport names a logical port, the egress pipeline executes
once; if it is a multicast group, the egress pipeline runs once for each
logical port in the group.
In the egress pipeline, this action performs the actual output to the
outport logical port. (In the egress pipeline, outport never names a
multicast group.)
By default, output to the input port is implicitly dropped, that is, output
becomes a no-op if outport == inport. Occasionally it may be useful to
override this behavior, e.g. to send an ARP reply to an ARP request; to do
so, use flags.loopback = 1 to allow the packet to "hair-pin" back to the
input port.
next;
next(table);
next(pipeline=pipeline, table=table);
Executes the given logical datapath table in pipeline as a subroutine. The
default table is just after the current one. If pipeline is specified, it may
be ingress or egress; the default pipeline is the one currently executing.
Actions in the both ingress and egress pipeline can use next to jump across
the other pipeline. Actions in the ingress pipeline should use next to jump
into the specific table of egress pipeline only if it is certain that the
packets are local and not tunnelled and wants to skip certain stages in the
packet processing.
field = constant;
Sets data or metadata field field to constant value constant, e.g. outport =
"vif0"; to set the logical output port. To set only a subset of bits in a
field, specify a subfield for field or a masked constant, e.g. one may use
vlan.pcp[2] = 1; or vlan.pcp = 4/4; to set the most significant bit of the
VLAN PCP.
Assigning to a field with prerequisites implicitly adds those prerequisites to
match; thus, for example, a flow that sets tcp.dst applies only to TCP flows,
regardless of whether its match mentions any TCP field.
Not all fields are modifiable (e.g. eth.type and ip.proto are read-only), and
not all modifiable fields may be partially modified (e.g. ip.ttl must assigned
as a whole). The outport field is modifiable in the ingress pipeline but not
in the egress pipeline.
ovn_field = constant;
Sets OVN field ovn_field to constant value constant.
OVN supports setting the values of certain fields which are not yet supported
in OpenFlow to set or modify them.
Below are the supported OVN fields:
• icmp4.frag_mtu icmp6.frag_mtu
This field sets the low-order 16 bits of the ICMP{4,6} header field
that is labelled "unused" in the ICMP specification as defined in the
RFC 1191 with the value specified in constant.
Eg. icmp4.frag_mtu = 1500;
field1 = field2;
Sets data or metadata field field1 to the value of data or metadata field
field2, e.g. reg0 = ip4.src; copies ip4.src into reg0. To modify only a subset
of a field’s bits, specify a subfield for field1 or field2 or both, e.g.
vlan.pcp = reg0[0..2]; copies the least-significant bits of reg0 into the VLAN
PCP.
field1 and field2 must be the same type, either both string or both integer
fields. If they are both integer fields, they must have the same width.
If field1 or field2 has prerequisites, they are added implicitly to match. It
is possible to write an assignment with contradictory prerequisites, such as
ip4.src = ip6.src[0..31];, but the contradiction means that a logical flow
with such an assignment will never be matched.
field1 <-> field2;
Similar to field1 = field2; except that the two values are exchanged instead
of copied. Both field1 and field2 must modifiable.
push(field);
Push the value of field to the stack top.
pop(field);
Pop the stack top and store the value to field, which must be modifiable.
ip.ttl--;
Decrements the IPv4 or IPv6 TTL. If this would make the TTL zero or negative,
then processing of the packet halts; no further actions are processed. (To
properly handle such cases, a higher-priority flow should match on ip.ttl ==
{0, 1};.)
Prerequisite: ip
ct_next;
Apply connection tracking to the flow, initializing ct_state for matching in
later tables. Automatically moves on to the next table, as if followed by
next.
As a side effect, IP fragments will be reassembled for matching. If a
fragmented packet is output, then it will be sent with any overlapping
fragments squashed. The connection tracking state is scoped by the logical
port when the action is used in a flow for a logical switch, so overlapping
addresses may be used. To allow traffic related to the matched flow, execute
ct_commit . Connection tracking state is scoped by the logical topology when
the action is used in a flow for a router.
It is possible to have actions follow ct_next, but they will not have access
to any of its side-effects and is not generally useful.
ct_commit { };
ct_commit { ct_mark=value[/mask]; };
ct_commit { ct_label=value[/mask]; };
ct_commit { ct_mark=value[/mask]; ct_label=value[/mask]; };
Commit the flow to the connection tracking entry associated with it by a
previous call to ct_next. When ct_mark=value[/mask] and/or
ct_label=value[/mask] are supplied, ct_mark and/or ct_label will be set to the
values indicated by value[/mask] on the connection tracking entry. ct_mark is
a 32-bit field. ct_label is a 128-bit field. The value[/mask] should be
specified in hex string if more than 64bits are to be used. Registers and
other named fields can be used for value. ct_mark and ct_label may be sub-
addressed in order to have specific bits set.
Note that if you want processing to continue in the next table, you must
execute the next action after ct_commit. You may also leave out next which
will commit connection tracking state, and then drop the packet. This could be
useful for setting ct_mark on a connection tracking entry before dropping a
packet, for example.
ct_commit_to_zone(dnat);
ct_commit_to_zone(snat);
Commit the flow to the specific zone in the connection tracker. The packet is
then automatically sent to the next tables as if followed by next; action. The
next tables will see the changes in the packet caused by the connection
tracker.
Note that this action is meaningful only in the Logical Router Datapath as the
Logical Switch Datapath does not use separate connection tracking zones. Using
this action in Logical Switch Datapath falls back to committing the flow into
the logical port’s conntrack zone.
ct_dnat;
ct_dnat(IP);
ct_dnat sends the packet through the DNAT zone in connection tracking table to
unDNAT any packet that was DNATed in the opposite direction. The packet is
then automatically sent to the next tables as if followed by next; action. The
next tables will see the changes in the packet caused by the connection
tracker.
ct_dnat(IP) sends the packet through the DNAT zone to change the destination
IP address of the packet to the one provided inside the parentheses and
commits the connection. The packet is then automatically sent to the next
tables as if followed by next; action. The next tables will see the changes in
the packet caused by the connection tracker.
ct_snat;
ct_snat(IP);
ct_snat sends the packet through the SNAT zone to unSNAT any packet that was
SNATed in the opposite direction. The packet is automatically sent to the next
tables as if followed by the next; action. The next tables will see the
changes in the packet caused by the connection tracker.
ct_snat(IP) sends the packet through the SNAT zone to change the source IP
address of the packet to the one provided inside the parenthesis and commits
the connection. The packet is then automatically sent to the next tables as if
followed by next; action. The next tables will see the changes in the packet
caused by the connection tracker.
ct_dnat_in_czone;
ct_dnat_in_czone(IP);
ct_dnat_in_czone sends the packet through the common NAT zone (used for both
DNAT and SNAT) in connection tracking table to unDNAT any packet that was
DNATed in the opposite direction. The packet is then automatically sent to the
next tables as if followed by next; action. The next tables will see the
changes in the packet caused by the connection tracker.
ct_dnat_in_czone(IP) sends the packet through the common NAT zone to change
the destination IP address of the packet to the one provided inside the
parentheses and commits the connection. The packet is then automatically sent
to the next tables as if followed by next; action. The next tables will see
the changes in the packet caused by the connection tracker.
ct_snat_in_czone;
ct_snat_in_czone(IP);
ct_snat_in_czone sends the packet through the common NAT zone to unSNAT any
packet that was SNATed in the opposite direction. The packet is automatically
sent to the next tables as if followed by the next; action. The next tables
will see the changes in the packet caused by the connection tracker.
ct_snat_in_czone(IP) sends the packet\ through the common NAT zone to change
the source IP address of the packet to the one provided inside the parenthesis
and commits the connection. The packet is then automatically sent to the next
tables as if followed by next; action. The next tables will see the changes in
the packet caused by the connection tracker.
ct_clear;
Clears connection tracking state.
ct_commit_nat;
Applies NAT and commits the connection to the CT. Automatically moves on to
the next table, as if followed by next. This is very useful for connections
that are in related state for already existing connections and allows the NAT
to be applied to them as well.
clone { action; ... };
Makes a copy of the packet being processed and executes each action on the
copy. Actions following the clone action, if any, apply to the original,
unmodified packet. This can be used as a way to ``save and restore’’ the
packet around a set of actions that may modify it and should not persist.
arp { action; ... };
Temporarily replaces the IPv4 packet being processed by an ARP packet and
executes each nested action on the ARP packet. Actions following the arp
action, if any, apply to the original, unmodified packet.
The ARP packet that this action operates on is initialized based on the IPv4
packet being processed, as follows. These are default values that the nested
actions will probably want to change:
• eth.src unchanged
• eth.dst unchanged
• eth.type = 0x0806
• arp.op = 1 (ARP request)
• arp.sha copied from eth.src
• arp.spa copied from ip4.src
• arp.tha = 00:00:00:00:00:00
• arp.tpa copied from ip4.dst
The ARP packet has the same VLAN header, if any, as the IP packet it replaces.
Prerequisite: ip4
get_arp(P, A);
Parameters: logical port string field P, 32-bit IP address field A.
Looks up A in P’s mac binding table. If an entry is found, stores its Ethernet
address in eth.dst, otherwise stores 00:00:00:00:00:00 in eth.dst.
Example: get_arp(outport, ip4.dst);
put_arp(P, A, E);
Parameters: logical port string field P, 32-bit IP address field A, 48-bit
Ethernet address field E.
Adds or updates the entry for IP address A in logical port P’s mac binding
table, setting its Ethernet address to E.
Example: put_arp(inport, arp.spa, arp.sha);
R = lookup_arp(P, A, M);
Parameters: logical port string field P, 32-bit IP address field A, 48-bit MAC
address field M.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
Looks up A and M in P’s mac binding table. If an entry is found, stores 1 in
the 1-bit subfield R, else 0.
Example: reg0[0] = lookup_arp(inport, arp.spa, arp.sha);
R = lookup_arp_ip(P, A);
Parameters: logical port string field P, 32-bit IP address field A.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
Looks up A in P’s mac binding table. If an entry is found, stores 1 in the
1-bit subfield R, else 0.
Example: reg0[0] = lookup_arp_ip(inport, arp.spa);
P = get_fdb(A);
Parameters:48-bit MAC address field A.
Looks up A in fdb table. If an entry is found, stores the logical port key to
the out parameter P.
Example: outport = get_fdb(eth.src);
put_fdb(P, A);
Parameters: logical port string field P, 48-bit MAC address field A.
Adds or updates the entry for Ethernet address A in fdb table, setting its
logical port key to P.
Example: put_fdb(inport, arp.spa);
R = lookup_fdb(P, A);
Parameters: 48-bit MAC address field M, logical port string field P.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
Looks up A in fdb table. If an entry is found and the logical port key is P,
P, stores 1 in the 1-bit subfield R, else 0. If flags.localnet is set then 1
is stored if an entry is found and the logical port key is P or if an entry is
found and the entry port type is VIF.
