Provided by: openvswitch-common_2.0.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.3_amd64 
NAME
ovs-ofctl - administer OpenFlow switches
SYNOPSIS
ovs-ofctl [options] command [switch] [args...]
DESCRIPTION
The ovs-ofctl program is a command line tool for monitoring and administering OpenFlow
switches. It can also show the current state of an OpenFlow switch, including features,
configuration, and table entries. It should work with any OpenFlow switch, not just Open
vSwitch.
OpenFlow Switch Management Commands
These commands allow ovs-ofctl to monitor and administer an OpenFlow switch. It is able
to show the current state of a switch, including features, configuration, and table
entries.
Most of these commands take an argument that specifies the method for connecting to an
OpenFlow switch. The following connection methods are supported:
ssl:ip[:port]
The specified SSL port (default: 6633) on the host at the given ip, which
must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name). The --private-key,
--certificate, and --ca-cert options are mandatory when this form is used.
tcp:ip[:port]
The specified TCP port (default: 6633) on the host at the given ip, which
must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name).
unix:file
The Unix domain server socket named file.
file This is short for unix:file, as long as file does not contain a colon.
bridge This is short for unix:/var/run/openvswitch/bridge.mgmt, as long as bridge
does not contain a colon.
[type@]dp
Attempts to look up the bridge associated with dp and open as above. If
type is given, it specifies the datapath provider of dp, otherwise the
default provider system is assumed.
show switch
Prints to the console information on switch, including information on its flow
tables and ports.
dump-tables switch
Prints to the console statistics for each of the flow tables used by switch.
dump-ports switch [netdev]
Prints to the console statistics for network devices associated with switch. If
netdev is specified, only the statistics associated with that device will be
printed. netdev can be an OpenFlow assigned port number or device name, e.g. eth0.
dump-ports-desc switch
Prints to the console detailed information about network devices associated with
switch (version 1.7 or later). This is a subset of the information provided by the
show command.
mod-port switch port action
Modify characteristics of port port in switch. port may be an OpenFlow port number
or name or the keyword LOCAL (the preferred way to refer to the OpenFlow local
port). The action may be any one of the following:
up
down Enable or disable the interface. This is equivalent to ifconfig up or
ifconfig down on a Unix system.
stp
no-stp Enable or disable 802.1D spanning tree protocol (STP) on the interface.
OpenFlow implementations that don't support STP will refuse to enable it.
receive
no-receive
receive-stp
no-receive-stp
Enable or disable OpenFlow processing of packets received on this interface.
When packet processing is disabled, packets will be dropped instead of being
processed through the OpenFlow table. The receive or no-receive setting
applies to all packets except 802.1D spanning tree packets, which are
separately controlled by receive-stp or no-receive-stp.
forward
no-forward
Allow or disallow forwarding of traffic to this interface. By default,
forwarding is enabled.
flood
no-flood
Controls whether an OpenFlow flood action will send traffic out this
interface. By default, flooding is enabled. Disabling flooding is
primarily useful to prevent loops when a spanning tree protocol is not in
use.
packet-in
no-packet-in
Controls whether packets received on this interface that do not match a flow
table entry generate a ``packet in'' message to the OpenFlow controller. By
default, ``packet in'' messages are enabled.
The show command displays (among other information) the configuration that mod-port
changes.
get-frags switch
Prints switch's fragment handling mode. See set-frags, below, for a description of
each fragment handling mode.
The show command also prints the fragment handling mode among its other output.
set-frags switch frag_mode
Configures switch's treatment of IPv4 and IPv6 fragments. The choices for
frag_mode are:
normal Fragments pass through the flow table like non-fragmented packets. The TCP
ports, UDP ports, and ICMP type and code fields are always set to 0, even
for fragments where that information would otherwise be available (fragments
with offset 0). This is the default fragment handling mode for an OpenFlow
switch.
drop Fragments are dropped without passing through the flow table.
reassemble
The switch reassembles fragments into full IP packets before passing them
through the flow table. Open vSwitch does not implement this fragment
handling mode.
nx-match
Fragments pass through the flow table like non-fragmented packets. The TCP
ports, UDP ports, and ICMP type and code fields are available for matching
for fragments with offset 0, and set to 0 in fragments with nonzero offset.
This mode is a Nicira extension.
See the description of ip_frag, below, for a way to match on whether a packet is a
fragment and on its fragment offset.
dump-flows switch [flows]
Prints to the console all flow entries in switch's tables that match flows. If
flows is omitted, all flows in the switch are retrieved. See Flow Syntax, below,
for the syntax of flows. The output format is described in Table Entry Output.
By default, ovs-ofctl prints flow entries in the same order that the switch sends
them, which is unlikely to be intuitive or consistent. See the description of
--sort and --rsort, under OPTIONS below, to influence the display order.
dump-aggregate switch [flows]
Prints to the console aggregate statistics for flows in switch's tables that match
flows. If flows is omitted, the statistics are aggregated across all flows in the
switch's flow tables. See Flow Syntax, below, for the syntax of flows. The output
format is described in Table Entry Output.
queue-stats switch [port [queue]]
Prints to the console statistics for the specified queue on port within switch.
port can be an OpenFlow port number or name, the keyword LOCAL (the preferred way
to refer to the OpenFlow local port), or the keyword ALL. Either of port or queue
or both may be omitted (or equivalently the keyword ALL). If both are omitted,
statistics are printed for all queues on all ports. If only queue is omitted, then
statistics are printed for all queues on port; if only port is omitted, then
statistics are printed for queue on every port where it exists.
OpenFlow Switch Flow Table Commands
These commands manage the flow table in an OpenFlow switch. In each case, flow specifies
a flow entry in the format described in Flow Syntax, below, and file is a text file that
contains zero or more flows in the same syntax, one per line.
add-flow switch flow
add-flow switch - < file
add-flows switch file
Add each flow entry to switch's tables.
[--strict] mod-flows switch flow
[--strict] mod-flows switch - < file
Modify the actions in entries from switch's tables that match the specified flows.
With --strict, wildcards are not treated as active for matching purposes.
del-flows switch
[--strict] del-flows switch [flow]
[--strict] del-flows switch - < file
Deletes entries from switch's flow table. With only a switch argument, deletes all
flows. Otherwise, deletes flow entries that match the specified flows. With
--strict, wildcards are not treated as active for matching purposes.
[--readd] replace-flows switch file
Reads flow entries from file (or stdin if file is -) and queries the flow table
from switch. Then it fixes up any differences, adding flows from flow that are
missing on switch, deleting flows from switch that are not in file, and updating
flows in switch whose actions, cookie, or timeouts differ in file.
