ovs-testcontroller(8) Open vSwitch Manual ovs-testcontroller(8)
NAME
ovs-testcontroller - simple OpenFlow controller for testing
SYNOPSIS
ovs-testcontroller [options] method [method]...
DESCRIPTION
ovs-testcontroller is a simple OpenFlow controller that manages any
number of switches over the OpenFlow protocol, causing them to function
as L2 MAC-learning switches or hubs. It is suitable for initial test‐
ing of OpenFlow networks. It is not a necessary or desirable part of a
production OpenFlow deployment.
ovs-testcontroller controls one or more OpenFlow switches, specified as
one or more of the following OpenFlow connection methods:
pssl:[port][:ip]
ptcp:[port][:ip]
Listens for OpenFlow connections on port. The default
port is 6653. By default, connections are allowed from
any IPv4 address. Specify ip as an IPv4 address or a
bracketed IPv6 address (e.g. ptcp:6653:[::1]). DNS names
may not be used. For pssl, the --private-key,--certifi‐
cate, and --ca-cert options are mandatory.
punix:file
Listens for OpenFlow connections on the Unix domain
server socket named file.
ssl:ip[:port]
tcp:ip[:port]
The specified 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. Wrap IPv6 addresses in
square brackets, e.g. tcp:[::1]:6653. For ssl, the
--private-key, --certificate, and --ca-cert options are
mandatory.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6653.
unix:file
On POSIX, a Unix domain server socket named file.
On Windows, a localhost TCP port written in file.
OPTIONS
-n
--noflow
By default, ovs-testcontroller sets up a flow in each OpenFlow
switch whenever it receives a packet whose destination is known
due through MAC learning. This option disables flow setup, so
that every packet in the network passes through the controller.
This option is most useful for debugging. It reduces switching
performance, so it should not be used in production.
--max-idle=secs|permanent
Sets secs as the number of seconds that a flow set up by the
controller will remain in the switch's flow table without any
matching packets being seen. If permanent is specified, which
is not recommended, flows will never expire. The default is 60
seconds.
This option has no effect when -n (or --noflow) is in use
(because the controller does not set up flows in that case).
-H
--hub By default, the controller acts as an L2 MAC-learning switch.
This option changes its behavior to that of a hub that floods
packets on all but the incoming port.
If -H (or --hub) and -n (or --noflow) are used together, then
the cumulative effect is that every packet passes through the
controller and every packet is flooded.
This option is most useful for debugging. It reduces switching
performance, so it should not be used in production.
-w[wildcard_mask]
--wildcards[=wildcard_mask]
By default, ovs-testcontroller sets up exact-match flows. This
option allows it to set up wildcarded flows, which may reduce
flow setup latency by causing less traffic to be sent up to the
controller.
The optional wildcard_mask is an OpenFlow wildcard bitmask in
hexadecimal that specifies the fields to wildcard. If no wild‐
card_mask is specified, the default value 0x2820F0 is used which
specifies L2-only switching and wildcards L3 and L4 fields.
Another interesting value is 0x2000EC, which specifies L3-only
switching and wildcards L2 and L4 fields.
This option has no effect when -n (or --noflow) is in use
(because the controller does not set up flows in that case).
-N
--normal
By default, ovs-testcontroller directs packets to a particular
port or floods them. This option causes it to direct non-
flooded packets to the OpenFlow OFPP_NORMAL port. This allows
the switch itself to make decisions about packet destinations.
Support for OFPP_NORMAL is optional in OpenFlow, so this option
may not well with some non-Open vSwitch switches.
--mute Prevents ovs-testcontroller from replying to any OpenFlow mes‐
sages sent to it by switches.
This option is only for debugging the Open vSwitch implementa‐
tion of ``fail open'' mode. It must not be used in production.
-q id
--queue=id
By default, ovs-testcontroller uses the default OpenFlow queue
for sending packets and setting up flows. Use one of these
options, supplying id as an OpenFlow queue ID as a decimal num‐
ber, to instead use that specific queue.
This option is incompatible with -N or --normal and with -H or
--hub. If more than one is specified then this option takes
precedence.
This option may be useful for testing or debugging quality of
service setups.
-Q port-name:queue-id
--port-queue port-name:queue-id
Configures packets received on the port named port-name (e.g.
eth0) to be output on OpenFlow queue ID queue-id (specified as a
decimal number). For the specified port, this option overrides
the default specified on -q or --queue.
This option may be specified any number of times with different
port-name arguments.
This option is incompatible with -N or --normal and with -H or
--hub. If more than one is specified then this option takes
precedence.
This option may be useful for testing or debugging quality of
service setups.
--with-flows file
When a switch connects, push the flow entries as described in
file. Each line in file is a flow entry in the format described
for the add-flows command in the Flow Syntax section of the
ovs-ofctl(8) man page.
Use this option more than once to add flows from multiple files.
Public Key Infrastructure Options
-p privkey.pem
--private-key=privkey.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as
ovs-testcontroller'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-testcontroller 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 --cer‐
tificate, 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 certifi‐
cates cannot be verified to be those of known trusted hosts.
--peer-ca-cert=peer-cacert.pem
Specifies a PEM file that contains one or more additional cer‐
tificates to send to SSL peers. peer-cacert.pem should be the
CA certificate used to sign ovs-testcontroller's own certifi‐
cate, that is, the certificate specified on -c or --certificate.
If ovs-testcontroller's certificate is self-signed, then --cer‐
tificate and --peer-ca-cert should specify the same file.