Example: reg0[0] = lookup_fdb(inport, eth.src);
nd_ns { action; ... };
Temporarily replaces the IPv6 packet being processed by an IPv6 Neighbor
Solicitation packet and executes each nested action on the IPv6 NS packet.
Actions following the nd_ns action, if any, apply to the original, unmodified
packet.
The IPv6 NS packet that this action operates on is initialized based on the
IPv6 packet being processed, as follows. These are default values that the
nested actions will probably want to change:
• eth.src unchanged
• eth.dst set to IPv6 multicast MAC address
• eth.type = 0x86dd
• ip6.src copied from ip6.src
• ip6.dst set to IPv6 Solicited-Node multicast address
• icmp6.type = 135 (Neighbor Solicitation)
• nd.target copied from ip6.dst
The IPv6 NS packet has the same VLAN header, if any, as the IP packet it
replaces.
Prerequisite: ip6
nd_na { action; ... };
Temporarily replaces the IPv6 neighbor solicitation packet being processed by
an IPv6 neighbor advertisement (NA) packet and executes each nested action on
the NA packet. Actions following the nd_na action, if any, apply to the
original, unmodified packet.
The NA packet that this action operates on is initialized based on the IPv6
packet being processed, as follows. These are default values that the nested
actions will probably want to change:
• eth.dst exchanged with eth.src
• eth.type = 0x86dd
• ip6.dst copied from ip6.src
• ip6.src copied from nd.target
• icmp6.type = 136 (Neighbor Advertisement)
• nd.target unchanged
• nd.sll = 00:00:00:00:00:00
• nd.tll copied from eth.dst
The ND packet has the same VLAN header, if any, as the IPv6 packet it
replaces.
Prerequisite: nd_ns
nd_na_router { action; ... };
Temporarily replaces the IPv6 neighbor solicitation packet being processed by
an IPv6 neighbor advertisement (NA) packet, sets ND_NSO_ROUTER in the RSO
flags and executes each nested action on the NA packet. Actions following the
nd_na_router action, if any, apply to the original, unmodified packet.
The NA packet that this action operates on is initialized based on the IPv6
packet being processed, as follows. These are default values that the nested
actions will probably want to change:
• eth.dst exchanged with eth.src
• eth.type = 0x86dd
• ip6.dst copied from ip6.src
• ip6.src copied from nd.target
• icmp6.type = 136 (Neighbor Advertisement)
• nd.target unchanged
• nd.sll = 00:00:00:00:00:00
• nd.tll copied from eth.dst
The ND packet has the same VLAN header, if any, as the IPv6 packet it
replaces.
Prerequisite: nd_ns
get_nd(P, A);
Parameters: logical port string field P, 128-bit IPv6 address field A.
Looks up A in P’s mac binding table. If an entry is found, stores its Ethernet
address in eth.dst, otherwise stores 00:00:00:00:00:00 in eth.dst.
Example: get_nd(outport, ip6.dst);
put_nd(P, A, E);
Parameters: logical port string field P, 128-bit IPv6 address field A, 48-bit
Ethernet address field E.
Adds or updates the entry for IPv6 address A in logical port P’s mac binding
table, setting its Ethernet address to E.
Example: put_nd(inport, nd.target, nd.tll);
R = lookup_nd(P, A, M);
Parameters: logical port string field P, 128-bit IP address field A, 48-bit
MAC address field M.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
Looks up A and M in P’s mac binding table. If an entry is found, stores 1 in
the 1-bit subfield R, else 0.
Example: reg0[0] = lookup_nd(inport, ip6.src, eth.src);
R = lookup_nd_ip(P, A);
Parameters: logical port string field P, 128-bit IP address field A.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
Looks up A in P’s mac binding table. If an entry is found, stores 1 in the
1-bit subfield R, else 0.
Example: reg0[0] = lookup_nd_ip(inport, ip6.src);
R = put_dhcp_opts(D1 = V1, D2 = V2, ..., Dn = Vn);
Parameters: one or more DHCP option/value pairs, which must include an offerip
option (with code 0).
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
Valid only in the ingress pipeline.
When this action is applied to a DHCP request packet (DHCPDISCOVER or
DHCPREQUEST), it changes the packet into a DHCP reply (DHCPOFFER or DHCPACK,
respectively), replaces the options by those specified as parameters, and
stores 1 in R.
When this action is applied to a non-DHCP packet or a DHCP packet that is not
DHCPDISCOVER or DHCPREQUEST, it leaves the packet unchanged and stores 0 in R.
The contents of the DHCP_Option table control the DHCP option names and values
that this action supports.
Example: reg0[0] = put_dhcp_opts(offerip = 10.0.0.2, router = 10.0.0.1,
netmask = 255.255.255.0, dns_server = {8.8.8.8, 7.7.7.7});
R = put_dhcpv6_opts(D1 = V1, D2 = V2, ..., Dn = Vn);
Parameters: one or more DHCPv6 option/value pairs.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
Valid only in the ingress pipeline.
When this action is applied to a DHCPv6 request packet, it changes the packet
into a DHCPv6 reply, replaces the options by those specified as parameters,
and stores 1 in R.
When this action is applied to a non-DHCPv6 packet or an invalid DHCPv6
request packet , it leaves the packet unchanged and stores 0 in R.
The contents of the DHCPv6_Options table control the DHCPv6 option names and
values that this action supports.
Example: reg0[3] = put_dhcpv6_opts(ia_addr = aef0::4, server_id =
00:00:00:00:10:02, dns_server={ae70::1,ae70::2});
set_queue(queue_number);
Parameters: Queue number queue_number, in the range 0 to 61440.
This is a logical equivalent of the OpenFlow set_queue action. It affects
packets that egress a hypervisor through a physical interface. For nonzero
queue_number, it configures packet queuing to match the settings configured
for the Port_Binding with options:qdisc_queue_id matching queue_number. When
queue_number is zero, it resets queuing to the default strategy.
Example: set_queue(10);
ct_lb;
ct_lb(backends=ip[:port][,...][; hash_fields=field1,field2,...][; ct_flag]);
With arguments, ct_lb commits the packet to the connection tracking table and
DNATs the packet’s destination IP address (and port) to the IP address or
addresses (and optional ports) specified in the backends. If multiple comma-
separated IP addresses are specified, each is given equal weight for picking
the DNAT address. By default, dp_hash is used as the OpenFlow group selection
method, but if hash_fields is specified, hash is used as the selection method,
and the fields listed are used as the hash fields. The ct_flag field
represents one of supported flag: skip_snat or force_snat, this flag will be
stored in ct_label register.
Without arguments, ct_lb sends the packet to the connection tracking table to
NAT the packets. If the packet is part of an established connection that was
previously committed to the connection tracker via ct_lb(...), it will
automatically get DNATed to the same IP address as the first packet in that
connection.
Processing automatically moves on to the next table, as if next; were
specified, and later tables act on the packet as modified by the connection
tracker. Connection tracking state is scoped by the logical port when the
action is used in a flow for a logical switch, so overlapping addresses may be
used. Connection tracking state is scoped by the logical topology when the
action is used in a flow for a router.
ct_lb_mark;
ct_lb_mark(backends=ip[:port][,...][; hash_fields=field1,field2,...][; ct_flag]);
Same as ct_lb, except that it internally uses ct_mark to store the NAT flag,
while ct_lb uses ct_label for the same purpose.
R = dns_lookup();
Parameters: No parameters.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
Valid only in the ingress pipeline.
When this action is applied to a valid DNS request (a UDP packet typically
directed to port 53), it attempts to resolve the query using the contents of
the DNS table. If it is successful, it changes the packet into a DNS reply and
stores 1 in R. If the action is applied to a non-DNS packet, an invalid DNS
request packet, or a valid DNS request for which the DNS table does not supply
an answer, it leaves the packet unchanged and stores 0 in R.
Regardless of success, the action does not make any of the changes to the flow
that are necessary to direct the packet back to the requester. The logical
pipeline can implement this behavior with matches and actions in later tables.
Example: reg0[3] = dns_lookup();
Prerequisite: udp
R = put_nd_ra_opts(D1 = V1, D2 = V2, ..., Dn = Vn);
Parameters: The following IPv6 ND Router Advertisement option/value pairs as
defined in RFC 4861.
• addr_mode
Mandatory parameter which specifies the address mode flag to be set in
the RA flag options field. The value of this option is a string and the
following values can be defined - "slaac", "dhcpv6_stateful" and
"dhcpv6_stateless".
• slla
Mandatory parameter which specifies the link-layer address of the
interface from which the Router Advertisement is sent.
• mtu
Optional parameter which specifies the MTU.
• prefix
Optional parameter which should be specified if the addr_mode is
"slaac" or "dhcpv6_stateless". The value should be an IPv6 prefix which
will be used for stateless IPv6 address configuration. This option can
be defined multiple times.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
Valid only in the ingress pipeline.
When this action is applied to an IPv6 Router solicitation request packet, it
changes the packet into an IPv6 Router Advertisement reply and adds the
options specified in the parameters, and stores 1 in R.
When this action is applied to a non-IPv6 Router solicitation packet or an
invalid IPv6 request packet , it leaves the packet unchanged and stores 0 in
R.
Example: reg0[3] = put_nd_ra_opts(addr_mode = "slaac", slla =
00:00:00:00:10:02, prefix = aef0::/64, mtu = 1450);
set_meter(rate);
set_meter(rate, burst);
Parameters: rate limit int field rate in kbps, burst rate limits int field
burst in kbps.
This action sets the rate limit for a flow.
Example: set_meter(100, 1000);
R = check_pkt_larger(L)
Parameters: packet length L to check for in bytes.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
This is a logical equivalent of the OpenFlow check_pkt_larger action. If the
packet is larger than the length specified in L, it stores 1 in the subfield
R.
Example: reg0[6] = check_pkt_larger(1000);
log(key=value, ...);
Causes ovn-controller to log the packet on the chassis that processes it.
Packet logging currently uses the same logging mechanism as other Open
vSwitch and OVN messages, which means that whether and where log messages
appear depends on the local logging configuration that can be configured
with ovs-appctl, etc.
The log action takes zero or more of the following key-value pair arguments
that control what is logged:
name=string
An optional name for the ACL. The string is currently limited to 64
bytes.
severity=level
Indicates the severity of the event. The level is one of following
(from more to less serious): alert, warning, notice, info, or debug.
If a severity is not provided, the default is info.
verdict=value
The verdict for packets matching the flow. The value must be one of
allow, deny, or reject.
meter=string
An optional rate-limiting meter to be applied to the logs. The string
should reference a name entry from the Meter table. The only meter
action that is appropriate is drop.
fwd_group(liveness=bool, childports=port, ...);
Parameters: optional liveness, either true or false, defaulting to false;
childports, a comma-delimited list of strings denoting logical ports to load
balance across.