With --readd, ovs-ofctl adds all the flows from file, even those that exist with
the same actions, cookie, and timeout in switch. This resets all the flow packet
and byte counters to 0, which can be useful for debugging.
diff-flows source1 source2
Reads flow entries from source1 and source2 and prints the differences. A flow
that is in source1 but not in source2 is printed preceded by a -, and a flow that
is in source2 but not in source1 is printed preceded by a +. If a flow exists in
both source1 and source2 with different actions, cookie, or timeouts, then both
versions are printed preceded by - and +, respectively.
source1 and source2 may each name a file or a switch. If a name begins with / or
., then it is considered to be a file name. A name that contains : is considered
to be a switch. Otherwise, it is a file if a file by that name exists, a switch if
not.
For this command, an exit status of 0 means that no differences were found, 1 means
that an error occurred, and 2 means that some differences were found.
packet-out switch in_port actions packet...
Connects to switch and instructs it to execute the OpenFlow actions on each packet.
For the purpose of executing the actions, the packets are considered to have
arrived on in_port, which may be an OpenFlow port number or name (e.g. eth0), the
keyword LOCAL (the preferred way to refer to the OpenFlow ``local'' port), or the
keyword NONE to indicate that the packet was generated by the switch itself.
OpenFlow Switch Monitoring Commands
snoop switch
Connects to switch and prints to the console all OpenFlow messages received.
Unlike other ovs-ofctl commands, if switch is the name of a bridge, then the snoop
command connects to a Unix domain socket named /var/run/openvswitch/bridge.snoop.
ovs-vswitchd listens on such a socket for each bridge and sends to it all of the
OpenFlow messages sent to or received from its configured OpenFlow controller.
Thus, this command can be used to view OpenFlow protocol activity between a switch
and its controller.
When a switch has more than one controller configured, only the traffic to and from
a single controller is output. If none of the controllers is configured as a
master or a slave (using a Nicira extension to OpenFlow), then a controller is
chosen arbitrarily among them. If there is a master controller, it is chosen;
otherwise, if there are any controllers that are not masters or slaves, one is
chosen arbitrarily; otherwise, a slave controller is chosen arbitrarily. This
choice is made once at connection time and does not change as controllers
reconfigure their roles.
If a switch has no controller configured, or if the configured controller is
disconnected, no traffic is sent, so monitoring will not show any traffic.
monitor switch [miss-len] [invalid_ttl] [watch:[spec...]]
Connects to switch and prints to the console all OpenFlow messages received.
Usually, switch should specify the name of a bridge in the ovs-vswitchd database.
If miss-len is provided, ovs-ofctl sends an OpenFlow ``set configuration'' message
at connection setup time that requests miss-len bytes of each packet that misses
the flow table. Open vSwitch does not send these and other asynchronous messages
to an ovs-ofctl monitor client connection unless a nonzero value is specified on
this argument. (Thus, if miss-len is not specified, very little traffic will
ordinarily be printed.)
If invalid_ttl is passed, ovs-ofctl sends an OpenFlow ``set configuration'' message
at connection setup time that requests INVALID_TTL_TO_CONTROLLER, so that ovs-ofctl
monitor can receive ``packet-in'' messages when TTL reaches zero on dec_ttl action.
watch:[spec...] causes ovs-ofctl to send a ``monitor request'' Nicira extension
message to the switch at connection setup time. This message causes the switch to
send information about flow table changes as they occur. The following comma-
separated spec syntax is available:
!initial
Do not report the switch's initial flow table contents.
!add Do not report newly added flows.
!delete
Do not report deleted flows.
!modify
Do not report modifications to existing flows.
!own Abbreviate changes made to the flow table by ovs-ofctl's own connection to
the switch. (These could only occur using the ofctl/send command described
below under RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS.)
!actions
Do not report actions as part of flow updates.
table=number
Limits the monitoring to the table with the given number between 0 and 254.
By default, all tables are monitored.
out_port=port
If set, only flows that output to port are monitored. The port may be an
OpenFlow port number or keyword (e.g. LOCAL).
field=value
Monitors only flows that have field specified as the given value. Any
syntax valid for matching on dump-flows may be used.
This command may be useful for debugging switch or controller implementations.
With watch:, it is particularly useful for observing how a controller updates flow
tables.
OpenFlow Switch and Controller Commands
The following commands, like those in the previous section, may be applied to OpenFlow
switches, using any of the connection methods described in that section. Unlike those
commands, these may also be applied to OpenFlow controllers.
probe target
Sends a single OpenFlow echo-request message to target and waits for the response.
With the -t or --timeout option, this command can test whether an OpenFlow switch
or controller is up and running.
ping target [n]
Sends a series of 10 echo request packets to target and times each reply. The echo
request packets consist of an OpenFlow header plus n bytes (default: 64) of
randomly generated payload. This measures the latency of individual requests.
benchmark target n count
Sends count echo request packets that each consist of an OpenFlow header plus n
bytes of payload and waits for each response. Reports the total time required.
This is a measure of the maximum bandwidth to target for round-trips of n-byte
messages.
Other Commands
ofp-parse file
Reads file (or stdin if file is -) as a series of OpenFlow messages in the binary
format used on an OpenFlow connection, and prints them to the console. This can be
useful for printing OpenFlow messages captured from a TCP stream.
Flow Syntax
Some ovs-ofctl commands accept an argument that describes a flow or flows. Such flow
descriptions comprise a series field=value assignments, separated by commas or white
space. (Embedding spaces into a flow description normally requires quoting to prevent the
shell from breaking the description into multiple arguments.)
Flow descriptions should be in normal form. This means that a flow may only specify a
value for an L3 field if it also specifies a particular L2 protocol, and that a flow may
only specify an L4 field if it also specifies particular L2 and L3 protocol types. For
example, if the L2 protocol type dl_type is wildcarded, then L3 fields nw_src, nw_dst, and
nw_proto must also be wildcarded. Similarly, if dl_type or nw_proto (the L3 protocol
type) is wildcarded, so must be tp_dst and tp_src, which are L4 fields. ovs-ofctl will
warn about flows not in normal form.
The following field assignments describe how a flow matches a packet. If any of these
assignments is omitted from the flow syntax, the field is treated as a wildcard; thus, if
all of them are omitted, the resulting flow matches all packets. The string * may be
specified to explicitly mark any of these fields as a wildcard. (* should be quoted to
protect it from shell expansion.)
in_port=port
Matches OpenFlow port port, which may be an OpenFlow port number or keyword (e.g.
LOCAL). ovs-ofctl show.
