path: root/Documentation/intro/install/general.rst

..
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=========================================
Open vSwitch on Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD
=========================================

This document describes how to build and install Open vSwitch on a generic
Linux, FreeBSD, or NetBSD host. For specifics around installation on a specific
platform, refer to one of the other installation guides listed in :doc:`index`.

Obtaining Open vSwitch Sources
------------------------------

The canonical location for Open vSwitch source code is its Git
repository, which you can clone into a directory named "ovs" with::

    $ git clone https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs.git

Cloning the repository leaves the "master" branch initially checked
out.  This is the right branch for general development.  If, on the
other hand, if you want to build a particular released version, you
can check it out by running a command such as the following from the
"ovs" directory::

    $ git checkout v2.7.0

The repository also has a branch for each release series.  For
example, to obtain the latest fixes in the Open vSwitch 2.7.x release
series, which might include bug fixes that have not yet been in any
released version, you can check it out from the "ovs" directory with::

    $ git checkout origin/branch-2.7

If you do not want to use Git, you can also obtain tarballs for Open
vSwitch release versions via http://openvswitch.org/download/, or
download a ZIP file for any snapshot from the web interface at
https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs.

.. _general-build-reqs:

Build Requirements
------------------

To compile the userspace programs in the Open vSwitch distribution, you will
need the following software:

- GNU make

- A C compiler, such as:

  - GCC 4.6 or later.

  - Clang 3.4 or later.

  - MSVC 2013. Refer to :doc:`windows` for additional Windows build
    instructions.

  While OVS may be compatible with other compilers, optimal support for atomic
  operations may be missing, making OVS very slow (see ``lib/ovs-atomic.h``).

- libssl, from OpenSSL, is optional but recommended if you plan to connect the
  Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. libssl is required to establish
  confidentiality and authenticity in the connections from an Open vSwitch to
  an OpenFlow controller. If libssl is installed, then Open vSwitch will
  automatically build with support for it.

- libcap-ng, written by Steve Grubb, is optional but recommended. It is
  required to run OVS daemons as a non-root user with dropped root privileges.
  If libcap-ng is installed, then Open vSwitch will automatically build with
  support for it.

- Python 3.4 or later.

- Unbound library, from http://www.unbound.net, is optional but recommended if
  you want to enable ovs-vswitchd and other utilities to use DNS names when
  specifying OpenFlow and OVSDB remotes. If unbound library is already
  installed, then Open vSwitch will automatically build with support for it.
  The environment variable OVS_RESOLV_CONF can be used to specify DNS server
  configuration file (the default file on Linux is /etc/resolv.conf), and
  environment variable OVS_UNBOUND_CONF can be used to specify the
  configuration file for unbound.

On Linux, you may choose to compile the kernel module that comes with the Open
vSwitch distribution or to use the kernel module built into the Linux kernel
(version 3.3 or later). See the :doc:`/faq/index` question "What features are
not available in the Open vSwitch kernel datapath that ships as part of the
upstream Linux kernel?" for more information on this trade-off. You may also
use the userspace-only implementation, at some cost in features and
performance. Refer to :doc:`userspace` for details.

To compile the kernel module on Linux, you must also install the
following:

- A supported Linux kernel version.

  For optional support of ingress policing, you must enable kernel
  configuration options ``NET_CLS_BASIC``, ``NET_SCH_INGRESS``, and
  ``NET_ACT_POLICE``, either built-in or as modules. ``NET_CLS_POLICE`` is
  obsolete and not needed.)

  On kernels before 3.11, the ``ip_gre`` module, for GRE tunnels over IP
  (``NET_IPGRE``), must not be loaded or compiled in.

  To configure HTB or HFSC quality of service with Open vSwitch, you must
  enable the respective configuration options.

  To use Open vSwitch support for TAP devices, you must enable ``CONFIG_TUN``.

- To build a kernel module, you need the same version of GCC that was used to
  build that kernel.

- A kernel build directory corresponding to the Linux kernel image the module
  is to run on. Under Debian and Ubuntu, for example, each linux-image package
  containing a kernel binary has a corresponding linux-headers package with
  the required build infrastructure.

