path: root/utilities/ovs-ofctl.8.in

.TH ovs\-ofctl 8 "March 2009" "Open vSwitch" "Open vSwitch Manual"
.ds PN ovs\-ofctl

.SH NAME
ovs\-ofctl \- administer OpenFlow switches

.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ovs\-ofctl
[\fIoptions\fR] \fIcommand \fR[\fIswitch\fR] [\fIargs\fR\&...]

.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B 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.

.SS "OpenFlow Switch Management Commands"

These commands allow \fBovs\-ofctl\fR 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:

.RS
.TP
\fBssl:\fIhost\fR[\fB:\fIport\fR]
The specified SSL \fIport\fR (default: 6633) on the given remote
\fIhost\fR.  The \fB--private-key\fR, \fB--certificate\fR, and
\fB--ca-cert\fR options are mandatory when this form is used.

.TP
\fBtcp:\fIhost\fR[\fB:\fIport\fR]
The specified TCP \fIport\fR (default: 6633) on the given remote
\fIhost\fR.

.TP
\fBunix:\fIfile\fR
The Unix domain server socket named \fIfile\fR.  

.IP "\fIfile\fR"
This is short for \fBunix:\fIfile\fR, as long as \fIfile\fR does not
contain a colon.

.IP \fIdp\fR
This is short for \fBunix:@RUNDIR@/\fIdp\fB.mgmt\fR, as long as
\fIdp\fR does not contain a colon.
.RE

.TP
\fBshow \fIswitch\fR
Prints to the console information on \fIswitch\fR, including
information on its flow tables and ports.

.TP
\fBstatus \fIswitch\fR [\fIkey\fR]
Prints to the console a series of key-value pairs that report the
status of \fIswitch\fR.  If \fIkey\fR is specified, only the key-value
pairs whose key names begin with \fIkey\fR are printed.  If \fIkey\fR is
omitted, all key-value pairs are printed.

.TP
\fBdump-tables \fIswitch\fR
Prints to the console statistics for each of the flow tables used by
\fIswitch\fR.

.TP
\fBdump-ports \fIswitch\fR
Prints to the console statistics for each of the network devices
associated with \fIswitch\fR.

.TP
\fBmod-port \fIswitch\fR \fInetdev\fR \fIaction\fR
Modify characteristics of an interface monitored by \fIswitch\fR.  
\fInetdev\fR can be referred to by its OpenFlow assigned port number or 
the device name, e.g. \fBeth0\fR.  The \fIaction\fR may be any one of the
following:

.RS
.IP \fBup\fR
Enables the interface.  This is equivalent to ``ifconfig up'' on a Unix
system.

.IP \fBdown\fR
Disables the interface.  This is equivalent to ``ifconfig down'' on a Unix
system.

.IP \fBflood\fR
When a \fIflood\fR action is specified, traffic will be sent out this
interface.  This is the default posture for monitored ports.

.IP \fBnoflood\fR
When a \fIflood\fR action is specified, traffic will not be sent out 
this interface.  This is primarily useful to prevent loops when a
spanning tree protocol is not in use.

.RE

.TP
\fBdump-flows \fIswitch \fR[\fIflows\fR]
Prints to the console all flow entries in \fIswitch\fR's
tables that match \fIflows\fR.  If \fIflows\fR is omitted, all flows
in the switch are retrieved.  See \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the
syntax of \fIflows\fR.  The output format is described in 
\fBTable Entry Output\fR.

.TP
\fBdump-aggregate \fIswitch \fR[\fIflows\fR]
Prints to the console aggregate statistics for flows in 
\fIswitch\fR's tables that match \fIflows\fR.  If \fIflows\fR is omitted, 
the statistics are aggregated across all flows in the switch's flow
tables.  See \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the syntax of \fIflows\fR.
The output format is descrbed in \fBTable Entry Output\fR.

.TP
\fBadd-flow \fIswitch flow\fR
Add the flow entry as described by \fIflow\fR to the \fIswitch\fR's 
tables.  The flow entry is in the format described in \fBFlow Syntax\fR, 
below.