Load balance traffic to one or more child ports in a logical switch.
ovn-controller translates the fwd_group into an OpenFlow group with one
bucket for each child port. If liveness=true is specified, it also
integrates the bucket selection with BFD status on the tunnel interface
corresponding to child port.
Example: fwd_group(liveness=true, childports="p1", "p2");
icmp4 { action; ... };
icmp4_error { action; ... };
Temporarily replaces the IPv4 packet being processed by an ICMPv4 packet and
executes each nested action on the ICMPv4 packet. Actions following these
actions, if any, apply to the original, unmodified packet.
The ICMPv4 packet that these actions operates on is initialized based on the
IPv4 packet being processed, as follows. These are default values that the
nested actions will probably want to change. Ethernet and IPv4 fields not
listed here are not changed:
• ip.proto = 1 (ICMPv4)
• ip.frag = 0 (not a fragment)
• ip.ttl = 255
• icmp4.type = 3 (destination unreachable)
• icmp4.code = 1 (host unreachable)
icmp4_error action is expected to be used to generate an ICMPv4 packet in
response to an error in original IP packet. When this action generates the
ICMPv4 packet, it also copies the original IP datagram following the ICMPv4
header as per RFC 1122: 3.2.2.
Prerequisite: ip4
icmp6 { action; ... };
icmp6_error { action; ... };
Temporarily replaces the IPv6 packet being processed by an ICMPv6 packet and
executes each nested action on the ICMPv6 packet. Actions following the icmp6
action, if any, apply to the original, unmodified packet.
The ICMPv6 packet that this action operates on is initialized based on the
IPv6 packet being processed, as follows. These are default values that the
nested actions will probably want to change. Ethernet and IPv6 fields not
listed here are not changed:
• ip.proto = 58 (ICMPv6)
• ip.ttl = 255
• icmp6.type = 1 (destination unreachable)
• icmp6.code = 1 (administratively prohibited)
icmp6_error action is expected to be used to generate an ICMPv6 packet in
response to an error in original IPv6 packet.
Prerequisite: ip6
tcp_reset;
This action transforms the current TCP packet according to the following
pseudocode:
if (tcp.ack) {
tcp.seq = tcp.ack;
} else {
tcp.ack = tcp.seq + length(tcp.payload);
tcp.seq = 0;
}
tcp.flags = RST;
Then, the action drops all TCP options and payload data, and updates the TCP
checksum. IP ttl is set to 255.
Prerequisite: tcp
reject { action; ... };
If the original packet is IPv4 or IPv6 TCP packet, it replaces it with IPv4 or
IPv6 TCP RST packet and executes the inner actions. Otherwise it replaces it
with an ICMPv4 or ICMPv6 packet and executes the inner actions.
The inner actions should not attempt to swap eth source with eth destination
and IP source with IP destination as this action implicitly does that.
trigger_event;
This action is used to allow ovs-vswitchd to report CMS related events writing
them in Controller_Event table. It is possible to associate a meter to a each
event in order to not overload pinctrl thread under heavy load; each meter is
identified though a defined naming convention. Supported events:
• empty_lb_backends. This event is raised if a received packet is
destined for a load balancer VIP that has no configured backend
destinations. For this event, the event info includes the load balancer
VIP, the load balancer UUID, and the transport protocol. Associated
meter: event-elb
igmp;
This action sends the packet to ovn-controller for multicast snooping.
Prerequisite: igmp
bind_vport(V, P);
Parameters: logical port string field V of type virtual, logical port string
field P.
Binds the virtual logical port V and sets the chassis column and
virtual_parent of the table Port_Binding. virtual_parent is set to P.
handle_svc_check(P);
Parameters: logical port string field P.
Handles the service monitor reply received from the VIF of the logical port P.
ovn-controller periodically sends out the service monitor packets for the
services configured in the Service_Monitor table and this action updates the
status of those services.
Example: handle_svc_check(inport);
handle_dhcpv6_reply;
Handle DHCPv6 prefix delegation advertisements/replies from a IPv6 delegation
server. ovn-controller will add an entry ipv6_ra_pd_list in the options table
for each prefix received from the delegation server
R = select(N1[=W1], N2[=W2], ...);
Parameters: Integer N1, N2..., with optional weight W1, W2, ...
Result: stored to a logical field or subfield R.
Select from a list of integers N1, N2..., each within the range 0 ~ 65535, and
store the selected one in the field R. There must be 2 or more integers
listed, each with an optional weight, which is an integer within the range 1 ~
65535. If weight is not specified, it defaults to 100. The selection method is
based on the 5-tuple hash of packet header.
Processing automatically moves on to the next table, as if next; were
specified. The select action must be put as the last action of the logical
flow when there are multiple actions (actions put after select will not take
effect).
Example: reg8[16..31] = select(1=20, 2=30, 3=50);
handle_dhcpv6_reply;
This action is used to parse DHCPv6 replies from IPv6 Delegation Router and
managed IPv6 Prefix delegation state machine
R = chk_lb_hairpin();
This action checks if the packet under consideration was destined to a load
balancer VIP and it is hairpinned, i.e., after load balancing the destination
IP matches the source IP. If it is so, then the 1-bit destination register R
is set to 1.
R = chk_lb_hairpin_reply();
This action checks if the packet under consideration is from one of the
backend IP of a load balancer VIP and the destination IP is the load balancer
VIP. If it is so, then the 1-bit destination register R is set to 1.
R = ct_snat_to_vip;
This action sends the packet through the SNAT zone to change the source IP
address of the packet to the load balancer VIP if the original destination IP
was load balancer VIP and commits the connection. This action applies
successfully only for the hairpinned traffic i.e if the action chk_lb_hairpin
returned success. This action doesn’t take any arguments and it determines the
SNAT IP internally. The packet is not automatically sent to the next table.
The caller has to execute the next; action explicitly after this action to
advance the packet to the next stage.
R = check_in_port_sec();
This action checks if the packet under consideration passes the inport port
security checks. If the packet fails the port security checks, then 1 is
stored in the destination register R. Else 0 is stored. The port security
values to check are retrieved from the the inport logical port.
This action should be used in the ingress logical switch pipeline.
Example: reg8[0..7] = check_in_port_sec();
R = check_out_port_sec();
This action checks if the packet under consideration passes the outport port
security checks. If the packet fails the port security checks, then 1 is
stored in the destination register R. Else 0 is stored. The port security
values to check are retrieved from the the outport logical port.
This action should be used in the egress logical switch pipeline.
Example: reg8[0..7] = check_out_port_sec();
commit_ecmp_nh(ipv6);
Parameters: IPv4/IPv6 traffic.
This action translates to an openflow "learn" action that inserts two new
flows in tables 76 and 77.
• Match on the the 5-tuple and the expected next-hop mac address in table
76: nw_src=ip0, nw_dst=ip1, ip_proto,tp_src=l4_port0,
tp_dst=l4_port1,dl_src=ethaddr and set reg9[5].
• Match on the 5-tuple in table 77: nw_src=ip1, nw_dst=ip0, ip_proto,
tp_src=l4_port1, tp_dst=l4_port0 and set reg9[5] to 1
This action is applied if the packet arrives via ECMP route or if it is routed
via an ECMP route
R = check_ecmp_nh_mac();
This action checks if the packet under consideration matches any flow in table
76. If it is so, then the 1-bit destination register R is set to 1.
R = check_ecmp_nh();
This action checks if the packet under consideration matches the any flow in
table 77. If it is so, then the 1-bit destination register R is set to 1.
commit_lb_aff(vip, backend, proto, timeout); Parameters: load-balancer virtual
ip:port vip, load-balancer backend ip:port backend, load-balancer protocol
proto, affinity timeout timeout.
This action translates to an openflow "learn" action that inserts a new flow
in table 78.
• Match on the 4-tuple in table 78: nw_src=ip client, nw_dst=vip ip,
ip_proto, tp_dst=vip port and set reg9[6] to 1, reg4 and reg8 to
backend ip and port respectively. For IPv6 register xxreg1 is used to
store the backend ip.
This action is applied for new connections received by a specific load-balacer
with affinity timeout configured.
R = chk_lb_aff();
This action checks if the packet under consideration matches any flow in table
78. If it is so, then the 1-bit destination register R is set to 1.
sample(probability=packets, ...)
This action causes the matched traffic to be sampled using IPFIX protocol.
More information about how per-flow IPFIX sampling works in OVS can be found
in ovs-actions(7) and ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5).
In order to reliably identify each sampled packet when it is received by the
IPFIX collector, this action sets the content of the ObservationDomainID and
ObservationPointID IPFIX fields (see argument description below).
The following key-value arguments are supported:
probability=packets
The number of sampled packets out of 65535. It must be greater or equal
to 1.
collector_set=id
The unsigned 32-bit integer identifier of the sample collector to send
sampled packets to. It must match the value configured in the
Flow_Sample_Collector_Set Table in OVS. Defaults to 0.
obs_domain=id
An unsigned 8-bit integer that identifies the sampling application. It
will be placed in the 8 most significant bits of the
ObservationDomainID field of IPFIX samples. The 24 less significant
bits will be automatically filled in with the datapath key. Defaults to
0.
obs_point=id
An unsigned 32-bit integer to be used as ObsservationPointID or the
string @cookie to indicate that the first 32 bits of the Logical_Flow’s
UUID shall be used instead.
mac_cache_use;
This action resubmits to corresponding table which updates the use statistics
of MAC cache.
R = dhcp_relay_req_chk(relay-ip,
server-ip); Parameters: Logical Router Port IP relay-ip, DHCP Server IP
server-ip.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
This action executes on the source node on which the DHCP request
(DHCPDISCOVER or DHCPREQUEST) originated.
When this action applied successfully on the DHCP request packet, it updates
GIADDR in the DHCP packet with relay-ip and stores 1 in R.
When this action failed to apply on the packet, it leaves the packet unchanged
and stores 0 in R.
R = dhcp_relay_resp_chk(relay-ip,
server-ip); Parameters: Logical Router Port IP relay-ip, DHCP Server IP
server-ip.
Result: stored to a 1-bit subfield R.
This action executes on the first node (Redirect Chassis node) which processes
the DHCP response(DHCPOFFER, DHCPACK) from the DHCP server.
When this action applied successfully on the DHCP response packet, it updates
the destination MAC and destination IP in the packet and stores 1 in R. relay-
ip and server-ip are used to validate GIADDR and SERVER-ID in the DHCP
response packet.