If you are working from a Git tree or snapshot (instead of from a distribution
tarball), or if you modify the Open vSwitch build system or the database
schema, you will also need the following software:

- Autoconf version 2.63 or later.

- Automake version 1.10 or later.

- libtool version 2.4 or later. (Older versions might work too.)

The datapath tests for userspace and Linux datapaths also rely upon:

- pyftpdlib. Version 1.2.0 is known to work. Earlier versions should
  also work.

- GNU wget. Version 1.16 is known to work. Earlier versions should also
  work.

- netcat. Several common implementations are known to work.

- curl. Version 7.47.0 is known to work. Earlier versions should also work.

- tftpy. Version 0.6.2 is known to work. Earlier versions should also work.

- netstat.  Available from various distro specific packages

The ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) manpage will include an E-R diagram, in formats
other than plain text, only if you have the following:

- dot from graphviz (http://www.graphviz.org/).

If you are going to extensively modify Open vSwitch, consider installing the
following to obtain better warnings:

- "sparse" version 0.6.2 or later
  (https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/devel/sparse/sparse.git/).

- GNU make.

- clang, version 3.4 or later

- flake8 along with the hacking flake8 plugin (for Python code). The automatic
  flake8 check that runs against Python code has some warnings enabled that
  come from the "hacking" flake8 plugin. If it's not installed, the warnings
  just won't occur until it's run on a system with "hacking" installed.

You may find the ovs-dev script found in ``utilities/ovs-dev.py`` useful.

.. _general-install-reqs:

Installation Requirements
-------------------------

The machine you build Open vSwitch on may not be the one you run it on. To
simply install and run Open vSwitch you require the following software:

- Shared libraries compatible with those used for the build.

- On Linux, if you want to use the kernel-based datapath (which is the most
  common use case), then a kernel with a compatible kernel module.  This
  can be a kernel module built with Open vSwitch (e.g. in the previous
  step), or the kernel module that accompanies Linux 3.3 and later.  Open
  vSwitch features and performance can vary based on the module and the
  kernel.  Refer to :doc:`/faq/releases` for more information.

- For optional support of ingress policing on Linux, the "tc" program
  from iproute2 (part of all major distributions and available at
  https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/networking/iproute2).

- Python 3.4 or later.

On Linux you should ensure that ``/dev/urandom`` exists. To support TAP
devices, you must also ensure that ``/dev/net/tun`` exists.

.. _general-bootstrapping:

Bootstrapping
-------------

This step is not needed if you have downloaded a released tarball. If
you pulled the sources directly from an Open vSwitch Git tree or got a
Git tree snapshot, then run boot.sh in the top source directory to build
the "configure" script::

    $ ./boot.sh

.. _general-configuring:

Configuring
-----------

Configure the package by running the configure script. You can usually
invoke configure without any arguments. For example::

    $ ./configure

By default all files are installed under ``/usr/local``. Open vSwitch also
expects to find its database in ``/usr/local/etc/openvswitch`` by default. If
you want to install all files into, e.g., ``/usr`` and ``/var`` instead of
``/usr/local`` and ``/usr/local/var`` and expect to use ``/etc/openvswitch`` as
the default database directory, add options as shown here::

    $ ./configure --prefix=/usr --localstatedir=/var --sysconfdir=/etc

.. note::

  Open vSwitch installed with packages like .rpm (e.g. via ``yum install`` or
  ``rpm -ivh``) and .deb (e.g. via ``apt-get install`` or ``dpkg -i``) use the
  above configure options.

