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Open vSwitch is a multilayer software switch licensed under the open source
Apache 2 license. Our goal is to implement a production quality switch
platform that supports standard management interfaces and opens the forwarding
functions to programmatic extension and control.
Open vSwitch is well suited to function as a virtual switch in VM environments.
In addition to exposing standard control and visibility interfaces to the
virtual networking layer, it was designed to support distribution across
multiple physical servers. Open vSwitch supports multiple Linux-based
virtualization technologies including KVM, and VirtualBox.
The bulk of the code is written in platform-independent C and is easily ported
to other environments. The current release of Open vSwitch supports the
following features:
Standard 802.1Q VLAN model with trunk and access ports
NIC bonding with or without LACP on upstream switch
NetFlow, sFlow(R), and mirroring for increased visibility
QoS (Quality of Service) configuration, plus policing
Geneve, GRE, VXLAN, ERSPAN, GTP-U, SRv6, and Bareudp tunneling
802.1ag connectivity fault management
OpenFlow 1.0 plus numerous extensions
Transactional configuration database with C and Python bindings
High-performance forwarding using a Linux kernel module
Open vSwitch can also operate entirely in userspace without assistance from
a kernel module. This userspace implementation should be easier to port than
the kernel-based switch. OVS in userspace can access Linux or DPDK devices.
Note Open vSwitch with userspace datapath and non DPDK devices is considered
experimental and comes with a cost in performance.
What's here?
The main components of this distribution are:
ovs-vswitchd, a daemon that implements the switch, along with a companion
Linux kernel module for flow-based switching.
ovsdb-server, a lightweight database server that ovs-vswitchd queries to
obtain its configuration.
ovs-dpctl, a tool for configuring the switch kernel module.
Scripts and specs for building RPMs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and
deb packages for Ubuntu/Debian.
ovs-vsctl, a utility for querying and updating the configuration of
ovs-vswitchd.
ovs-appctl, a utility that sends commands to running Open vSwitch daemons.
Open vSwitch also provides some tools:
ovs-ofctl, a utility for querying and controlling OpenFlow switches and
controllers.
ovs-pki, a utility for creating and managing the public-key infrastructure
for OpenFlow switches.
ovs-testcontroller, a simple OpenFlow controller that may be useful for
testing (though not for production).
A patch to tcpdump that enables it to parse OpenFlow messages.
What other documentation is available?
To install Open vSwitch on a regular Linux or FreeBSD host, please read the
installation guide. For specifics
around installation on a specific platform, refer to one of the other
installation guides
For answers to common questions, refer to the FAQ.
To learn about some advanced features of the Open vSwitch software switch, read
the tutorial.
Each Open vSwitch userspace program is accompanied by a manpage. Many of the
manpages are customized to your configuration as part of the build process, so
we recommend building Open vSwitch before reading the manpages.
License
The following is a summary of the licensing of files in this distribution.
As mentioned, Open vSwitch is licensed under the open source Apache 2 license.
Some files may be marked specifically with a different license, in which case
that license applies to the file in question.
Files under the datapath directory are licensed under the GNU General Public
License, version 2.
File build-aux/cccl is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2.
The following files are licensed under the 2-clause BSD license.