When this action failed to apply on the packet, it leaves the packet unchanged
and stores 0 in R.
tags: map of string-string pairs
Key-value pairs that provide additional information to help ovn-controller
processing the logical flow. Below are the tags used by ovn-controller.
in_out_port
In the logical flow’s "match" column, if a logical port P is compared with
"inport" and the logical flow is on a logical switch ingress pipeline, or if
P is compared with "outport" and the logical flow is on a logical switch
egress pipeline, and the expression is combined with other expressions (if
any) using the operator &&, then the port P should be added as the value in
this tag. If there are multiple logical ports meeting this criteria, one of
them can be added. ovn-controller uses this information to skip parsing
flows that are not needed on the chassis. Failing to add the tag will affect
efficiency, while adding wrong value will affect correctness.
controller_meter: optional string
The name of the meter in table Meter to be used for all packets that the logical
flow might send to ovn-controller.
flow_desc: optional string
Human-readable explanation of the flow, this is optional and used to provide
context for the given flow.
external_ids : stage-name: optional string
Human-readable name for this flow’s stage in the pipeline.
external_ids : stage-hint: optional string, containing an uuid
UUID of a OVN_Northbound record that caused this logical flow to be created.
Currently used only for attribute of logical flows to northbound ACL records.
external_ids : source: optional string
Source file and line number of the code that added this flow to the pipeline.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common Columns at the beginning of
this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Logical_DP_Group TABLE
Each row in this table represents a group of logical datapaths referenced by the
logical_dp_group column in the Logical_Flow table.
Summary:
datapaths set of weak reference to Datapath_Bindings
Details:
datapaths: set of weak reference to Datapath_Bindings
List of Datapath_Binding entries.
Multicast_Group TABLE
The rows in this table define multicast groups of logical ports. Multicast groups allow a
single packet transmitted over a tunnel to a hypervisor to be delivered to multiple VMs on
that hypervisor, which uses bandwidth more efficiently.
Each row in this table defines a logical multicast group numbered tunnel_key within
datapath, whose logical ports are listed in the ports column.
Summary:
datapath Datapath_Binding
tunnel_key integer, in range 32,768 to 65,535
name string
ports set of weak reference to Port_Bindings
Details:
datapath: Datapath_Binding
The logical datapath in which the multicast group resides.
tunnel_key: integer, in range 32,768 to 65,535
The value used to designate this logical egress port in tunnel encapsulations. An
index forces the key to be unique within the datapath. The unusual range ensures
that multicast group IDs do not overlap with logical port IDs.
name: string
The logical multicast group’s name. An index forces the name to be unique within
the datapath. Logical flows in the ingress pipeline may output to the group just as
for individual logical ports, by assigning the group’s name to outport and
executing an output action.
Multicast group names and logical port names share a single namespace and thus
should not overlap (but the database schema cannot enforce this). To try to avoid
conflicts, ovn-northd uses names that begin with _MC_.
ports: set of weak reference to Port_Bindings
The logical ports included in the multicast group. All of these ports must be in
the datapath logical datapath (but the database schema cannot enforce this).
Mirror TABLE
Each row in this table represents a mirror that can be used for port mirroring. These
mirrors are referenced by the mirror_rules column in the Port_Binding table.
Summary:
name string (must be unique within table)
filter string, one of both, from-lport, or to-lport
sink string
type string, one of erspan, gre, or local
index integer
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
name: string (must be unique within table)
Represents the name of the mirror.
filter: string, one of both, from-lport, or to-lport
The value of this field represents selection criteria of the mirror. to-lport
mirrors the packets coming into logical port. from-lport mirrors the packets going
out of logical port. both mirrors for both directions.
sink: string
The value of this field represents the destination/sink of the mirror. If the type
is gre or erspan, the value indicates the tunnel remote IP (either IPv4 or IPv6).
For a type of local, this field defines a local interface on the OVS integration
bridge to be used as the mirror destination. The interface must possess external-
ids:mirror-id that matches this string.
type: string, one of erspan, gre, or local
The value of this field specifies the mirror type - gre, erspan or local.
index: integer
The value of this field represents the tunnel ID. If the configured tunnel type is
gre, this field represents the GRE key value and if the configured tunnel type is
erspan it represents the erspan_idx value. It is ignored if the type is local.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
See External IDs at the beginning of this document.
Meter TABLE
Each row in this table represents a meter that can be used for QoS or rate-limiting.
Summary:
name string (must be unique within table)
unit string, either kbps or pktps
bands set of 1 or more Meter_Bands
Details:
name: string (must be unique within table)
A name for this meter.
Names that begin with "__" (two underscores) are reserved for OVN internal use and
should not be added manually.
unit: string, either kbps or pktps
The unit for rate and burst_rate parameters in the bands entry. kbps specifies
kilobits per second, and pktps specifies packets per second.
bands: set of 1 or more Meter_Bands
The bands associated with this meter. Each band specifies a rate above which the
band is to take the action action. If multiple bands’ rates are exceeded, then the
band with the highest rate among the exceeded bands is selected.
Meter_Band TABLE
Each row in this table represents a meter band which specifies the rate above which the
configured action should be applied. These bands are referenced by the bands column in the
Meter table.
Summary:
action string, must be drop
rate integer, in range 1 to 4,294,967,295
burst_size integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
Details:
action: string, must be drop
The action to execute when this band matches. The only supported action is drop.
rate: integer, in range 1 to 4,294,967,295
The rate limit for this band, in kilobits per second or bits per second, depending
on whether the parent Meter entry’s unit column specified kbps or pktps.
burst_size: integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
The maximum burst allowed for the band in kilobits or packets, depending on whether
kbps or pktps was selected in the parent Meter entry’s unit column. If the size is
zero, the switch is free to select some reasonable value depending on its
configuration.
Datapath_Binding TABLE
Each row in this table represents a logical datapath, which implements a logical pipeline
among the ports in the Port_Binding table associated with it. In practice, the pipeline in
a given logical datapath implements either a logical switch or a logical router.
The main purpose of a row in this table is provide a physical binding for a logical
datapath. A logical datapath does not have a physical location, so its physical binding
information is limited: just tunnel_key. The rest of the data in this table does not
affect packet forwarding.
Summary:
tunnel_key integer, in range 1 to 16,777,215 (must be unique within
table)
load_balancers set of uuids
OVN_Northbound Relationship:
external_ids : logical-switch
optional string, containing an uuid
external_ids : logical-router
optional string, containing an uuid
external_ids : interconn-ts
optional string
Naming:
external_ids : name optional string
external_ids : name2 optional string
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
tunnel_key: integer, in range 1 to 16,777,215 (must be unique within table)
The tunnel key value to which the logical datapath is bound. The Tunnel
Encapsulation section in ovn-architecture(7) describes how tunnel keys are
constructed for each supported encapsulation.
load_balancers: set of uuids
Not used anymore; kept for backwards compatibility of the schema.
OVN_Northbound Relationship:
Each row in Datapath_Binding is associated with some logical datapath. ovn-northd uses
these keys to track the association of a logical datapath with concepts in the
OVN_Northbound database.
external_ids : logical-switch: optional string, containing an uuid
For a logical datapath that represents a logical switch, ovn-northd stores in this
key the UUID of the corresponding Logical_Switch row in the OVN_Northbound
database.
external_ids : logical-router: optional string, containing an uuid
For a logical datapath that represents a logical router, ovn-northd stores in this
key the UUID of the corresponding Logical_Router row in the OVN_Northbound
database.
external_ids : interconn-ts: optional string
For a logical datapath that represents a logical switch that represents a transit
switch for interconnection, ovn-northd stores in this key the value of the same
interconn-ts key of the external_ids column of the corresponding Logical_Switch row
in the OVN_Northbound database.
Naming:
ovn-northd copies these from the name fields in the OVN_Northbound database, either from
name and external_ids:neutron:router_name in the Logical_Router table or from name and
external_ids:neutron:network_name in the Logical_Switch table.
external_ids : name: optional string
A name for the logical datapath.
external_ids : name2: optional string
Another name for the logical datapath.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common Columns at the beginning of
this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Port_Binding TABLE
Each row in this table binds a logical port to a realization. For most logical ports, this
means binding to some physical location, for example by binding a logical port to a VIF
that belongs to a VM running on a particular hypervisor. Other logical ports, such as
logical patch ports, can be realized without a specific physical location, but their
bindings are still expressed through rows in this table.
For every Logical_Switch_Port record in OVN_Northbound database, ovn-northd creates a
record in this table. ovn-northd populates and maintains every column except the chassis
and virtual_parent columns, which it leaves empty in new records.
ovn-controller/ovn-controller-vtep populates the chassis column for the records that
identify the logical ports that are located on its hypervisor/gateway, which
ovn-controller/ovn-controller-vtep in turn finds out by monitoring the local hypervisor’s
Open_vSwitch database, which identifies logical ports via the conventions described in
IntegrationGuide.rst. (The exceptions are for Port_Binding records with type of l3gateway,
whose locations are identified by ovn-northd via the options:l3gateway-chassis column in
this table. ovn-controller is still responsible to populate the chassis column.)
ovn-controller also populates the virtual_parent column of records whose type is virtual.
When a chassis shuts down gracefully, it should clean up the chassis column that it
previously had populated. (This is not critical because resources hosted on the chassis
are equally unreachable regardless of whether their rows are present.) To handle the case
where a VM is shut down abruptly on one chassis, then brought up again on a different one,
ovn-controller/ovn-controller-vtep must overwrite the chassis column with new information.
Summary:
Core Features:
datapath Datapath_Binding
logical_port string (must be unique within table)
encap optional weak reference to Encap
additional_encap set of weak reference to Encaps
chassis optional weak reference to Chassis
additional_chassis set of weak reference to Chassis
gateway_chassis set of Gateway_Chassises
ha_chassis_group optional HA_Chassis_Group
up optional boolean
tunnel_key integer, in range 1 to 32,767
mac set of strings
port_security set of strings
type string
requested_chassis optional weak reference to Chassis
requested_additional_chassis
set of weak reference to Chassis
mirror_rules set of weak reference to Mirrors
Patch Options:
options : peer optional string
nat_addresses set of strings
L3 Gateway Options:
options : peer optional string
options : l3gateway-chassis
optional string
nat_addresses set of strings
Localnet Options:
options : network_name optional string
tag optional integer, in range 1 to 4,095
L2 Gateway Options:
options : network_name optional string
options : l2gateway-chassis
optional string
tag optional integer, in range 1 to 4,095
VTEP Options:
options : vtep-physical-switch
optional string
options : vtep-logical-switch
optional string
VMI (or VIF) Options:
options : requested-chassis
optional string
options : activation-strategy
optional string
options : additional-chassis-activated
optional string
options : iface-id-ver optional string
options : qos_min_rate optional string
options : qos_max_rate optional string
options : qos_burst optional string
options : qos_physical_network
optional string
options : qdisc_queue_id optional string, containing an integer, in range 1 to 61,440
Distributed Gateway Port Options:
options : chassis-redirect-port
optional string
Chassis Redirect Options:
options : distributed-port optional string
options : redirect-type optional string
options : always-redirect optional string
Nested Containers:
parent_port optional string
tag optional integer, in range 1 to 4,095
Virtual ports:
virtual_parent optional string
Naming:
external_ids : name optional string
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
Core Features:
datapath: Datapath_Binding
The logical datapath to which the logical port belongs.
logical_port: string (must be unique within table)
A logical port. For a logical switch port, this is taken from name in the
OVN_Northbound database’s Logical_Switch_Port table. For a logical router port,
this is taken from name in the OVN_Northbound database’s Logical_Router_port table.