By default, static libraries are built and linked against. If you want to use
shared libraries instead::

    $ ./configure --enable-shared

To use a specific C compiler for compiling Open vSwitch user programs, also
specify it on the configure command line, like so::

    $ ./configure CC=gcc-4.2

To use 'clang' compiler::

    $ ./configure CC=clang

To supply special flags to the C compiler, specify them as ``CFLAGS`` on the
configure command line. If you want the default CFLAGS, which include ``-g`` to
build debug symbols and ``-O2`` to enable optimizations, you must include them
yourself. For example, to build with the default CFLAGS plus ``-mssse3``, you
might run configure as follows::

    $ ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2 -mssse3"

For efficient hash computation special flags can be passed to leverage built-in
intrinsics. For example on X86_64 with SSE4.2 instruction set support, CRC32
intrinsics can be used by passing ``-msse4.2``::

    $ ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2 -msse4.2"`

Also builtin popcnt instruction can be used to speedup the counting of the
bits set in an integer. For example on X86_64 with POPCNT support, it can be
enabled by passing ``-mpopcnt``::

    $ ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2 -mpopcnt"`

If you are on a different processor and don't know what flags to choose, it is
recommended to use ``-march=native`` settings::

    $ ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2 -march=native"

With this, GCC will detect the processor and automatically set appropriate
flags for it. This should not be used if you are compiling OVS outside the
target machine.

.. note::
  CFLAGS are not applied when building the Linux kernel module. Custom CFLAGS
  for the kernel module are supplied using the ``EXTRA_CFLAGS`` variable when
  running make. For example::

      $ make EXTRA_CFLAGS="-Wno-error=date-time"

If you are a developer and want to enable Address Sanitizer for debugging
purposes, at about a 2x runtime cost, you can add
``-fsanitize=address -fno-omit-frame-pointer -fno-common`` to CFLAGS.  For
example::

    $ ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2 -fsanitize=address -fno-omit-frame-pointer -fno-common"

If you plan to do much Open vSwitch development, you might want to add
``--enable-Werror``, which adds the ``-Werror`` option to the compiler command
line, turning warnings into errors. That makes it impossible to miss warnings
generated by the build. For example::

    $ ./configure --enable-Werror

If you're building with GCC, then, for improved warnings, install ``sparse``
(see "Prerequisites") and enable it for the build by adding
``--enable-sparse``.  Use this with ``--enable-Werror`` to avoid missing both
compiler and ``sparse`` warnings, e.g.::

    $ ./configure --enable-Werror --enable-sparse

To build with gcov code coverage support, add ``--enable-coverage``::

    $ ./configure --enable-coverage

The configure script accepts a number of other options and honors additional
environment variables. For a full list, invoke configure with the ``--help``
option::

    $ ./configure --help

You can also run configure from a separate build directory. This is helpful if
you want to build Open vSwitch in more than one way from a single source
directory, e.g. to try out both GCC and Clang builds, or to build kernel
modules for more than one Linux version. For example::

    $ mkdir _gcc && (cd _gcc && ./configure CC=gcc)
    $ mkdir _clang && (cd _clang && ./configure CC=clang)

Under certain loads the ovsdb-server and other components perform better when
using the jemalloc memory allocator, instead of the glibc memory allocator. If
you wish to link with jemalloc add it to LIBS::

    $ ./configure LIBS=-ljemalloc

.. _general-building:

Building
--------

1. Run GNU make in the build directory, e.g.::

       $ make

   or if GNU make is installed as "gmake"::

       $ gmake

   If you used a separate build directory, run make or gmake from that
   directory, e.g.::

       $ make -C _gcc
       $ make -C _clang

   .. note::
     Some versions of Clang and ccache are not completely compatible. If you
     see unusual warnings when you use both together, consider disabling
     ccache.

2. Consider running the testsuite. Refer to :doc:`/topics/testing` for
   instructions.

3. Run ``make install`` to install the executables and manpages into the
   running system, by default under ``/usr/local``::

       $ make install

.. _general-starting:

Starting
--------

On Unix-alike systems, such as BSDs and Linux, starting the Open vSwitch
suite of daemons is a simple process.  Open vSwitch includes a shell script,
and helpers, called ovs-ctl which automates much of the tasks for starting
and stopping ovsdb-server, and ovs-vswitchd.  After installation, the daemons
can be started by using the ovs-ctl utility.  This will take care to setup
initial conditions, and start the daemons in the correct order.  The ovs-ctl
utility is located in '$(pkgdatadir)/scripts', and defaults to
'/usr/local/share/openvswitch/scripts'.  An example after install might be::