(The resubmit action can search OpenFlow flow tables with arbitrary in_port values,
so flows that match port numbers that do not exist from an OpenFlow perspective can
still potentially be matched.)
dl_vlan=vlan
Matches IEEE 802.1q Virtual LAN tag vlan. Specify 0xffff as vlan to match packets
that are not tagged with a Virtual LAN; otherwise, specify a number between 0 and
4095, inclusive, as the 12-bit VLAN ID to match.
dl_vlan_pcp=priority
Matches IEEE 802.1q Priority Code Point (PCP) priority, which is specified as a
value between 0 and 7, inclusive. A higher value indicates a higher frame priority
level.
dl_src=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
dl_dst=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Matches an Ethernet source (or destination) address specified as 6 pairs of
hexadecimal digits delimited by colons (e.g. 00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0).
dl_src=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
dl_dst=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Matches an Ethernet destination address specified as 6 pairs of hexadecimal digits
delimited by colons (e.g. 00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0), with a wildcard mask following the
slash. Open vSwitch 1.8 and later support arbitrary masks for source and/or
destination. Earlier versions only support masking the destination with the
following masks:
01:00:00:00:00:00
Match only the multicast bit. Thus,
dl_dst=01:00:00:00:00:00/01:00:00:00:00:00 matches all multicast (including
broadcast) Ethernet packets, and dl_dst=00:00:00:00:00:00/01:00:00:00:00:00
matches all unicast Ethernet packets.
fe:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Match all bits except the multicast bit. This is probably not useful.
ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Exact match (equivalent to omitting the mask).
00:00:00:00:00:00
Wildcard all bits (equivalent to dl_dst=*.)
dl_type=ethertype
Matches Ethernet protocol type ethertype, which is specified as an integer between
0 and 65535, inclusive, either in decimal or as a hexadecimal number prefixed by 0x
(e.g. 0x0806 to match ARP packets).
nw_src=ip[/netmask]
nw_dst=ip[/netmask]
When dl_type is 0x0800 (possibly via shorthand, e.g. ip or tcp), matches IPv4
source (or destination) address ip, which may be specified as an IP address or host
name (e.g. 192.168.1.1 or www.example.com). The optional netmask allows
restricting a match to an IPv4 address prefix. The netmask may be specified as a
dotted quad (e.g. 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0) or as a CIDR block (e.g.
192.168.1.0/24). Open vSwitch 1.8 and later support arbitrary dotted quad masks;
earlier versions support only CIDR masks, that is, the dotted quads that are
equivalent to some CIDR block.
When dl_type=0x0806 or arp is specified, matches the ar_spa or ar_tpa field,
respectively, in ARP packets for IPv4 and Ethernet.
When dl_type=0x8035 or rarp is specified, matches the ar_spa or ar_tpa field,
respectively, in RARP packets for IPv4 and Ethernet.
When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800, 0x0806, or 0x8035,
the values of nw_src and nw_dst are ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
nw_proto=proto
When ip or dl_type=0x0800 is specified, matches IP protocol type proto, which is
specified as a decimal number between 0 and 255, inclusive (e.g. 1 to match ICMP
packets or 6 to match TCP packets).
When ipv6 or dl_type=0x86dd is specified, matches IPv6 header type proto, which is
specified as a decimal number between 0 and 255, inclusive (e.g. 58 to match ICMPv6
packets or 6 to match TCP). The header type is the terminal header as described in
the DESIGN document.
When arp or dl_type=0x0806 is specified, matches the lower 8 bits of the ARP
opcode. ARP opcodes greater than 255 are treated as 0.
When rarp or dl_type=0x8035 is specified, matches the lower 8 bits of the ARP
opcode. ARP opcodes greater than 255 are treated as 0.
When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800, 0x0806, 0x8035 or
0x86dd, the value of nw_proto is ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
nw_tos=tos
Matches IP ToS/DSCP or IPv6 traffic class field tos, which is specified as a
decimal number between 0 and 255, inclusive. Note that the two lower reserved bits
are ignored for matching purposes.
When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800 or 0x86dd, the value
of nw_tos is ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
nw_ecn=ecn
Matches ecn bits in IP ToS or IPv6 traffic class fields, which is specified as a
decimal number between 0 and 3, inclusive.
When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800 or 0x86dd, the value
of nw_ecn is ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
nw_ttl=ttl
Matches IP TTL or IPv6 hop limit value ttl, which is specified as a decimal number
between 0 and 255, inclusive.
When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800 or 0x86dd, the value
of nw_ttl is ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
tp_src=port
tp_dst=port
When dl_type and nw_proto specify TCP or UDP or SCTP, tp_src and tp_dst match the
UDP or TCP or SCTP source or destination port port, respectively, which is
specified as a decimal number between 0 and 65535, inclusive (e.g. 80 to match
packets originating from a HTTP server).
When dl_type and nw_proto take other values, the values of these settings are
ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
tp_src=port/mask
tp_dst=port/mask
Bitwise match on TCP (or UDP or SCTP) source or destination port, respectively.
The port and mask are 16-bit numbers written in decimal or in hexadecimal prefixed
by 0x. Each 1-bit in mask requires that the corresponding bit in port must match.
Each 0-bit in mask causes the corresponding bit to be ignored.
Bitwise matches on transport ports are rarely useful in isolation, but a group of
them can be used to reduce the number of flows required to match on a range of
transport ports. For example, suppose that the goal is to match TCP source ports
1000 to 1999, inclusive. One way is to insert 1000 flows, each of which matches on
a single source port. Another way is to look at the binary representations of 1000
and 1999, as follows:
01111101000
11111001111
and then to transform those into a series of bitwise matches that accomplish the
same results:
01111101xxx
0111111xxxx
10xxxxxxxxx
110xxxxxxxx
1110xxxxxxx
11110xxxxxx
1111100xxxx
which become the following when written in the syntax required by ovs-ofctl:
tcp,tp_src=0x03e8/0xfff8
tcp,tp_src=0x03f0/0xfff0
tcp,tp_src=0x0400/0xfe00
tcp,tp_src=0x0600/0xff00
tcp,tp_src=0x0700/0xff80
tcp,tp_src=0x0780/0xffc0
tcp,tp_src=0x07c0/0xfff0
Only Open vSwitch 1.6 and later supports bitwise matching on transport ports.
Like the exact-match forms of tp_src and tp_dst described above, the bitwise match
forms apply only when dl_type and nw_proto specify TCP or UDP or SCTP.
icmp_type=type
icmp_code=code
When dl_type and nw_proto specify ICMP or ICMPv6, type matches the ICMP type and
code matches the ICMP code. Each is specified as a decimal number between 0 and
255, inclusive.
When dl_type and nw_proto take other values, the values of these settings are
ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
table=number
If specified, limits the flow manipulation and flow dump commands to only apply to
the table with the given number between 0 and 254. Behavior varies if table is not
specified (equivalent to specifying 255 as number). For flow table modification
commands without --strict, the switch will choose the table for these commands to
operate on. For flow table modification commands with --strict, the command will
operate on any single matching flow in any table; it will do nothing if there are
matches in more than one table. The dump-flows and dump-aggregate commands will
gather statistics about flows from all tables.
When this field is specified in add-flow, add-flows, mod-flows and del-flows
commands, it activates a Nicira extension to OpenFlow, which as of this writing is
only known to be implemented by Open vSwitch.
metadata=value[/mask]
Matches value either exactly or with optional mask in the metadata field. value and
mask are 64-bit integers, by default in decimal (use a 0x prefix to specify
hexadecimal). Arbitrary mask values are allowed: a 1-bit in mask indicates that the
corresponding bit in value must match exactly, and a 0-bit wildcards that bit.