(This means that logical switch ports and router port names must not share names in
an OVN deployment.) OVN does not prescribe a particular format for the logical port
ID.
encap: optional weak reference to Encap
Points to preferred encapsulation configuration to transmit logical dataplane
packets to this chassis. The entry is reference to a Encap record.
additional_encap: set of weak reference to Encaps
Points to preferred encapsulation configuration to transmit logical dataplane
packets to this additional chassis. The entry is reference to a Encap record. See
also additional_chassis.
chassis: optional weak reference to Chassis
The meaning of this column depends on the value of the type column. This is the
meaning for each type
(empty string)
The physical location of the logical port. To successfully identify a
chassis, this column must be a Chassis record. This is populated by
ovn-controller.
vtep The physical location of the hardware_vtep gateway. To successfully identify
a chassis, this column must be a Chassis record. This is populated by
ovn-controller-vtep.
localnet
Always empty. A localnet port is realized on every chassis that has
connectivity to the corresponding physical network.
localport
Always empty. A localport port is present on every chassis.
l3gateway
The physical location of the L3 gateway. To successfully identify a chassis,
this column must be a Chassis record. This is populated by ovn-controller
based on the value of the options:l3gateway-chassis column in this table.
l2gateway
The physical location of this L2 gateway. To successfully identify a
chassis, this column must be a Chassis record. This is populated by
ovn-controller based on the value of the options:l2gateway-chassis column in
this table.
additional_chassis: set of weak reference to Chassis
The meaning of this column is the same as for the chassis. The column is used to
track an additional physical location of the logical port. Used with regular (empty
type) port bindings.
gateway_chassis: set of Gateway_Chassises
A list of Gateway_Chassis.
This should only be populated for ports with type set to chassisredirect. This
column defines the list of chassis used as gateways where traffic will be
redirected through.
ha_chassis_group: optional HA_Chassis_Group
This should only be populated for ports with type set to chassisredirect. This
column defines the HA chassis group with a list of HA chassis used as gateways
where traffic will be redirected through.
up: optional boolean
This is set to true whenever all OVS flows required by this Port_Binding have been
installed. This is populated by ovn-controller.
tunnel_key: integer, in range 1 to 32,767
A number that represents the logical port in the key (e.g. STT key or Geneve TLV)
field carried within tunnel protocol packets.
The tunnel ID must be unique within the scope of a logical datapath.
mac: set of strings
This column is a misnomer as it may contain MAC addresses and IP addresses. It is
copied from the addresses column in the Logical_Switch_Port table in the Northbound
database. It follows the same format as that column.
port_security: set of strings
This column controls the addresses from which the host attached to the logical port
(``the host’’) is allowed to send packets and to which it is allowed to receive
packets. If this column is empty, all addresses are permitted.
It is copied from the port_security column in the Logical_Switch_Port table in the
Northbound database. It follows the same format as that column.
type: string
A type for this logical port. Logical ports can be used to model other types of
connectivity into an OVN logical switch. The following types are defined:
(empty string)
VM (or VIF) interface.
patch One of a pair of logical ports that act as if connected by a patch cable.
Useful for connecting two logical datapaths, e.g. to connect a logical
router to a logical switch or to another logical router.
l3gateway
One of a pair of logical ports that act as if connected by a patch cable
across multiple chassis. Useful for connecting a logical switch with a
Gateway router (which is only resident on a particular chassis).
localnet
A connection to a locally accessible network from ovn-controller instances
that have a corresponding bridge mapping. A logical switch can have multiple
localnet ports attached. This type is used to model direct connectivity to
existing networks. In this case, each chassis should have a mapping for one
of the physical networks only. Note: nothing said above implies that a
chassis cannot be plugged to multiple physical networks as long as they
belong to different switches.
localport
A connection to a local VIF. Traffic that arrives on a localport is never
forwarded over a tunnel to another chassis. These ports are present on every
chassis and have the same address in all of them. This is used to model
connectivity to local services that run on every hypervisor.
l2gateway
An L2 connection to a physical network. The chassis this Port_Binding is
bound to will serve as an L2 gateway to the network named by
options:network_name.
vtep A port to a logical switch on a VTEP gateway chassis. In order to get this
port correctly recognized by the OVN controller, the
options:vtep-physical-switch and options:vtep-logical-switch must also be
defined.
chassisredirect
A logical port that represents a particular instance, bound to a specific
chassis, of an otherwise distributed parent port (e.g. of type patch). A
chassisredirect port should never be used as an inport. When an ingress
pipeline sets the outport, it may set the value to a logical port of type
chassisredirect. This will cause the packet to be directed to a specific
chassis to carry out the egress pipeline. At the beginning of the egress
pipeline, the outport will be reset to the value of the distributed port.
virtual
Represents a logical port with an virtual ip. This virtual ip can be
configured on a logical port (which is referred as virtual parent).
requested_chassis: optional weak reference to Chassis
This column exists so that the ovn-controller can effectively monitor all
Port_Binding records destined for it, and is a supplement to the options:requested-
chassis option. The option is still required so that the ovn-controller can check
the CMS intent when the chassis pointed to does not currently exist, which for
example occurs when the ovn-controller is stopped without passing the -restart
argument. This column must be a Chassis record. This is populated by ovn-northd
when the options:requested-chassis is defined and contains a string matching the
name or hostname of an existing chassis. See also requested_additional_chassis.
requested_additional_chassis: set of weak reference to Chassis
This column exists so that the ovn-controller can effectively monitor all
Port_Binding records destined for it, and is a supplement to the options:requested-
chassis option when multiple chassis are listed. This column must be a list of
Chassis records. This is populated by ovn-northd when the options:requested-chassis
is defined as a list of chassis names or hostnames. See also requested_chassis.
mirror_rules: set of weak reference to Mirrors
Mirror rules that apply to the port binding. Please see the Mirror table.
Patch Options:
These options apply to logical ports with type of patch.
options : peer: optional string
The logical_port in the Port_Binding record for the other side of the patch. The
named logical_port must specify this logical_port in its own peer option. That is,
the two patch logical ports must have reversed logical_port and peer values.
nat_addresses: set of strings
MAC address followed by a list of SNAT and DNAT external IP addresses, followed by
is_chassis_resident("lport"), where lport is the name of a logical port on the same
chassis where the corresponding NAT rules are applied. This is used to send
gratuitous ARPs for SNAT and DNAT external IP addresses via localnet, from the
chassis where lport resides. Example: 80:fa:5b:06:72:b7 158.36.44.22 158.36.44.24
is_chassis_resident("foo1"). This would result in generation of gratuitous ARPs for
IP addresses 158.36.44.22 and 158.36.44.24 with a MAC address of 80:fa:5b:06:72:b7
from the chassis where the logical port "foo1" resides.
L3 Gateway Options:
These options apply to logical ports with type of l3gateway.
options : peer: optional string
The logical_port in the Port_Binding record for the other side of the ’l3gateway’
port. The named logical_port must specify this logical_port in its own peer option.
That is, the two ’l3gateway’ logical ports must have reversed logical_port and peer
values.
options : l3gateway-chassis: optional string
The chassis in which the port resides.
nat_addresses: set of strings
MAC address of the l3gateway port followed by a list of SNAT and DNAT external IP
addresses. This is used to send gratuitous ARPs for SNAT and DNAT external IP
addresses via localnet. Example: 80:fa:5b:06:72:b7 158.36.44.22 158.36.44.24. This
would result in generation of gratuitous ARPs for IP addresses 158.36.44.22 and
158.36.44.24 with a MAC address of 80:fa:5b:06:72:b7. This is used in OVS version
2.8 and later versions.
Localnet Options:
These options apply to logical ports with type of localnet.
options : network_name: optional string
Required. ovn-controller uses the configuration entry ovn-bridge-mappings to
determine how to connect to this network. ovn-bridge-mappings is a list of network
names mapped to a local OVS bridge that provides access to that network. An example
of configuring ovn-bridge-mappings would be: .IP
$ ovs-vsctl set open . external-ids:ovn-bridge-mappings=physnet1:br-eth0,physnet2:br-eth1
When a logical switch has a localnet port attached, every chassis that may have a
local vif attached to that logical switch must have a bridge mapping configured to
reach that localnet. Traffic that arrives on a localnet port is never forwarded
over a tunnel to another chassis. If there are multiple localnet ports in a logical
switch, each chassis should only have a single bridge mapping for one of the
physical networks. Note: In case of multiple localnet ports, to provide
interconnectivity between all VIFs located on different chassis with different
fabric connectivity, the fabric should implement some form of routing between the
segments.
tag: optional integer, in range 1 to 4,095
If set, indicates that the port represents a connection to a specific VLAN on a
locally accessible network. The VLAN ID is used to match incoming traffic and is
also added to outgoing traffic.
L2 Gateway Options:
These options apply to logical ports with type of l2gateway.
options : network_name: optional string
Required. ovn-controller uses the configuration entry ovn-bridge-mappings to
determine how to connect to this network. ovn-bridge-mappings is a list of network
names mapped to a local OVS bridge that provides access to that network. An example
of configuring ovn-bridge-mappings would be: .IP
$ ovs-vsctl set open . external-ids:ovn-bridge-mappings=physnet1:br-eth0,physnet2:br-eth1
When a logical switch has a l2gateway port attached, the chassis that the l2gateway
port is bound to must have a bridge mapping configured to reach the network
identified by network_name.
options : l2gateway-chassis: optional string
Required. The chassis in which the port resides.
tag: optional integer, in range 1 to 4,095
If set, indicates that the gateway is connected to a specific VLAN on the physical
network. The VLAN ID is used to match incoming traffic and is also added to
outgoing traffic.
VTEP Options:
These options apply to logical ports with type of vtep.
options : vtep-physical-switch: optional string
Required. The name of the VTEP gateway.
options : vtep-logical-switch: optional string
Required. A logical switch name connected by the VTEP gateway. Must be set when
type is vtep.