.TP
\fBadd-flows \fIswitch file\fR
Add flow entries as described in \fIfile\fR to \fIswitch\fR's 
tables.  Each line in \fIfile\fR is a flow entry in the format
described in \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below.

.TP
\fBmod-flows \fIswitch flow\fR
Modify the actions in entries from the \fIswitch\fR's tables 
that match \fIflow\fR.  When invoked with the \fB--strict\fR option,
wildcards are not treated as active for matching purposes.  See 
\fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the syntax of \fIflows\fR.

.TP
\fBdel-flows \fIswitch \fR[\fIflow\fR]
Deletes entries from the \fIswitch\fR's tables that match
\fIflow\fR.  When invoked with the \fB--strict\fR option, wildcards are 
not treated as active for matching purposes.  If \fIflow\fR is 
omitted and the \fB--strict\fR option is not used, all flows in the 
switch's tables are removed.  See \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the 
syntax of \fIflows\fR.

.TP
\fBmonitor \fIswitch\fR [\fImiss-len\fR [\fIsend-exp]]
Connects to \fIswitch\fR and prints to the console all OpenFlow
messages received.  Usually, \fIswitch\fR should specify a connection
named on \fBsecchan\fR(8)'s \fB-l\fR or \fB--listen\fR command line
option.

If \fImiss-len\fR is provided, \fBovs\-ofctl\fR sends an OpenFlow ``set
configuration'' message at connection setup time that requests
\fImiss-len\fR bytes of each packet that misses the flow table.  The
OpenFlow reference implementation not send these messages to the
\fBovs\-ofctl monitor\fR client connection unless a nonzero value is
specified on this argument.

If \fIsend-exp\fR is specified as \fB1\fR, \fBovs\-ofctl\fR will also
request to be sent flow expiration messages.  If this argument is
omitted, or \fB0\fR is specified, then \fRovs\-ofctl\fR will not request
flow expirations.

This command may be useful for debugging switch or controller
implementations.

.TP
\fBexecute \fIswitch command \fR[\fIarg\fR...]
Sends a request to \fIswitch\fR to execute \fIcommand\fR along with
each \fIarg\fR, if any, then waits for the command to complete and
reports its completion status on \fBstderr\fR and its output, if any,
on \fBstdout\fR.  The set of available commands and their argument is
switch-dependent.  (This command uses a Nicira extension to OpenFlow
that may not be available on all switches.)

.SS "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.

.TP
\fBprobe \fItarget\fR
Sends a single OpenFlow echo-request message to \fItarget\fR and waits
for the response.  With the \fB-t\fR or \fB--timeout\fR option, this
command can test whether an OpenFlow switch or controller is up and
running.

.TP
\fBping \fItarget \fR[\fIn\fR]
Sends a series of 10 echo request packets to \fItarget\fR and times
each reply.  The echo request packets consist of an OpenFlow header
plus \fIn\fR bytes (default: 64) of randomly generated payload.  This
measures the latency of individual requests.

.TP
\fBbenchmark \fItarget n count\fR
Sends \fIcount\fR echo request packets that each consist of an
OpenFlow header plus \fIn\fR bytes of payload and waits for each
response.  Reports the total time required.  This is a measure of the
maximum bandwidth to \fItarget\fR for round-trips of \fIn\fR-byte
messages.

.SS "Flow Syntax"

Some \fBovs\-ofctl\fR commands accept an argument that describes a flow or
flows.  Such flow descriptions comprise a series
\fIfield\fB=\fIvalue\fR 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.)

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 \fB*\fR or \fBANY\fR
may be specified to explicitly mark any of these fields as a wildcard.  
(\fB*\fR should be quoted to protect it from shell expansion.)

.IP \fBin_port=\fIport_no\fR
Matches physical port \fIport_no\fR.  Switch ports are numbered as
displayed by \fBovs\-ofctl show\fR.

.IP \fBdl_vlan=\fIvlan\fR
Matches IEEE 802.1q virtual LAN tag \fIvlan\fR.  Specify \fB0xffff\fR
as \fIvlan\fR 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.