Matching on metadata was added in Open vSwitch 1.8.
The following shorthand notations are also available:
ip Same as dl_type=0x0800.
icmp Same as dl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=1.
tcp Same as dl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=6.
udp Same as dl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=17.
sctp Same as dl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=132.
arp Same as dl_type=0x0806.
rarp Same as dl_type=0x8035.
The following field assignments require support for the NXM (Nicira Extended Match)
extension to OpenFlow. When one of these is specified, ovs-ofctl will automatically
attempt to negotiate use of this extension. If the switch does not support NXM, then
ovs-ofctl will report a fatal error.
vlan_tci=tci[/mask]
Matches modified VLAN TCI tci. If mask is omitted, tci is the exact VLAN TCI to
match; if mask is specified, then a 1-bit in mask indicates that the corresponding
bit in tci must match exactly, and a 0-bit wildcards that bit. Both tci and mask
are 16-bit values that are decimal by default; use a 0x prefix to specify them in
hexadecimal.
The value that vlan_tci matches against is 0 for a packet that has no 802.1Q
header. Otherwise, it is the TCI value from the 802.1Q header with the CFI bit
(with value 0x1000) forced to 1.
Examples:
vlan_tci=0
Match only packets without an 802.1Q header.
vlan_tci=0xf123
Match packets tagged with priority 7 in VLAN 0x123.
vlan_tci=0x1123/0x1fff
Match packets tagged with VLAN 0x123 (and any priority).
vlan_tci=0x5000/0xf000
Match packets tagged with priority 2 (in any VLAN).
vlan_tci=0/0xfff
Match packets with no 802.1Q header or tagged with VLAN 0 (and any
priority).
vlan_tci=0x5000/0xe000
Match packets with no 802.1Q header or tagged with priority 2 (in any VLAN).
vlan_tci=0/0xefff
Match packets with no 802.1Q header or tagged with VLAN 0 and priority 0.
Some of these matching possibilities can also be achieved with dl_vlan and
dl_vlan_pcp.
ip_frag=frag_type
When dl_type specifies IP or IPv6, frag_type specifies what kind of IP fragments or
non-fragments to match. The following values of frag_type are supported:
no Matches only non-fragmented packets.
yes Matches all fragments.
first Matches only fragments with offset 0.
later Matches only fragments with nonzero offset.
not_later
Matches non-fragmented packets and fragments with zero offset.
The ip_frag match type is likely to be most useful in nx-match mode. See the
description of the set-frags command, above, for more details.
arp_sha=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
arp_tha=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
When dl_type specifies either ARP or RARP, arp_sha and arp_tha match the source and
target hardware address, respectively. An address is specified as 6 pairs of
hexadecimal digits delimited by colons.
ipv6_src=ipv6[/netmask]
ipv6_dst=ipv6[/netmask]
When dl_type is 0x86dd (possibly via shorthand, e.g., ipv6 or tcp6), matches IPv6
source (or destination) address ipv6, which may be specified as defined in RFC
2373. The preferred format is x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x, where x are the hexadecimal values
of the eight 16-bit pieces of the address. A single instance of :: may be used to
indicate multiple groups of 16-bits of zeros. The optional netmask allows
restricting a match to an IPv6 address prefix. A netmask is specified as an IPv6
address (e.g. 2001:db8:3c4d:1::/ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::) or a CIDR block (e.g.
2001:db8:3c4d:1::/64). Open vSwitch 1.8 and later support arbitrary masks; earlier
versions support only CIDR masks, that is, CIDR block and IPv6 addresses that are
equivalent to CIDR blocks.
ipv6_label=label
When dl_type is 0x86dd (possibly via shorthand, e.g., ipv6 or tcp6), matches IPv6
flow label label.
nd_target=ipv6[/netmask]
When dl_type, nw_proto, and icmp_type specify IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ICMPv6 type
135 or 136), matches the target address ipv6. ipv6 is in the same format described
earlier for the ipv6_src and ipv6_dst fields.
nd_sll=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
When dl_type, nw_proto, and icmp_type specify IPv6 Neighbor Solicitation (ICMPv6
type 135), matches the source link-layer address option. An address is specified
as 6 pairs of hexadecimal digits delimited by colons.
nd_tll=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
When dl_type, nw_proto, and icmp_type specify IPv6 Neighbor Advertisement (ICMPv6
type 136), matches the target link-layer address option. An address is specified
as 6 pairs of hexadecimal digits delimited by colons.
tun_id=tunnel-id[/mask]
Matches tunnel identifier tunnel-id. Only packets that arrive over a tunnel that
carries a key (e.g. GRE with the RFC 2890 key extension and a nonzero key value)
will have a nonzero tunnel ID. If mask is omitted, tunnel-id is the exact tunnel
ID to match; if mask is specified, then a 1-bit in mask indicates that the
corresponding bit in tunnel-id must match exactly, and a 0-bit wildcards that bit.
tun_src=ip[/netmask]
tun_dst=ip[/netmask]
Matches tunnel IPv4 source (or destination) address ip. Only packets that arrive
over a tunnel will have nonzero tunnel addresses. The address may be specified as
an IP address or host name (e.g. 192.168.1.1 or www.example.com). The optional
netmask allows restricting a match to a masked IPv4 address. The netmask may be
specified as a dotted quad (e.g. 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0) or as a CIDR block
(e.g. 192.168.1.0/24).
regidx=value[/mask]
Matches value either exactly or with optional mask in register number idx. The
valid range of idx depends on the switch. value and mask are 32-bit integers, by
default in decimal (use a 0x prefix to specify hexadecimal). Arbitrary mask values
are allowed: a 1-bit in mask indicates that the corresponding bit in value must
match exactly, and a 0-bit wildcards that bit.
When a packet enters an OpenFlow switch, all of the registers are set to 0. Only
explicit Nicira extension actions change register values.
pkt_mark=value[/mask]
Matches packet metadata mark value either exactly or with optional mask. The mark
is associated data that may be passed into other system components in order to
facilitate interaction between subsystems. On Linux this corresponds to the skb
mark but the exact implementation is platform-dependent.
Defining IPv6 flows (those with dl_type equal to 0x86dd) requires support for NXM. The
following shorthand notations are available for IPv6-related flows:
ipv6 Same as dl_type=0x86dd.
tcp6 Same as dl_type=0x86dd,nw_proto=6.
udp6 Same as dl_type=0x86dd,nw_proto=17.
sctp6 Same as dl_type=0x86dd,nw_proto=132.
icmp6 Same as dl_type=0x86dd,nw_proto=58.
Finally, field assignments to duration, n_packets, or n_bytes are ignored to allow output
from the dump-flows command to be used as input for other commands that parse flows.
The add-flow, add-flows, and mod-flows commands require an additional field, which must be
the final field specified:
actions=[target][,target...]
Specifies a comma-separated list of actions to take on a packet when the flow entry
matches. If no target is specified, then packets matching the flow are dropped.