VMI (or VIF) Options:
These options apply to logical ports with type having (empty string)
options : requested-chassis: optional string
If set, identifies a specific chassis (by name or hostname) that is allowed to bind
this port. Using this option will prevent thrashing between two chassis trying to
bind the same port during a live migration. It can also prevent similar thrashing
due to a mis-configuration, if a port is accidentally created on more than one
chassis.
If set to a comma separated list, the first entry identifies the main chassis and
the rest are one or more additional chassis that are allowed to bind the same port.
When multiple chassis are set for the port, and the logical switch is connected to
an external network through a localnet port, tunneling is enforced for the port to
guarantee delivery of packets directed to the port to all its locations. This has
MTU implications because the network used for tunneling must have MTU larger than
localnet for stable connectivity.
options : activation-strategy: optional string
If used with multiple chassis set in requested-chassis, specifies an activation
strategy for all additional chassis. By default, no activation strategy is used,
meaning additional port locations are immediately available for use. When set to
"rarp", the port is blocked for ingress and egress communication until a RARP
packet is sent from a new location. The "rarp" strategy is useful in live migration
scenarios for virtual machines.
options : additional-chassis-activated: optional string
When activation-strategy is set, this option indicates that the port was activated
using the strategy specified.
options : iface-id-ver: optional string
If set, this port will be bound by ovn-controller only if this same key and value
is configured in the external_ids column in the Open_vSwitch database’s Interface
table.
options : qos_min_rate: optional string
If set, indicates the minimum guaranteed rate available for data sent from this
interface, in bit/s.
options : qos_max_rate: optional string
If set, indicates the maximum rate for data sent from this interface, in bit/s. The
traffic will be shaped according to this limit.
options : qos_burst: optional string
If set, indicates the maximum burst size for data sent from this interface, in
bits.
options : qos_physical_network: optional string
If set, indicates the name of the egress network name where traffic shaping will be
applied.
options : qdisc_queue_id: optional string, containing an integer, in range 1 to 61,440
Indicates the queue number on the physical device. This is same as the queue_id
used in OpenFlow in struct ofp_action_enqueue.
Distributed Gateway Port Options:
These options apply to the distributed parent ports of logical ports with type of
chasssisredirect.
options : chassis-redirect-port: optional string
The name of the chassis redirect port derived from this port if this port is a
distributed parent of a chassis redirect port.
Chassis Redirect Options:
These options apply to logical ports with type of chassisredirect.
options : distributed-port: optional string
The name of the distributed port for which this chassisredirect port represents a
particular instance.
options : redirect-type: optional string
The value is copied from the column options in the OVN_Northbound database’s
Logical_Router_Port table for the distributed parent of this port.
options : always-redirect: optional string
A boolean option that is set to true if the distributed parent of this chassis
redirect port does not need distributed processing.
Nested Containers:
These columns support containers nested within a VM. Specifically, they are used when type
is empty and logical_port identifies the interface of a container spawned inside a VM.
They are empty for containers or VMs that run directly on a hypervisor.
parent_port: optional string
This is taken from parent_name in the OVN_Northbound database’s Logical_Switch_Port
table.
tag: optional integer, in range 1 to 4,095
Identifies the VLAN tag in the network traffic associated with that container’s
network interface.
This column is used for a different purpose when type is localnet (see Localnet
Options, above) or l2gateway (see L2 Gateway Options, above).
Virtual ports:
virtual_parent: optional string
This column is set by ovn-controller with one of the value from the
options:virtual-parents in the OVN_Northbound database’s Logical_Switch_Port table
when the OVN action bind_vport is executed. ovn-controller also sets the chassis
column when it executes this action with its chassis id.
ovn-controller sets this column only if the type is "virtual".
Naming:
external_ids : name: optional string
For a logical switch port, ovn-northd copies this from
external_ids:neutron:port_name in the Logical_Switch_Port table in the
OVN_Northbound database, if it is a nonempty string.
For a logical switch port, ovn-northd does not currently set this key.
Common Columns:
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
See External IDs at the beginning of this document.
The ovn-northd program populates this column with all entries into the external_ids
column of the Logical_Switch_Port and Logical_Router_Port tables of the
OVN_Northbound database.
MAC_Binding TABLE
Each row in this table specifies a binding from an IP address to an Ethernet address that
has been discovered through ARP (for IPv4) or neighbor discovery (for IPv6). This table is
primarily used to discover bindings on physical networks, because IP-to-MAC bindings for
virtual machines are usually populated statically into the Port_Binding table.
This table expresses a functional relationship: MAC_Binding(logical_port, ip) = mac.
In outline, the lifetime of a logical router’s MAC binding looks like this:
1. On hypervisor 1, a logical router determines that a packet should be forwarded
to IP address A on one of its router ports. It uses its logical flow table to
determine that A lacks a static IP-to-MAC binding and the get_arp action to
determine that it lacks a dynamic IP-to-MAC binding.
2. Using an OVN logical arp action, the logical router generates and sends a
broadcast ARP request to the router port. It drops the IP packet.
3. The logical switch attached to the router port delivers the ARP request to all
of its ports. (It might make sense to deliver it only to ports that have no
static IP-to-MAC bindings, but this could also be surprising behavior.)
4. A host or VM on hypervisor 2 (which might be the same as hypervisor 1) attached
to the logical switch owns the IP address in question. It composes an ARP reply
and unicasts it to the logical router port’s Ethernet address.
5. The logical switch delivers the ARP reply to the logical router port.
6. The logical router flow table executes a put_arp action. To record the IP-to-
MAC binding, ovn-controller adds a row to the MAC_Binding table.
7. On hypervisor 1, ovn-controller receives the updated MAC_Binding table from the
OVN southbound database. The next packet destined to A through the logical
router is sent directly to the bound Ethernet address.
Summary:
logical_port string
ip string
mac string
timestamp integer
datapath Datapath_Binding
Details:
logical_port: string
The logical port on which the binding was discovered.
ip: string
The bound IP address.
mac: string
The Ethernet address to which the IP is bound.
timestamp: integer
The timestamp in msec when the MAC binding was added or updated. Records that
existed before this column will have 0.
datapath: Datapath_Binding
The logical datapath to which the logical port belongs.
DHCP_Options TABLE
Each row in this table stores the DHCP Options supported by native OVN DHCP. ovn-northd
populates this table with the supported DHCP options. ovn-controller looks up this table
to get the DHCP codes of the DHCP options defined in the "put_dhcp_opts" action. Please
refer to the RFC 2132 "https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2132" for the possible list of DHCP
options that can be defined here.
Summary:
name string
code integer, in range 0 to 254
type string, one of bool, domains, host_id, ipv4, static_routes,
str, uint16, uint32, or uint8
Details:
name: string
Name of the DHCP option.
Example. name="router"
code: integer, in range 0 to 254
DHCP option code for the DHCP option as defined in the RFC 2132.
Example. code=3
type: string, one of bool, domains, host_id, ipv4, static_routes, str, uint16, uint32, or
uint8
Data type of the DHCP option code.
value: bool
This indicates that the value of the DHCP option is a bool.
Example. "name=ip_forward_enable", "code=19", "type=bool".
put_dhcp_opts(..., ip_forward_enable = 1,...)
value: uint8
This indicates that the value of the DHCP option is an unsigned int8 (8
bits)
Example. "name=default_ttl", "code=23", "type=uint8".
put_dhcp_opts(..., default_ttl = 50,...)
value: uint16
This indicates that the value of the DHCP option is an unsigned int16 (16
bits).
Example. "name=mtu", "code=26", "type=uint16".
put_dhcp_opts(..., mtu = 1450,...)
value: uint32
This indicates that the value of the DHCP option is an unsigned int32 (32
bits).
Example. "name=lease_time", "code=51", "type=uint32".
put_dhcp_opts(..., lease_time = 86400,...)
value: ipv4
This indicates that the value of the DHCP option is an IPv4 address or
addresses.
Example. "name=router", "code=3", "type=ipv4".
put_dhcp_opts(..., router = 10.0.0.1,...)
Example. "name=dns_server", "code=6", "type=ipv4".
put_dhcp_opts(..., dns_server = {8.8.8.8 7.7.7.7},...)
value: static_routes
This indicates that the value of the DHCP option contains a pair of IPv4
route and next hop addresses.
Example. "name=classless_static_route", "code=121", "type=static_routes".
put_dhcp_opts(..., classless_static_route =
{30.0.0.0/24,10.0.0.4,0.0.0.0/0,10.0.0.1}...)
value: str
This indicates that the value of the DHCP option is a string.
Example. "name=host_name", "code=12", "type=str".
value: host_id
This indicates that the value of the DHCP option is a host_id. It can either
be a host_name or an IP address.
Example. "name=tftp_server", "code=66", "type=host_id".
value: domains
This indicates that the value of the DHCP option is a domain name or a comma
separated list of domain names.
Example. "name=domain_search_list", "code=119", "type=domains".
DHCPv6_Options TABLE
Each row in this table stores the DHCPv6 Options supported by native OVN DHCPv6.
ovn-northd populates this table with the supported DHCPv6 options. ovn-controller looks up
this table to get the DHCPv6 codes of the DHCPv6 options defined in the put_dhcpv6_opts
action. Please refer to RFC 3315 and RFC 3646 for the list of DHCPv6 options that can be
defined here.
Summary:
name string
code integer, in range 0 to 254
type string, one of domain, ipv6, mac, or str
Details:
name: string
Name of the DHCPv6 option.
Example. name="ia_addr"
code: integer, in range 0 to 254
DHCPv6 option code for the DHCPv6 option as defined in the appropriate RFC.
Example. code=3
type: string, one of domain, ipv6, mac, or str
Data type of the DHCPv6 option code.
value: ipv6
This indicates that the value of the DHCPv6 option is an IPv6 address(es).
Example. "name=ia_addr", "code=5", "type=ipv6".
put_dhcpv6_opts(..., ia_addr = ae70::4,...)
value: str
This indicates that the value of the DHCPv6 option is a string.
Example. "name=domain_search", "code=24", "type=str".
put_dhcpv6_opts(..., domain_search = ovn.domain,...)
value: mac
This indicates that the value of the DHCPv6 option is a MAC address.
Example. "name=server_id", "code=2", "type=mac".
put_dhcpv6_opts(..., server_id = 01:02:03:04L05:06,...)
Connection TABLE
Configuration for a database connection to an Open vSwitch database (OVSDB) client.
This table primarily configures the Open vSwitch database server (ovsdb-server).
The Open vSwitch database server can initiate and maintain active connections to remote
clients. It can also listen for database connections.