    $ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/share/openvswitch/scripts
    $ ovs-ctl start

Additionally, the ovs-ctl script allows starting / stopping the daemons
individually using specific options.  To start just the ovsdb-server::

    $ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/share/openvswitch/scripts
    $ ovs-ctl --no-ovs-vswitchd start

Likewise, to start just the ovs-vswitchd::

    $ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/share/openvswitch/scripts
    $ ovs-ctl --no-ovsdb-server start

Refer to ovs-ctl(8) for more information on ovs-ctl.

In addition to using the automated script to start Open vSwitch, you may
wish to manually start the various daemons. Before starting ovs-vswitchd
itself, you need to start its configuration database, ovsdb-server. Each
machine on which Open vSwitch is installed should run its own copy of
ovsdb-server. Before ovsdb-server itself can be started, configure a
database that it can use::

       $ mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/openvswitch
       $ ovsdb-tool create /usr/local/etc/openvswitch/conf.db \
           vswitchd/vswitch.ovsschema

Configure ovsdb-server to use database created above, to listen on a Unix
domain socket, to connect to any managers specified in the database itself, and
to use the SSL configuration in the database::

    $ mkdir -p /usr/local/var/run/openvswitch
    $ ovsdb-server --remote=punix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock \
        --remote=db:Open_vSwitch,Open_vSwitch,manager_options \
        --private-key=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,private_key \
        --certificate=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,certificate \
        --bootstrap-ca-cert=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,ca_cert \
        --pidfile --detach --log-file

.. note::
  If you built Open vSwitch without SSL support, then omit ``--private-key``,
  ``--certificate``, and ``--bootstrap-ca-cert``.)

Initialize the database using ovs-vsctl. This is only necessary the first time
after you create the database with ovsdb-tool, though running it at any time is
harmless::

    $ ovs-vsctl --no-wait init

Start the main Open vSwitch daemon, telling it to connect to the same Unix
domain socket::

    $ ovs-vswitchd --pidfile --detach --log-file

Starting OVS in container
-------------------------

For ovs vswitchd, we need to load ovs kernel modules on host.

Hence, OVS containers kernel version needs to be same as that of host kernel.

Export following variables in .env  and place it under
project root::

    $ OVS_BRANCH=<BRANCH>
    $ OVS_VERSION=<VERSION>
    $ DISTRO=<LINUX_DISTRO>
    $ KERNEL_VERSION=<LINUX_KERNEL_VERSION>
    $ GITHUB_SRC=<GITHUB_URL>
    $ DOCKER_REPO=<REPO_TO_PUSH_IMAGE>

To build ovs modules::

    $ cd utilities/docker
    $ make build

Compiled Modules will be tagged with docker image

To Push ovs modules::

    $ make push

OVS docker image will be pushed to specified docker repo.

Start ovsdb-server using below command::

    $ docker run -itd --net=host --name=ovsdb-server \
      <docker_repo>:<tag> ovsdb-server

Start ovs-vswitchd with priviledged mode as it needs to load kernel module in
host using below command::

    $ docker run -itd --net=host --name=ovs-vswitchd \
      --volumes-from=ovsdb-server -v /lib:/lib --privileged \
      <docker_repo>:<tag> ovs-vswitchd

.. note::
    The debian docker file uses ubuntu 16.04 as a base image for reference.

    User can use any other base image for debian, e.g. u14.04, etc.

    RHEL based docker build support needs to be added.

Validating
----------

At this point you can use ovs-vsctl to set up bridges and other Open vSwitch
features.  For example, to create a bridge named ``br0`` and add ports ``eth0``
and ``vif1.0`` to it::

    $ ovs-vsctl add-br br0
    $ ovs-vsctl add-port br0 eth0
    $ ovs-vsctl add-port br0 vif1.0

Refer to ovs-vsctl(8) for more details. You may also wish to refer to
:doc:`/topics/testing` for information on more generic testing of OVS.