The target may be an OpenFlow port number designating the physical port on which to
output the packet, or one of the following keywords:
output:port
Outputs the packet to port, which must be an OpenFlow port number or keyword
(e.g. LOCAL).
output:src[start..end]
Outputs the packet to the OpenFlow port number read from src, which must be
an NXM field as described above. For example, output:NXM_NX_REG0[16..31]
outputs to the OpenFlow port number written in the upper half of register 0.
This form of output uses an OpenFlow extension that is not supported by
standard OpenFlow switches.
enqueue:port:queue
Enqueues the packet on the specified queue within port port, which must be
an OpenFlow port number or keyword (e.g. LOCAL).. The number of supported
queues depends on the switch; some OpenFlow implementations do not support
queuing at all.
normal Subjects the packet to the device's normal L2/L3 processing. (This action
is not implemented by all OpenFlow switches.)
flood Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on which
it was received and any ports on which flooding is disabled (typically,
these would be ports disabled by the IEEE 802.1D spanning tree protocol).
all Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on which
it was received.
controller(key=value...)
Sends the packet to the OpenFlow controller as a ``packet in'' message. The
supported key-value pairs are:
max_len=nbytes
Limit to nbytes the number of bytes of the packet to send to the
controller. By default the entire packet is sent.
reason=reason
Specify reason as the reason for sending the message in the ``packet
in'' message. The supported reasons are action (the default),
no_match, and invalid_ttl.
id=controller-id
Specify controller-id, a 16-bit integer, as the connection ID of the
OpenFlow controller or controllers to which the ``packet in'' message
should be sent. The default is zero. Zero is also the default
connection ID for each controller connection, and a given controller
connection will only have a nonzero connection ID if its controller
uses the NXT_SET_CONTROLLER_ID Nicira extension to OpenFlow.
Any reason other than action and any nonzero controller-id uses a Nicira vendor
extension that, as of this writing, is only known to be implemented by Open vSwitch
(version 1.6 or later).
controller
controller[:nbytes]
Shorthand for controller() or controller(max_len=nbytes), respectively.
local Outputs the packet on the ``local port,'' which corresponds to the network
device that has the same name as the bridge.
in_port
Outputs the packet on the port from which it was received.
drop Discards the packet, so no further processing or forwarding takes place. If
a drop action is used, no other actions may be specified.
mod_vlan_vid:vlan_vid
Modifies the VLAN id on a packet. The VLAN tag is added or modified as
necessary to match the value specified. If the VLAN tag is added, a
priority of zero is used (see the mod_vlan_pcp action to set this).
mod_vlan_pcp:vlan_pcp
Modifies the VLAN priority on a packet. The VLAN tag is added or modified
as necessary to match the value specified. Valid values are between 0
(lowest) and 7 (highest). If the VLAN tag is added, a vid of zero is used
(see the mod_vlan_vid action to set this).
strip_vlan
Strips the VLAN tag from a packet if it is present.
push_vlan:ethertype
Push a new VLAN tag onto the packet. Ethertype is used as the the Ethertype
for the tag. Only ethertype 0x8100 should be used. (0x88a8 which the spec
allows isn't supported at the moment.) A priority of zero and the tag of
zero are used for the new tag.
push_mpls:ethertype
If the packet does not already contain any MPLS labels, changes the packet's
Ethertype to ethertype, which must be either the MPLS unicast Ethertype
0x8847 or the MPLS multicast Ethertype 0x8848, and then pushes an initial
label stack entry. The label stack entry's default label is 2 if the packet
contains IPv6 and 0 otherwise, its default traffic control value is the low
3 bits of the packet's DSCP value (0 if the packet is not IP), and its TTL
is copied from the IP TTL (64 if the packet is not IP).
If the packet does already contain an MPLS label, pushes a new outermost
label as a copy of the existing outermost label.
There are some limitations in the implementation. push_mpls followed by
another push_mpls will result in the first push_mpls being discarded.
pop_mpls:ethertype
Strips the outermost MPLS label stack entry. Currently the implementation
restricts ethertype to a non-MPLS Ethertype and thus pop_mpls should only be
applied to packets with an MPLS label stack depth of one.
There are some limitations in the implementation. pop_mpls followed by
another push_mpls without an intermediate push_mpls will result in the first
push_mpls being discarded.
mod_dl_src:mac
Sets the source Ethernet address to mac.
mod_dl_dst:mac
Sets the destination Ethernet address to mac.
mod_nw_src:ip
Sets the IPv4 source address to ip.
mod_nw_dst:ip
Sets the IPv4 destination address to ip.
mod_tp_src:port
Sets the TCP or UDP or SCTP source port to port.
mod_tp_dst:port
Sets the TCP or UDP or SCTP destination port to port.
mod_nw_tos:tos
Sets the IPv4 ToS/DSCP field to tos, which must be a multiple of 4 between 0
and 255. This action does not modify the two least significant bits of the
ToS field (the ECN bits).
The following actions are Nicira vendor extensions that, as of this writing, are
only known to be implemented by Open vSwitch:
resubmit:port
resubmit([port],[table])
Re-searches this OpenFlow flow table (or the table whose number is specified
by table) with the in_port field replaced by port (if port is specified) and
executes the actions found, if any, in addition to any other actions in this
flow entry.
Recursive resubmit actions are obeyed up to an implementation-defined
maximum depth. Open vSwitch 1.0.1 and earlier did not support recursion;
Open vSwitch before 1.2.90 did not support table.
set_tunnel:id
set_tunnel64:id
If outputting to a port that encapsulates the packet in a tunnel and
supports an identifier (such as GRE), sets the identifier to id. If the
set_tunnel form is used and id fits in 32 bits, then this uses an action
extension that is supported by Open vSwitch 1.0 and later. Otherwise, if id
is a 64-bit value, it requires Open vSwitch 1.1 or later.
set_queue:queue
Sets the queue that should be used to queue when packets are output. The
number of supported queues depends on the switch; some OpenFlow
implementations do not support queuing at all.
pop_queue
Restores the queue to the value it was before any set_queue actions were
applied.
dec_ttl
dec_ttl[(id1,id2)]
Decrement TTL of IPv4 packet or hop limit of IPv6 packet. If the TTL or hop
limit is initially zero, no decrement occurs. Instead, a ``packet-in''
message with reason code OFPR_INVALID_TTL is sent to each connected
controller that has enabled receiving them, if any. Processing the current
set of actions then stops. However, if the current set of actions was
reached through ``resubmit'' then remaining actions in outer levels resume
processing. This action also optionally supports the ability to specify a
list of valid controller ids. Each of controllers in the list will receive
the ``packet_in'' message only if they have registered to receive the
invalid ttl packets. If controller ids are not specified, the ``packet_in''
message will be sent only to the controllers having controller id zero which
have registered for the invalid ttl packets.
set_mpls_ttl:ttl
Set the TTL of the outer MPLS label stack entry of a packet. ttl should be
in the range 0 to 255 inclusive.
dec_mpls_ttl
Decrement TTL of the outer MPLS label stack entry of a packet. If the TTL
is initially zero, no decrement occurs. Instead, a ``packet-in'' message
with reason code OFPR_INVALID_TTL is sent to each connected controller with
controller id zer that has enabled receiving them. Processing the current
set of actions then stops. However, if the current set of actions was
reached through ``resubmit'' then remaining actions in outer levels resume
processing.
note:[hh]...