Summary:
Core Features:
target string (must be unique within table)
read_only boolean
role string
Client Failure Detection and Handling:
max_backoff optional integer, at least 1,000
inactivity_probe optional integer
Status:
is_connected boolean
status : last_error optional string
status : state optional string, one of ACTIVE, BACKOFF, CONNECTING, IDLE,
or VOID
status : sec_since_connect optional string, containing an integer, at least 0
status : sec_since_disconnect
optional string, containing an integer, at least 0
status : locks_held optional string
status : locks_waiting optional string
status : locks_lost optional string
status : n_connections optional string, containing an integer, at least 2
status : bound_port optional string, containing an integer
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
other_config map of string-string pairs
Details:
Core Features:
target: string (must be unique within table)
Connection methods for clients.
The following connection methods are currently supported:
ssl:host[:port]
The specified SSL port on the given host, which can either be a DNS name (if
built with unbound library) or an IP address. A valid SSL configuration must
be provided when this form is used, this configuration can be specified via
command-line options or the SSL table.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
SSL support is an optional feature that is not always built as part of Open
vSwitch.
tcp:host[:port]
The specified TCP port on the given host, which can either be a DNS name (if
built with unbound library) or an IP address (IPv4 or IPv6). If host is an
IPv6 address, wrap it in square brackets, e.g. tcp:[::1]:6640.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
pssl:[port][:host]
Listens for SSL connections on the specified TCP port. Specify 0 for port to
have the kernel automatically choose an available port. If host, which can
either be a DNS name (if built with unbound library) or an IP address, is
specified, then connections are restricted to the resolved or specified
local IP address (either IPv4 or IPv6 address). If host is an IPv6 address,
wrap in square brackets, e.g. pssl:6640:[::1]. If host is not specified then
it listens only on IPv4 (but not IPv6) addresses. A valid SSL configuration
must be provided when this form is used, this can be specified either via
command-line options or the SSL table.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
SSL support is an optional feature that is not always built as part of Open
vSwitch.
ptcp:[port][:host]
Listens for connections on the specified TCP port. Specify 0 for port to
have the kernel automatically choose an available port. If host, which can
either be a DNS name (if built with unbound library) or an IP address, is
specified, then connections are restricted to the resolved or specified
local IP address (either IPv4 or IPv6 address). If host is an IPv6 address,
wrap it in square brackets, e.g. ptcp:6640:[::1]. If host is not specified
then it listens only on IPv4 addresses.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
When multiple clients are configured, the target values must be unique. Duplicate
target values yield unspecified results.
read_only: boolean
true to restrict these connections to read-only transactions, false to allow them
to modify the database.
role: string
String containing role name for this connection entry.
Client Failure Detection and Handling:
max_backoff: optional integer, at least 1,000
Maximum number of milliseconds to wait between connection attempts. Default is
implementation-specific.
inactivity_probe: optional integer
Maximum number of milliseconds of idle time on connection to the client before
sending an inactivity probe message. If Open vSwitch does not communicate with the
client for the specified number of seconds, it will send a probe. If a response is
not received for the same additional amount of time, Open vSwitch assumes the
connection has been broken and attempts to reconnect. Default is implementation-
specific. A value of 0 disables inactivity probes.
Status:
Key-value pair of is_connected is always updated. Other key-value pairs in the status
columns may be updated depends on the target type.
When target specifies a connection method that listens for inbound connections (e.g. ptcp:
or punix:), both n_connections and is_connected may also be updated while the remaining
key-value pairs are omitted.
On the other hand, when target specifies an outbound connection, all key-value pairs may
be updated, except the above-mentioned two key-value pairs associated with inbound
connection targets. They are omitted.
is_connected: boolean
true if currently connected to this client, false otherwise.
status : last_error: optional string
A human-readable description of the last error on the connection to the manager;
i.e. strerror(errno). This key will exist only if an error has occurred.
status : state: optional string, one of ACTIVE, BACKOFF, CONNECTING, IDLE, or VOID
The state of the connection to the manager:
VOID Connection is disabled.
BACKOFF
Attempting to reconnect at an increasing period.
CONNECTING
Attempting to connect.
ACTIVE Connected, remote host responsive.
IDLE Connection is idle. Waiting for response to keep-alive.
These values may change in the future. They are provided only for human
consumption.
status : sec_since_connect: optional string, containing an integer, at least 0
The amount of time since this client last successfully connected to the database
(in seconds). Value is empty if client has never successfully been connected.
status : sec_since_disconnect: optional string, containing an integer, at least 0
The amount of time since this client last disconnected from the database (in
seconds). Value is empty if client has never disconnected.
status : locks_held: optional string
Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the connection holds. Omitted
if the connection does not hold any locks.
status : locks_waiting: optional string
Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the connection is currently
waiting to acquire. Omitted if the connection is not waiting for any locks.
status : locks_lost: optional string
Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the connection has had stolen
by another OVSDB client. Omitted if no locks have been stolen from this connection.
status : n_connections: optional string, containing an integer, at least 2
When target specifies a connection method that listens for inbound connections
(e.g. ptcp: or pssl:) and more than one connection is actually active, the value is
the number of active connections. Otherwise, this key-value pair is omitted.
status : bound_port: optional string, containing an integer
When target is ptcp: or pssl:, this is the TCP port on which the OVSDB server is
listening. (This is particularly useful when target specifies a port of 0, allowing
the kernel to choose any available port.)
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common Columns at the beginning of
this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
other_config: map of string-string pairs
SSL TABLE
SSL configuration for ovn-sb database access.
Summary:
private_key string
certificate string
ca_cert string
bootstrap_ca_cert boolean
ssl_protocols string
ssl_ciphers string
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
private_key: string
Name of a PEM file containing the private key used as the switch’s identity for SSL
connections to the controller.
certificate: string
Name of a PEM file containing a certificate, signed by the certificate authority
(CA) used by the controller and manager, that certifies the switch’s private key,
identifying a trustworthy switch.
ca_cert: string
Name of a PEM file containing the CA certificate used to verify that the switch is
connected to a trustworthy controller.
bootstrap_ca_cert: boolean
If set to true, then Open vSwitch will attempt to obtain the CA certificate from
the controller on its first SSL connection and save it to the named PEM file. If it
is successful, it will immediately drop the connection and reconnect, and from then
on all SSL connections must be authenticated by a certificate signed by the CA
certificate thus obtained. This option exposes the SSL connection to a
man-in-the-middle attack obtaining the initial CA certificate. It may still be
useful for bootstrapping.
ssl_protocols: string
List of SSL protocols to be enabled for SSL connections. The default when this
option is omitted is TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2.
ssl_ciphers: string
List of ciphers (in OpenSSL cipher string format) to be supported for SSL
connections. The default when this option is omitted is HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common Columns at the beginning of
this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
DNS TABLE
Each row in this table stores the DNS records. The OVN action dns_lookup uses this table
for DNS resolution.
Summary:
records map of string-string pairs
datapaths set of 1 or more Datapath_Bindings
options : ovn-owned optional string
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
records: map of string-string pairs
Key-value pair of DNS records with DNS query name as the key and a string of IP
address(es) separated by comma or space as the value. ovn-northd stores the DNS
query name in all lowercase in order to facilitate case-insensitive lookups.
Example: "vm1.ovn.org" = "10.0.0.4 aef0::4"
datapaths: set of 1 or more Datapath_Bindings
The DNS records defined in the column records will be applied only to the DNS
queries originating from the datapaths defined in this column.
options : ovn-owned: optional string
This column indicates that all the Domains in this table are owned by OVN, and all
DNS queries for those domains will be answered locally by either an IP address or
DNS rejection.
Common Columns:
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
See External IDs at the beginning of this document.
RBAC_Role TABLE
Role table for role-based access controls.
Summary:
name string
permissions map of string-weak reference to RBAC_Permission pairs
Details:
name: string
The role name, corresponding to the role column in the Connection table.
permissions: map of string-weak reference to RBAC_Permission pairs
A mapping of table names to rows in the RBAC_Permission table.
RBAC_Permission TABLE
Permissions table for role-based access controls.
Summary:
table string
authorization set of strings
insert_delete boolean
update set of strings
Details:
table: string
Name of table to which this row applies.
authorization: set of strings
Set of strings identifying columns and column:key pairs to be compared with client
ID. At least one match is required in order to be authorized. A zero-length string
is treated as a special value indicating all clients should be considered
authorized.
insert_delete: boolean
When "true", row insertions and authorized row deletions are permitted.
update: set of strings
Set of strings identifying columns and column:key pairs that authorized clients are
allowed to modify.
Gateway_Chassis TABLE
Association of Port_Binding rows of type chassisredirect to a Chassis. The traffic going
out through a specific chassisredirect port will be redirected to a chassis, or a set of
them in high availability configurations.
Summary:
name string (must be unique within table)
chassis optional weak reference to Chassis
priority integer, in range 0 to 32,767
options map of string-string pairs
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
name: string (must be unique within table)
Name of the Gateway_Chassis.
A suggested, but not required naming convention is ${port_name}_${chassis_name}.
chassis: optional weak reference to Chassis
The Chassis to which we send the traffic.
priority: integer, in range 0 to 32,767
This is the priority the specific Chassis among all Gateway_Chassis belonging to
the same Port_Binding.
options: map of string-string pairs
Reserved for future use.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common Columns at the beginning of
this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
HA_Chassis TABLE
Summary:
chassis optional weak reference to Chassis
priority integer, in range 0 to 32,767
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
chassis: optional weak reference to Chassis
The Chassis which provides the HA functionality.
priority: integer, in range 0 to 32,767
Priority of the HA chassis. Chassis with highest priority will be the active
chassis in the HA chassis group.
Common Columns:
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
See External IDs at the beginning of this document.
HA_Chassis_Group TABLE
Table representing a group of chassis which can provide High availability services. Each
chassis in the group is represented by the table HA_Chassis. The HA chassis with highest
priority will be the active chassis of this group. If the active chassis failover is
detected, the HA chassis with the next higher priority takes over the responsibility of
providing the HA. If ha_chassis_group column of the table Port_Binding references this
table, then this HA chassis group provides the gateway functionality and redirects the
gateway traffic to the active chassis of this group.
Summary:
name string (must be unique within table)
ha_chassis set of HA_Chassises
ref_chassis set of weak reference to Chassis
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
name: string (must be unique within table)
Name of the HA_Chassis_Group. Name should be unique.
ha_chassis: set of HA_Chassises
A list of HA_Chassis which belongs to this group.
ref_chassis: set of weak reference to Chassis
The set of Chassis that reference this HA chassis group. To determine the correct
Chassis, find the chassisredirect type Port_Binding that references this
HA_Chassis_Group. This Port_Binding is derived from some particular logical router.
Starting from that LR, find the set of all logical switches and routers connected
to it, directly or indirectly, across router ports that link one LRP to another or
to a LSP. For each LSP in these logical switches, find the corresponding
Port_Binding and add its bound Chassis (if any) to ref_chassis.
Common Columns:
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
See External IDs at the beginning of this document.