When using ovs in container, exec to container to run above commands::

    $ docker exec -it <ovsdb-server/ovs-vswitchd> /bin/bash

Upgrading
---------

When you upgrade Open vSwitch from one version to another you should also
upgrade the database schema:

.. note::
   The following manual steps may also be accomplished by using ovs-ctl to
   stop and start the daemons after upgrade.  The ovs-ctl script will
   automatically upgrade the schema.

1. Stop the Open vSwitch daemons, e.g.::

       $ kill `cd /usr/local/var/run/openvswitch && cat ovsdb-server.pid ovs-vswitchd.pid`

2. Install the new Open vSwitch release by using the same configure options as
   was used for installing the previous version. If you do not use the same
   configure options, you can end up with two different versions of Open
   vSwitch executables installed in different locations.

3. Upgrade the database, in one of the following two ways:

   -  If there is no important data in your database, then you may delete the
      database file and recreate it with ovsdb-tool, following the instructions
      under "Building and Installing Open vSwitch for Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD".

   -  If you want to preserve the contents of your database, back it up first,
      then use ``ovsdb-tool convert`` to upgrade it, e.g.::

          $ ovsdb-tool convert /usr/local/etc/openvswitch/conf.db \
              vswitchd/vswitch.ovsschema

4. Start the Open vSwitch daemons as described under `Starting`_ above.

Hot Upgrading
-------------

Upgrading Open vSwitch from one version to the next version with minimum
disruption of traffic going through the system that is using that Open vSwitch
needs some considerations:

1. If the upgrade only involves upgrading the userspace utilities and daemons
   of Open vSwitch, make sure that the new userspace version is compatible with
   the previously loaded kernel module.

2. An upgrade of userspace daemons means that they have to be restarted.
   Restarting the daemons means that the OpenFlow flows in the ovs-vswitchd
   daemon will be lost. One way to restore the flows is to let the controller
   re-populate it. Another way is to save the previous flows using a utility
   like ovs-ofctl and then re-add them after the restart. Restoring the old
   flows is accurate only if the new Open vSwitch interfaces retain the old
   'ofport' values.

3. When the new userspace daemons get restarted, they automatically flush the
   old flows setup in the kernel. This can be expensive if there are hundreds
   of new flows that are entering the kernel but userspace daemons are busy
   setting up new userspace flows from either the controller or an utility like
   ovs-ofctl. Open vSwitch database provides an option to solve this problem
   through the ``other_config:flow-restore-wait`` column of the
   ``Open_vSwitch`` table. Refer to the ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) manpage for
   details.

4. If the upgrade also involves upgrading the kernel module, the old kernel
   module needs to be unloaded and the new kernel module should be loaded. This
   means that the kernel network devices belonging to Open vSwitch is recreated
   and the kernel flows are lost. The downtime of the traffic can be reduced if
   the userspace daemons are restarted immediately and the userspace flows are
   restored as soon as possible.

5. When upgrading ovs running in container on host that is managed by ovn,
   simply stop the docker container, remove and re-run with new docker image
   that has newer ovs version.

6. When running ovs in container, if ovs is used in bridged mode where
   management interface is managed by ovs, docker restart will result in loss
   of network connectivity. Hence, make sure to delete the bridge mapping of
   physical interface from ovs, upgrade ovs via docker and then add back the
   interface to ovs bridge. This mapping need not be deleted in case of multi
   nics if management interface is not managed by ovs.


The ovs-ctl utility's ``restart`` function only restarts the userspace daemons,
makes sure that the 'ofport' values remain consistent across restarts, restores
userspace flows using the ovs-ofctl utility and also uses the
``other_config:flow-restore-wait`` column to keep the traffic downtime to the
minimum. The ovs-ctl utility's ``force-reload-kmod`` function does all of the
above, but also replaces the old kernel module with the new one. Open vSwitch
startup scripts for Debian, XenServer and RHEL use ovs-ctl's functions and it
is recommended that these functions be used for other software platforms too.

Reporting Bugs
--------------

Report problems to bugs@openvswitch.org.