Does nothing at all. Any number of bytes represented as hex digits hh may
be included. Pairs of hex digits may be separated by periods for
readability. The note action's format doesn't include an exact length for
its payload, so the provided bytes will be padded on the right by enough
bytes with value 0 to make the total number 6 more than a multiple of 8.
move:src[start..end]->dst[start..end]
Copies the named bits from field src to field dst. src and dst must be NXM
field names as defined in nicira-ext.h, e.g. NXM_OF_UDP_SRC or NXM_NX_REG0.
Each start and end pair, which are inclusive, must specify the same number
of bits and must fit within its respective field. Shorthands for
[start..end] exist: use [bit] to specify a single bit or [] to specify an
entire field.
Examples: move:NXM_NX_REG0[0..5]->NXM_NX_REG1[26..31] copies the six bits
numbered 0 through 5, inclusive, in register 0 into bits 26 through 31,
inclusive; move:NXM_NX_REG0[0..15]->NXM_OF_VLAN_TCI[] copies the least
significant 16 bits of register 0 into the VLAN TCI field.
load:value->dst[start..end]
Writes value to bits start through end, inclusive, in field dst.
Example: load:55->NXM_NX_REG2[0..5] loads value 55 (bit pattern 110111) into
bits 0 through 5, inclusive, in register 2.
push:src[start..end]
Pushes start to end bits inclusive, in fields on top of the stack.
Example: push:NXM_NX_REG2[0..5] push the value stored in register 2 bits 0
through 5, inclusive, on to the internal stack.
pop:dst[start..end]
Pops from the top of the stack, retrieves the start to end bits inclusive,
from the value popped and store them into the corresponding bits in dst.
Example: pop:NXM_NX_REG2[0..5] pops the value from top of the stack. Set
register 2 bits 0 through 5, inclusive, based on bits 0 through 5 from the
value just popped.
set_field:value->dst
Writes the literal value into the field dst, which should be specified as a
name used for matching. (This is similar to load but more closely matches
the set-field action defined in Open Flow 1.2 and above.)
Example: set_field:00:11:22:33:44:55->eth_src.
multipath(fields, basis, algorithm, n_links, arg, dst[start..end])
Hashes fields using basis as a universal hash parameter, then the applies
multipath link selection algorithm (with parameter arg) to choose one of
n_links output links numbered 0 through n_links minus 1, and stores the link
into dst[start..end], which must be an NXM field as described above.
Currently, fields must be either eth_src or symmetric_l4 and algorithm must
be one of modulo_n, hash_threshold, hrw, and iter_hash. Only the iter_hash
algorithm uses arg.
Refer to nicira-ext.h for more details.
bundle(fields, basis, algorithm, slave_type, slaves:[s1, s2, ...])
Hashes fields using basis as a universal hash parameter, then applies the
bundle link selection algorithm to choose one of the listed slaves
represented as slave_type. Currently the only supported slave_type is
ofport. Thus, each s1 through sN should be an OpenFlow port number. Outputs
to the selected slave.
Currently, fields must be either eth_src or symmetric_l4 and algorithm must
be one of hrw and active_backup.
Example: bundle(eth_src,0,hrw,ofport,slaves:4,8) uses an Ethernet source
hash with basis 0, to select between OpenFlow ports 4 and 8 using the
Highest Random Weight algorithm.
Refer to nicira-ext.h for more details.
bundle_load(fields, basis, algorithm, slave_type, dst[start..end], slaves:[s1, s2,
...])
Has the same behavior as the bundle action, with one exception. Instead of
outputting to the selected slave, it writes its selection to
dst[start..end], which must be an NXM field as described above.
Example: bundle_load(eth_src, 0, hrw, ofport, NXM_NX_REG0[], slaves:4, 8)
uses an Ethernet source hash with basis 0, to select between OpenFlow ports
4 and 8 using the Highest Random Weight algorithm, and writes the selection
to NXM_NX_REG0[].
Refer to nicira-ext.h for more details.
learn(argument[,argument]...)
This action adds or modifies a flow in an OpenFlow table, similar to
ovs-ofctl --strict mod-flows. The arguments specify the flow's match
fields, actions, and other properties, as follows. At least one match
criterion and one action argument should ordinarily be specified.
idle_timeout=seconds
hard_timeout=seconds
priority=value
These key-value pairs have the same meaning as in the usual ovs-ofctl
flow syntax.
fin_idle_timeout=seconds
fin_hard_timeout=seconds
Adds a fin_timeout action with the specified arguments to the new
flow. This feature was added in Open vSwitch 1.5.90.
table=number
The table in which the new flow should be inserted. Specify a
decimal number between 0 and 254. The default, if table is
unspecified, is table 1.
field=value
field[start..end]=src[start..end]
field[start..end]
Adds a match criterion to the new flow.
The first form specifies that field must match the literal value,
e.g. dl_type=0x0800. All of the fields and values for ovs-ofctl flow
syntax are available with their usual meanings.
The second form specifies that field[start..end] in the new flow must
match src[start..end] taken from the flow currently being processed.
The third form is a shorthand for the second form. It specifies that
field[start..end] in the new flow must match field[start..end] taken
from the flow currently being processed.
load:value->dst[start..end]
load:src[start..end]->dst[start..end]
Adds a load action to the new flow.
The first form loads the literal value into bits start through end,
inclusive, in field dst. Its syntax is the same as the load action
described earlier in this section.
The second form loads src[start..end], a value from the flow
currently being processed, into bits start through end, inclusive, in
field dst.
output:field[start..end]
Add an output action to the new flow's actions, that outputs to the
OpenFlow port taken from field[start..end], which must be an NXM
field as described above.
For best performance, segregate learned flows into a table (using
table=number) that is not used for any other flows except possibly for a
lowest-priority ``catch-all'' flow, that is, a flow with no match criteria.
(This is why the default table is 1, to keep the learned flows separate from
the primary flow table 0.)
apply_actions([action][,action...])
Applies the specific action(s) immediately. The syntax of actions are same
to actions= field.
clear_actions
Clears all the actions in the action set immediately.
write_metadata:value[/mask]
Updates the metadata field for the flow. If mask is omitted, the metadata
field is set exactly to value; if mask is specified, then a 1-bit in mask
indicates that the corresponding bit in the metadata field will be replaced
with the corresponding bit from value. Both value and mask are 64-bit values
that are decimal by default; use a 0x prefix to specify them in hexadecimal.
goto_table:table
Indicates the next table in the process pipeline.
fin_timeout(argument[,argument])
This action changes the idle timeout or hard timeout, or both, of this
OpenFlow rule when the rule matches a TCP packet with the FIN or RST flag.
