ovn-controller(8)

NAME

ovn-controller - Open Virtual Network local controller

SYNOPSIS

ovn-controller [options] [ovs-database]

DESCRIPTION

ovn-controller is the local controller daemon for OVN, the Open Virtual Network. It connects up to the OVN Southbound database (see ovn-sb(5)) over the OVSDB protocol, and down to the Open vSwitch database (see ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5)) over the OVSDB protocol and to ovs-vswitchd(8) via OpenFlow. Each hypervisor and software gateway in an OVN deployment runs its own independent copy of ovn-controller; thus, ovn-controller’s downward connections are machine-local and do not run over a physical network.

CONFIGURATION

ovn-controller retrieves most of its configuration information from the local Open vSwitch’s ovsdb-server instance. The default location is db.sock in the local Open vSwitch’s "run" directory. It may be overridden by specifying the ovs-database argument in one of the following forms:

    •   ssl:ip:port

        The specified SSL port on the host at the given ip, which must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name) in IPv4 or IPv6 address format. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: ssl:[::1]:6640. The --private-key, --certificate and either of --ca-cert or --bootstrap-ca-cert options are mandatory when this form is used.

    •   tcp:ip:port

        Connect to the given TCP port on ip, where ip can be IPv4 or IPv6 address. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: tcp:[::1]:6640.

    •   unix:file

        On POSIX, connect to the Unix domain server socket named file.

        On Windows, connect to a localhost TCP port whose value is written in file.

ovn-controller assumes it gets configuration information from the following keys in the Open_vSwitch table of the local OVS instance:

    external_ids:system-id
        The chassis name to use in the Chassis table.

    external_ids:hostname
        The hostname to use in the Chassis table.

    external_ids:ovn-bridge
        The integration bridge to which logical ports are attached. The default is br-int. If this bridge does not exist when ovn-controller starts, it will be created automatically with the default configuration suggested in ovn-architecture(7).

    external_ids:ovn-remote
        The OVN database that this system should connect to for its configuration, in one of the same forms documented above for the ovs-database.

    external_ids:ovn-remote-probe-interval
        The inactivity probe interval of the connection to the OVN database, 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.

    external_ids:ovn-encap-type
        The encapsulation type that a chassis should use to connect to this node. Multiple encapsulation types may be specified with a comma-separated list. Each listed encapsulation type will be paired with ovn-encap-ip.

        Supported tunnel types for connecting hypervisors are geneve and stt. Gateways may use geneve, vxlan, or stt.

        Due to the limited amount of metadata in vxlan, the capabilities and performance of connected gateways will be reduced versus other tunnel formats.

    external_ids:ovn-encap-ip
        The IP address that a chassis should use to connect to this node using encapsulation types specified by external_ids:ovn-encap-type.

    external_ids:ovn-bridge-mappings
        A list of key-value pairs that map a physical network name to a local ovs bridge that provides connectivity to that network. An example value mapping two physical network names to two ovs bridges would be: physnet1:br-eth0,physnet2:br-eth1.

    external_ids:ovn-encap-csum
        ovn-encap-csum indicates that encapsulation checksums can be transmitted and received with reasonable performance. It is a hint to senders transmitting data to this chassis that they should use checksums to protect OVN metadata. Set to true to enable or false to disable. Depending on the capabilities of the network interface card, enabling encapsulation checksum may incur performance loss. In such cases, encapsulation checksums can be disabled.

ovn-controller reads the following values from the Open_vSwitch database of the local OVS instance:

    datapath-type from Bridge table
        This value is read from local OVS integration bridge row of Bridge table and populated in external_ids:datapath-type of the Chassis table in the OVN_Southbound database.

    iface-types from Open_vSwitch table
        This value is populated in external_ids:iface-types of the Chassis table in the OVN_Southbound database.

OPEN VSWITCH DATABASE USAGE

ovn-controller uses a number of external_ids keys in the Open vSwitch database to keep track of ports and interfaces. For proper operation, users should not change or clear these keys:

    external_ids:ovn-chassis-id in the Port table
        The presence of this key identifies a tunnel port within the integration bridge as one created by ovn-controller to reach a remote chassis. Its value is the chassis ID of the remote chassis.

    external_ids:ct-zone-* in the Bridge table
        Logical ports and gateway routers are assigned a connection tracking zone by ovn-controller for stateful services. To keep state across restarts of ovn-controller, these keys are stored in the integration bridge’s Bridge table. The name contains a prefix of ct-zone- followed by the name of the logical port or gateway router’s zone key. The value for this key identifies the zone used for this port.

    external_ids:ovn-localnet-port in the Port table
        The presence of this key identifies a patch port as one created by ovn-controller to connect the integration bridge and another bridge to implement a localnet logical port. Its value is the name of the logical port with type set to localnet that the port implements. See external_ids:ovn-bridge-mappings, above, for more information.

        Each localnet logical port is implemented as a pair of patch ports, one in the integration bridge, one in a different bridge, with the same external_ids:ovn-localnet-port value.

    external_ids:ovn-l2gateway-port in the Port table
        The presence of this key identifies a patch port as one created by ovn-controller to connect the integration bridge and another bridge to implement a l2gateway logical port. Its value is the name of the logical port with type set to l2gateway that the port implements. See external_ids:ovn-bridge-mappings, above, for more information.

        Each l2gateway logical port is implemented as a pair of patch ports, one in the integration bridge, one in a different bridge, with the same external_ids:ovn-l2gateway-port value.

    external-ids:ovn-l3gateway-port in the Port table
        This key identifies a patch port as one created by ovn-controller to implement a l3gateway logical port. Its value is the name of the logical port with type set to l3gateway. This patch port is similar to the OVN logical patch port, except that l3gateway port can only be bound to a paticular chassis.

    external-ids:ovn-logical-patch-port in the Port table
        This key identifies a patch port as one created by ovn-controller to implement an OVN logical patch port within the integration bridge. Its value is the name of the OVN logical patch port that it implements.

RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS

ovs-appctl can send commands to a running ovn-controller process. The currently supported commands are described below.

    exit
        Causes ovn-controller to gracefully terminate.

    ct-zone-list
        Lists each local logical port and its connection tracking zone.

    inject-pkt microflow
        Injects microflow into the connected Open vSwitch instance. microflow must contain an ingress logical port (inport argument) that is present on the Open vSwitch instance.

        The microflow argument describes the packet whose forwarding is to be simulated, in the syntax of an OVN logical expression, as described in ovn-sb(5), to express constraints. The parser understands prerequisites; for example, if the expression refers to ip4.src, there is no need to explicitly state ip4 or eth.type == 0x800.