This option is not useful in normal operation, because the SSL
peer must already have the CA certificate for the peer to have
any confidence in ovs-testcontroller's identity. However, this
offers a way for a new installation to bootstrap the CA certifi‐
cate on its first SSL connection. The following options are
valid on POSIX based platforms.
--pidfile[=pidfile]
Causes a file (by default, ovs-testcontroller.pid) to be created
indicating the PID of the running process. If the pidfile argu‐
ment 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 pid‐
file already exists and is locked by a running process,
ovs-testcontroller refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pid‐
file to cause it to instead overwrite the pidfile.
When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
--detach
Causes ovs-testcontroller to detach itself from the foreground
session and run as a background process.
--monitor
Creates an additional process to monitor the ovs-testcontroller
daemon. If the daemon dies due to a signal that indicates a
programming error (SIGABRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGILL,
SIGPIPE, SIGSEGV, SIGXCPU, or SIGXFSZ) then the monitor process
starts a new copy of it. If the daemon dies or exits for
another reason, the monitor process exits.
This option is normally used with --detach, but it also func‐
tions without it.
--no-chdir
By default, when --detach is specified, ovs-testcontroller
changes its current working directory to the root directory
after it detaches. Otherwise, invoking ovs-testcontroller 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-testcontroller 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.
--user Causes ovs-testcontroller to run as a non root user specified in
"user:group", thus dropping all root privileges. Short forms
"user" and ":group" are also allowed, with current user or group
are assumed respectively. Only daemons started by the root user
accepts this argument.
On Linux, daemons will be granted CAP_IPC_LOCK and
CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICES before dropping root privileges. Daemons
interact with datapath, such as ovs-vswitchd, will be granted
two additional capabilities, namely CAP_NET_ADMIN and
CAP_NET_RAW.
On Windows, this option is not currently supported. For security
reasons, specifying this option will cause the daemon process
not to start.
-v[spec]
--verbose=[spec]
Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for
every module and destination 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 com‐
mand 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.
On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is
only useful along with the --syslog-target option (the
word has no effect otherwise).
· 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 --ver‐
bose=dbg.
-vPATTERN:destination:pattern
--verbose=PATTERN:destination:pattern
Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to
ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
-vFACILITY:facility
--verbose=FACILITY:facility
Sets the RFC5424 facility of the log message. facility can be
one of kern, user, mail, daemon, auth, syslog, lpr, news, uucp,
clock, ftp, ntp, audit, alert, clock2, local0, local1, local2,
local3, local4, local5, local6 or local7. If this option is not
specified, daemon is used as the default for the local system
syslog and local0 is used while sending a message to the target
provided via the --syslog-target option.
--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-test‐
controller.log.
--syslog-target=host:port
Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the
system syslog. The host must be a numerical IP address, not a
hostname.
--syslog-method=method
Specify method how syslog messages should be sent to syslog dae‐
mon. Following forms are supported:
· libc, use libc syslog() function. This is the default
behavior. Downside of using this options is that libc
adds fixed prefix to every message before it is actually
sent to the syslog daemon over /dev/log UNIX domain
socket.
· unix:file, use UNIX domain socket directly. It is possi‐
ble to specify arbitrary message format with this option.
However, rsyslogd 8.9 and older versions use hard coded
parser function anyway that limits UNIX domain socket
use. If you want to use arbitrary message format with
older rsyslogd versions, then use UDP socket to localhost
IP address instead.
· udp:ip:port, use UDP socket. With this method it is pos‐
sible to use arbitrary message format also with older
rsyslogd. When sending syslog messages over UDP socket
extra precaution needs to be taken into account, for
example, syslog daemon needs to be configured to listen
on the specified UDP port, accidental iptables rules
could be interfering with local syslog traffic and there
are some security considerations that apply to UDP sock‐
ets, but do not apply to UNIX domain sockets.
--unixctl=socket
Sets the name of the control socket on which ovs-testcontroller
listens for runtime management commands (see RUNTIME MANAGEMENT
COMMANDS, below). If socket does not begin with /, it is inter‐
preted as relative to /var/run/openvswitch. If --unixctl is not
used at all, the default socket is /var/run/open‐
vswitch/ovs-testcontroller.pid.ctl, where pid is ovs-testcon‐
troller's process ID.
On Windows, uses a kernel chosen TCP port on the localhost to
listen for runtime management commands. The kernel chosen TCP
port value is written in a file whose absolute path is pointed
by socket. If --unixctl is not used at all, the file is created
as ovs-testcontroller.ctl in the configured OVS_RUNDIR direc‐
tory.
Specifying none for socket disables the control socket feature.
-h
--help Prints a brief help message to the console.
-V
--version
Prints version information to the console.
-O [version[,version]...]
--protocols=[version[,version]...]
Sets the OpenFlow protocol versions that are allowed when estab‐
lishing 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.
EXAMPLES
To bind locally to port 6653 (the default) and wait for incoming con‐
nections from OpenFlow switches:
% ovs-testcontroller ptcp:
BUGS
Configuring a Citrix XenServer to connect to a particular controller
only points the remote OVSDB management connection to that controller.
It does not also configure OpenFlow connections, because the manager is
expected to do that over the management protocol. ovs-testcontroller
is not an Open vSwitch manager and does not know how to do that.
As a stopgap workaround, ovs-vsctl can wait for an OVSDB connection and
set the controller, e.g.:
% ovs-vsctl -t0 --db=pssl: --certificate=cert.pem --ca-cert=none
--private-key=privkey.pem --peer-ca-cert=cacert.pem set-con‐
troller ssl:ip
SEE ALSO
ovs-appctl(8), ovs-ofctl(8), ovs-dpctl(8)
Open vSwitch 2.4.90 ovs-testcontroller(8)