When such a packet is observed, the action reduces the rule's timeouts to
those specified on the action. If the rule's existing timeout is already
shorter than the one that the action specifies, then that timeout is
unaffected.
argument takes the following forms:
idle_timeout=seconds
Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds of
inactivity.
hard_timeout=seconds
Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds,
regardless of activity. (seconds specifies time since the flow's
creation, not since the receipt of the FIN or RST.)
This action was added in Open vSwitch 1.5.90.
sample(argument[,argument]...)
Samples packets and sends one sample for every sampled packet.
argument takes the following forms:
probability=packets
The number of sampled packets out of 65535. Must be greater or equal
to 1.
collector_set_id=id
The unsigned 32-bit integer identifier of the set of sample
collectors to send sampled packets to. Defaults to 0.
obs_domain_id=id
When sending samples to IPFIX collectors, the unsigned 32-bit integer
Observation Domain ID sent in every IPFIX flow record. Defaults to
0.
obs_point_id=id
When sending samples to IPFIX collectors, the unsigned 32-bit integer
Observation Point ID sent in every IPFIX flow record. Defaults to 0.
Refer to ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(8) for more details on configuring sample
collector sets.
This action was added in Open vSwitch 1.10.90.
exit This action causes Open vSwitch to immediately halt execution of further
actions. Those actions which have already been executed are unaffected.
Any further actions, including those which may be in other tables, or
different levels of the resubmit call stack, are ignored.
An opaque identifier called a cookie can be used as a handle to identify a set of flows:
cookie=value
A cookie can be associated with a flow using the add-flow, add-flows, and mod-flows
commands. value can be any 64-bit number and need not be unique among flows. If
this field is omitted, a default cookie value of 0 is used.
cookie=value/mask
When using NXM, the cookie can be used as a handle for querying, modifying, and
deleting flows. value and mask may be supplied for the del-flows, mod-flows,
dump-flows, and dump-aggregate commands to limit matching cookies. A 1-bit in mask
indicates that the corresponding bit in cookie must match exactly, and a 0-bit
wildcards that bit. A mask of -1 may be used to exactly match a cookie.
The mod-flows command can update the cookies of flows that match a cookie by
specifying the cookie field twice (once with a mask for matching and once without
to indicate the new value):
ovs-ofctl mod-flows br0 cookie=1,actions=normal
Change all flows' cookies to 1 and change their actions to normal.
ovs-ofctl mod-flows br0 cookie=1/-1,cookie=2,actions=normal
Update cookies with a value of 1 to 2 and change their actions to normal.
The ability to match on cookies was added in Open vSwitch 1.5.0.
The following additional field sets the priority for flows added by the add-flow and
add-flows commands. For mod-flows and del-flows when --strict is specified, priority must
match along with the rest of the flow specification. For mod-flows without --strict,
priority is only significant if the command creates a new flow, that is, non-strict
mod-flows does not match on priority and will not change the priority of existing flows.
Other commands do not allow priority to be specified.
priority=value
The priority at which a wildcarded entry will match in comparison to others. value
is a number between 0 and 65535, inclusive. A higher value will match before a
lower one. An exact-match entry will always have priority over an entry containing
wildcards, so it has an implicit priority value of 65535. When adding a flow, if
the field is not specified, the flow's priority will default to 32768.
OpenFlow leaves behavior undefined when two or more flows with the same priority
can match a single packet. Some users expect ``sensible'' behavior, such as more
specific flows taking precedence over less specific flows, but OpenFlow does not
specify this and Open vSwitch does not implement it. Users should therefore take
care to use priorities to ensure the behavior that they expect.
The add-flow, add-flows, and mod-flows commands support the following additional options.
These options affect only new flows. Thus, for add-flow and add-flows, these options are
always significant, but for mod-flows they are significant only if the command creates a
new flow, that is, their values do not update or affect existing flows.
idle_timeout=seconds
Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds of inactivity. A value
of 0 (the default) prevents a flow from expiring due to inactivity.
hard_timeout=seconds
Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds, regardless of
activity. A value of 0 (the default) gives the flow no hard expiration deadline.
send_flow_rem
Marks the flow with a flag that causes the switch to generate a ``flow removed''
message and send it to interested controllers when the flow later expires or is
removed.
check_overlap
Forces the switch to check that the flow match does not overlap that of any
different flow with the same priority in the same table. (This check is expensive
so it is best to avoid it.)
The dump-flows, dump-aggregate, del-flow and del-flows commands support one additional
optional field:
out_port=port
If set, a matching flow must include an output action to port, which must an
OpenFlow port number or name (e.g. local).
Table Entry Output
The dump-tables and dump-aggregate commands print information about the entries in a
datapath's tables. Each line of output is a flow entry as described in Flow Syntax,
above, plus some additional fields:
duration=secs
The time, in seconds, that the entry has been in the table. secs includes as much
precision as the switch provides, possibly to nanosecond resolution.
n_packets
The number of packets that have matched the entry.
n_bytes
The total number of bytes from packets that have matched the entry.
The following additional fields are included only if the switch is Open vSwitch 1.6 or
later and the NXM flow format is used to dump the flow (see the description of the --flow-
format option below). The values of these additional fields are approximations only and
in particular idle_age will sometimes become nonzero even for busy flows.
hard_age=secs
The integer number of seconds since the flow was added or modified. hard_age is
displayed only if it differs from the integer part of duration. (This is separate
from duration because mod-flows restarts the hard_timeout timer without zeroing
duration.)
idle_age=secs
The integer number of seconds that have passed without any packets passing through
the flow.
OPTIONS
--strict
Uses strict matching when running flow modification commands.
-O [version[,version]...]
--protocols=[version[,version]...]
Sets the OpenFlow protocol versions that are allowed when establishing an OpenFlow
session.
The following versions are considered to be ready for general use. These protocol
versions are enabled by default:
• OpenFlow10, for OpenFlow 1.0.
Support for the following protocol versions is provided for testing and development
purposes. They are not enabled by default:
• OpenFlow11, for OpenFlow 1.1.
• OpenFlow12, for OpenFlow 1.2.
• OpenFlow13, for OpenFlow 1.3.
-F format[,format...]
--flow-format=format[,format...]
ovs-ofctl supports the following individual flow formats, any number of which may
be listed as format:
OpenFlow10-table_id
This is the standard OpenFlow 1.0 flow format. All OpenFlow switches and
all versions of Open vSwitch support this flow format.
OpenFlow10+table_id
This is the standard OpenFlow 1.0 flow format plus a Nicira extension that
allows ovs-ofctl to specify the flow table in which a particular flow should
be placed. Open vSwitch 1.2 and later supports this flow format.
NXM-table_id (Nicira Extended Match)
This Nicira extension to OpenFlow is flexible and extensible. It supports
all of the Nicira flow extensions, such as tun_id and registers. Open
vSwitch 1.1 and later supports this flow format.