Controller_Event TABLE
Database table used by ovn-controller to report CMS related events. Please note there is
no guarantee a given event is written exactly once in the db. It is CMS responsibility to
squash duplicated lines or to filter out duplicated events
Summary:
event_type string, must be empty_lb_backends
event_info map of string-string pairs
chassis optional weak reference to Chassis
seq_num integer
Details:
event_type: string, must be empty_lb_backends
Event type occurred
event_info: map of string-string pairs
Key-value pairs used to specify event info to the CMS. Possible values are:
• vip: VIP reported for the empty_lb_backends event
• protocol: Transport protocol reported for the empty_lb_backends event
• load_balancer: UUID of the load balancer reported for the empty_lb_backends
event
chassis: optional weak reference to Chassis
This column is a Chassis record to identify the chassis that has managed a given
event.
seq_num: integer
Event sequence number. Global counter for controller generated events. It can be
used by the CMS to detect possible duplication of the same event.
IP_Multicast TABLE
IP Multicast configuration options. For now only applicable to IGMP.
Summary:
datapath weak reference to Datapath_Binding (must be unique within
table)
enabled optional boolean
querier optional boolean
table_size optional integer
idle_timeout optional integer
query_interval optional integer
seq_no integer
Querier configuration options:
eth_src string
ip4_src string
ip6_src string
query_max_resp optional integer
Details:
datapath: weak reference to Datapath_Binding (must be unique within table)
Datapath_Binding entry for which these configuration options are defined.
enabled: optional boolean
Enables/disables multicast snooping. Default: disabled.
querier: optional boolean
Enables/disables multicast querying. If enabled then multicast querying is enabled
by default.
table_size: optional integer
Limits the number of multicast groups that can be learned. Default: 2048 groups per
datapath.
idle_timeout: optional integer
Configures the idle timeout (in seconds) for IP multicast groups if multicast
snooping is enabled. Default: 300 seconds.
query_interval: optional integer
Configures the interval (in seconds) for sending multicast queries if snooping and
querier are enabled. Default: idle_timeout/2 seconds.
seq_no: integer
ovn-controller reads this value and flushes all learned multicast groups when it
detects that seq_no was changed.
Querier configuration options:
The ovn-controller process that runs on OVN hypervisor nodes uses the following columns to
determine field values in IGMP/MLD queries that it originates:
eth_src: string
Source Ethernet address.
ip4_src: string
Source IPv4 address.
ip6_src: string
Source IPv6 address.
query_max_resp: optional integer
Value (in seconds) to be used as "max-response" field in multicast queries.
Default: 1 second.
IGMP_Group TABLE
Contains learned IGMP groups indexed by address/datapath/chassis.
Summary:
address string
protocol string
datapath optional weak reference to Datapath_Binding
chassis optional weak reference to Chassis
ports set of weak reference to Port_Bindings
chassis_name string
Details:
address: string
Destination IPv4 address for the IGMP group.
protocol: string
Group protocol version either IGMPv1,v2,v3 or MLDv1,v2.
datapath: optional weak reference to Datapath_Binding
Datapath to which this IGMP group belongs.
chassis: optional weak reference to Chassis
Chassis to which this IGMP group belongs.
ports: set of weak reference to Port_Bindings
The destination port bindings for this IGMP group.
chassis_name: string
The chassis that inserted this record. This column is used for RBAC purposes only.
Service_Monitor TABLE
Each row in this table configures monitoring a service for its liveness. The service can
be an IPv4 TCP or UDP service. ovn-controller periodically sends out service monitor
packets and updates the status of the service.
ovn-northd uses this feature to implement the load balancer health check feature offered
to the CMS through the northbound database.
Summary:
Configuration:
ip string
protocol optional string, either tcp or udp
port integer, in range 0 to 65,535
logical_port string
src_mac string
src_ip string
chassis_name string
options : interval optional string, containing an integer
options : timeout optional string, containing an integer
options : success_count optional string, containing an integer
options : failure_count optional string, containing an integer
Status Reporting:
status optional string, one of error, offline, or online
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
Configuration:
ovn-northd sets these columns and values to configure the service monitor.
ip: string
IP of the service to be monitored. Only IPv4 is supported.
protocol: optional string, either tcp or udp
The protocol of the service.
port: integer, in range 0 to 65,535
The TCP or UDP port of the service.
logical_port: string
The VIF of the logical port on which the service is running. The ovn-controller
that binds this logical_port monitors the service by sending periodic monitor
packets.
src_mac: string
Source Ethernet address to use in the service monitor packet.
src_ip: string
Source IPv4 or IPv6 address to use in the service monitor packet.
chassis_name: string
The name of the chassis where the logical port is bound.
options : interval: optional string, containing an integer
The interval, in seconds, between service monitor checks.
options : timeout: optional string, containing an integer
The time, in seconds, after which the service monitor check times out.
options : success_count: optional string, containing an integer
The number of successful checks after which the service is considered online.
options : failure_count: optional string, containing an integer
The number of failure checks after which the service is considered offline.
Status Reporting:
The ovn-controller on the chassis that hosts the logical_port updates this column to
report the service’s status.
status: optional string, one of error, offline, or online
For TCP service, ovn-controller sends a SYN to the service and expects an ACK
response to consider the service to be online.
For UDP service, ovn-controller sends a UDP packet to the service and doesn’t
expect any reply. If it receives an ICMP reply, then it considers the service to be
offline.
Common Columns:
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
See External IDs at the beginning of this document.
Load_Balancer TABLE
Each row represents a load balancer.
Summary:
name string
vips map of string-string pairs
protocol optional string, one of sctp, tcp, or udp
datapaths set of Datapath_Bindings
datapath_group optional Logical_DP_Group
ls_datapath_group optional Logical_DP_Group
lr_datapath_group optional Logical_DP_Group
Load_Balancer options:
options : hairpin_snat_ip optional string
options : hairpin_orig_tuple
optional string, either true or false
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
name: string
A name for the load balancer. This name has no special meaning or purpose other
than to provide convenience for human interaction with the ovn-nb database.
vips: map of string-string pairs
A map of virtual IP addresses (and an optional port number with : as a separator)
associated with this load balancer and their corresponding endpoint IP addresses
(and optional port numbers with : as separators) separated by commas.
protocol: optional string, one of sctp, tcp, or udp
Valid protocols are tcp, udp, or sctp. This column is useful when a port number is
provided as part of the vips column. If this column is empty and a port number is
provided as part of vips column, OVN assumes the protocol to be tcp.
datapaths: set of Datapath_Bindings
Datapaths to which this load balancer applies to.
datapath_group: optional Logical_DP_Group
Deprecated. The group of datapaths to which this load balancer applies to. This
means that the same load balancer applies to all datapaths in a group.
ls_datapath_group: optional Logical_DP_Group
The group of datapaths to which this load balancer applies to. This means that the
same load balancer applies to all datapaths in a group.
lr_datapath_group: optional Logical_DP_Group
The group of logical router datapaths to which this load balancer applies to. This
means that the same load balancer applies to all datapaths in a group.
Load_Balancer options:
options : hairpin_snat_ip: optional string
IP to be used as source IP for packets that have been hair-pinned after load
balancing. This value is automatically populated by ovn-northd.
options : hairpin_orig_tuple: optional string, either true or false
This value is automatically set to true by ovn-northd when original destination IP
and transport port of the load balanced packets are stored in registers reg1, reg2,
xxreg1.
Common Columns:
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
See External IDs at the beginning of this document.
BFD TABLE
Contains BFD parameter for ovn-controller bfd configuration.
Summary:
Configuration:
src_port integer, in range 49,152 to 65,535
disc integer
logical_port string
dst_ip string
min_tx integer
min_rx integer
detect_mult integer
chassis_name string
options map of string-string pairs
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Status Reporting:
status string, one of admin_down, down, init, or up
Details:
Configuration:
src_port: integer, in range 49,152 to 65,535
udp source port used in bfd control packets. The source port MUST be in the range
49152 through 65535 (RFC5881 section 4).
disc: integer
A unique, nonzero discriminator value generated by the transmitting system, used to
demultiplex multiple BFD sessions between the same pair of systems.
logical_port: string
OVN logical port when BFD engine is running.
dst_ip: string
BFD peer IP address.
min_tx: integer
This is the minimum interval, in milliseconds, that the local system would like to
use when transmitting BFD Control packets, less any jitter applied. The value zero
is reserved.
min_rx: integer
This is the minimum interval, in milliseconds, between received BFD Control packets
that this system is capable of supporting, less any jitter applied by the sender.
If this value is zero, the transmitting system does not want the remote system to
send any periodic BFD Control packets.
detect_mult: integer
Detection time multiplier. The negotiated transmit interval, multiplied by this
value, provides the Detection Time for the receiving system in Asynchronous mode.
chassis_name: string
The name of the chassis where the logical port is bound.
options: map of string-string pairs
Reserved for future use.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
See External IDs at the beginning of this document.
Status Reporting:
status: string, one of admin_down, down, init, or up
BFD port logical states. Possible values are:
• admin_down
• down
• init
• up
FDB TABLE
This table is primarily used to learn the MACs observed on a VIF (or a localnet port with
’localnet_learn_fdb’ enabled) which belongs to a Logical_Switch_Port record in
OVN_Northbound whose port security is disabled and ’unknown’ address set. If port security
is disabled on a Logical_Switch_Port record, OVN should allow traffic with any source mac
from the VIF. This table will be used to deliver a packet to the VIF, If a packet’s
eth.dst is learnt.
Summary:
mac string
dp_key integer, in range 1 to 16,777,215
port_key integer, in range 1 to 16,777,215
timestamp integer
Details:
mac: string
The learnt mac address.
dp_key: integer, in range 1 to 16,777,215
The key of the datapath on which this FDB was learnt.
port_key: integer, in range 1 to 16,777,215
The key of the port binding on which this FDB was learnt.
timestamp: integer
The timestamp in msec when the FDB was added or updated. Records that existed
before this column will have 0.
Static_MAC_Binding TABLE
Each record represents a Static_MAC_Binding entry for a logical router.
Summary:
logical_port string
ip string
mac string
override_dynamic_mac boolean
datapath Datapath_Binding
Details:
logical_port: string
The logical router port for the binding.
ip: string
The bound IP address.
mac: string
The Ethernet address to which the IP is bound.
override_dynamic_mac: boolean
Override dynamically learnt MACs.
datapath: Datapath_Binding
The logical datapath to which the logical router port belongs.
Chassis_Template_Var TABLE
Each record represents the set of template variable instantiations for a given chassis and
is populated by ovn-northd from the contents of the OVN_Northbound.Chassis_Template_Var
table.
Summary:
chassis string (must be unique within table)
variables map of string-string pairs
Details:
chassis: string (must be unique within table)
The chassis this set of variable values applies to.
variables: map of string-string pairs
The set of variable values for a given chassis.