NXM+table_id (Nicira Extended Match)
This combines Nicira Extended match with the ability to place a flow in a
specific table. Open vSwitch 1.2 and later supports this flow format.
OXM-OpenFlow12
OXM-OpenFlow13
These are the standard OXM (OpenFlow Extensible Match) flow format in
OpenFlow 1.2 and 1.3, respectively.
ovs-ofctl also supports the following abbreviations for collections of flow
formats:
any Any supported flow format.
OpenFlow10
OpenFlow10-table_id or OpenFlow10+table_id.
NXM NXM-table_id or NXM+table_id.
OXM OXM-OpenFlow12 or OXM-OpenFlow13.
For commands that modify the flow table, ovs-ofctl by default negotiates the most
widely supported flow format that supports the flows being added. For commands
that query the flow table, ovs-ofctl by default uses the most advanced format
supported by the switch.
This option, where format is a comma-separated list of one or more of the formats
listed above, limits ovs-ofctl's choice of flow format. If a command cannot work
as requested using one of the specified flow formats, ovs-ofctl will report a fatal
error.
-P format
--packet-in-format=format
ovs-ofctl supports the following packet_in formats, in order of increasing
capability:
openflow10
This is the standard OpenFlow 1.0 packet in format. It should be supported
by all OpenFlow switches.
nxm (Nicira Extended Match)
This packet_in format includes flow metadata encoded using the NXM format.
Usually, ovs-ofctl prefers the nxm packet_in format, but will allow the switch to
choose its default if nxm is unsupported. When format is one of the formats listed
in the above table, ovs-ofctl will insist on the selected format. If the switch
does not support the requested format, ovs-ofctl will report a fatal error. This
option only affects the monitor command.
--timestamp
Print a timestamp before each received packet. This option only affects the
monitor and snoop commands.
-m
--more Increases the verbosity of OpenFlow messages printed and logged by ovs-ofctl
commands. Specify this option more than once to increase verbosity further.
--sort[=field]
--rsort[=field]
Display output sorted by flow field in ascending (--sort) or descending (--rsort)
order, where field is any of the fields that are allowed for matching or priority
to sort by priority. When field is omitted, the output is sorted by priority.
Specify these options multiple times to sort by multiple fields.
Any given flow will not necessarily specify a value for a given field. This
requires special treatement:
• A flow that does not specify any part of a field that is used for sorting is
sorted after all the flows that do specify the field. For example,
--sort=tcp_src will sort all the flows that specify a TCP source port in
ascending order, followed by the flows that do not specify a TCP source port
at all.
• A flow that only specifies some bits in a field is sorted as if the
wildcarded bits were zero. For example, --sort=nw_src would sort a flow
that specifies nw_src=192.168.0.0/24 the same as nw_src=192.168.0.0.
These options currently affect only dump-flows output.
--pidfile[=pidfile]
Causes a file (by default, ovs-ofctl.pid) to be created indicating the PID of the
running process. If the pidfile argument is not specified, or if it does not begin
with /, then it is created in /var/run/openvswitch.
If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
--overwrite-pidfile
By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified pidfile already exists
and is locked by a running process, ovs-ofctl refuses to start. Specify
--overwrite-pidfile to cause it to instead overwrite the pidfile.
When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
--detach
Causes ovs-ofctl to detach itself from the foreground session and run as a
background process. ovs-ofctl detaches only when executing the monitor or snoop
commands.
--monitor
Creates an additional process to monitor the ovs-ofctl daemon. If the daemon dies
due to a signal that indicates a programming error (e.g. SIGSEGV, SIGABRT), then
the monitor process starts a new copy of it. If the daemon die or exits for
another reason, the monitor process exits.
This option is normally used with --detach, but it also functions without it.
--no-chdir
By default, when --detach is specified, ovs-ofctl changes its current working
directory to the root directory after it detaches. Otherwise, invoking ovs-ofctl
from a carelessly chosen directory would prevent the administrator from unmounting
the file system that holds that directory.
Specifying --no-chdir suppresses this behavior, preventing ovs-ofctl from changing
its current working directory. This may be useful for collecting core files, since
it is common behavior to write core dumps into the current working directory and
the root directory is not a good directory to use.
This option has no effect when --detach is not specified.
Public Key Infrastructure Options
-p privkey.pem
--private-key=privkey.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as ovs-ofctl's identity for
outgoing SSL connections.
-c cert.pem
--certificate=cert.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate that certifies the private key
specified on -p or --private-key to be trustworthy. The certificate must be signed
by the certificate authority (CA) that the peer in SSL connections will use to
verify it.
-C cacert.pem
--ca-cert=cacert.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate that ovs-ofctl should use to
verify certificates presented to it by SSL peers. (This may be the same
certificate that SSL peers use to verify the certificate specified on -c or
--certificate, or it may be a different one, depending on the PKI design in use.)
-C none
--ca-cert=none
Disables verification of certificates presented by SSL peers. This introduces a
security risk, because it means that certificates cannot be verified to be those of
known trusted hosts.
-v[spec]
--verbose=[spec]
Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for every module and
facility to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list of words separated by spaces or commas
or colons, up to one from each category below:
• A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list command on ovs-appctl(8),
limits the log level change to the specified module.
• syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change to only to the
system log, to the console, or to a file, respectively.
• off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log level. Messages of
the given severity or higher will be logged, and messages of lower severity
will be filtered out. off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8) for
a definition of each log level.
Case is not significant within spec.
Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file will not take place
unless --log-file is also specified (see below).
For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as a word but has no
effect.
-v
--verbose
Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to --verbose=dbg.
--log-file[=file]
Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is used as the exact name
for the log file. The default log file name used if file is omitted is
/var/log/openvswitch/ovs-ofctl.log.
-h
--help Prints a brief help message to the console.
-V
--version
Prints version information to the console.
RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS
ovs-appctl(8) can send commands to a running ovs-ofctl process. The supported commands
are listed below.
exit Causes ovs-ofctl to gracefully terminate. This command applies only when executing
the monitor or snoop commands.
ofctl/set-output-file file
Causes all subsequent output to go to file instead of stderr. This command applies
only when executing the monitor or snoop commands.
ofctl/send ofmsg...
Sends each ofmsg, specified as a sequence of hex digits that express an OpenFlow
message, on the OpenFlow connection. This command is useful only when executing
the monitor command.
ofctl/barrier
Sends an OpenFlow barrier request on the OpenFlow connection and waits for a reply.
This command is useful only for the monitor command.
EXAMPLES
The following examples assume that ovs-vswitchd has a bridge named br0 configured.
ovs-ofctl dump-tables br0
Prints out the switch's table stats. (This is more interesting after some traffic
has passed through.)
ovs-ofctl dump-flows br0
Prints the flow entries in the switch.
SEE ALSO
ovs-appctl(8), ovs-controller(8), ovs-vswitchd(8) ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(8)