.IP \fBdl_src=\fImac\fR
Matches Ethernet source address \fImac\fR, which is specified as 6 pairs 
of hexadecimal digits delimited by colons (e.g. \fB00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0\fR).

.IP \fBdl_dst=\fImac\fR
Matches Ethernet destination address \fImac\fR.

.IP \fBdl_type=\fIethertype\fR
Matches Ethernet protocol type \fIethertype\fR, which is specified as an
integer between 0 and 65535, inclusive, either in decimal or as a 
hexadecimal number prefixed by \fB0x\fR (e.g. \fB0x0806\fR to match ARP 
packets).

.IP \fBnw_src=\fIip\fR[\fB/\fInetmask\fR]
Matches IPv4 source address \fIip\fR, which may be specified as an
IP address or host name (e.g. \fB192.168.1.1\fR or
\fBwww.example.com\fR).  The optional \fInetmask\fR allows restricting a
match to an IPv4 address prefix.  The netmask may be specified as a dotted 
quad (e.g. \fB192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0\fR) or as a CIDR block 
(e.g. \fB192.168.1.0/24\fR).

.IP \fBnw_dst=\fIip\fR[\fB/\fInetmask\fR]
Matches IPv4 destination address \fIip\fR.

.IP \fBnw_proto=\fIproto\fR
Matches IP protocol type \fIproto\fR, which is specified as a decimal 
number between 0 and 255, inclusive (e.g. 6 to match TCP packets).

.IP \fBtp_src=\fIport\fR
Matches UDP or TCP source port \fIport\fR, which is specified as a decimal 
number between 0 and 65535, inclusive (e.g. 80 to match packets originating 
from a HTTP server).

.IP \fBtp_dst=\fIport\fR
Matches UDP or TCP destination port \fIport\fR.

.IP \fBicmp_type=\fItype\fR
Matches ICMP message with \fItype\fR, which is specified as a decimal 
number between 0 and 255, inclusive.

.IP \fBicmp_code=\fIcode\fR
Matches ICMP messages with \fIcode\fR.

.PP
The following shorthand notations are also available:

.IP \fBip\fR
Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800\fR.

.IP \fBicmp\fR
Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=1\fR.

.IP \fBtcp\fR
Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=6\fR.

.IP \fBudp\fR
Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=17\fR.

.IP \fBarp\fR
Same as \fBdl_type=0x0806\fR.

.PP
The \fBadd-flow\fR and \fBadd-flows\fR commands require an additional field:

.IP \fBactions=\fR[\fItarget\fR][\fB,\fItarget\fR...]\fR
Specifies a comma-separated list of actions to take on a packet when the 
flow entry matches.  If no \fItarget\fR is specified, then packets
matching the flow are dropped.  The \fItarget\fR may be a decimal port 
number designating the physical port on which to output the packet, or one 
of the following keywords:

.RS
.IP \fBoutput\fR:\fIport\fR
Outputs the packet on the port specified by \fIport\fR.

.IP \fBnormal\fR
Subjects the packet to the device's normal L2/L3 processing.  (This
action is not implemented by all OpenFlow switches.)

.IP \fBflood\fR
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).

.IP \fBall\fR
Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on
which it was received.

.IP \fBcontroller\fR:\fImax_len\fR
Sends the packet to the OpenFlow controller as a ``packet in''
message.  If \fImax_len\fR is a number, then it specifies the maximum
number of bytes that should be sent.  If \fImax_len\fR is \fBALL\fR or
omitted, then the entire packet is sent.

.IP \fBlocal\fR
Outputs the packet on the ``local port,'' which corresponds to the
\fBof\fIn\fR network device (see \fBCONTACTING THE CONTROLLER\fR in
\fBsecchan\fR(8) for information on the \fBof\fIn\fR network device).

.IP \fBdrop\fR
Discards the packet, so no further processing or forwarding takes place.
If a drop action is used, no other actions may be specified.

.IP \fBmod_vlan_vid\fR:\fIvlan_vid\fR
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 \fBmod_vlan_pcp\fR action to set
this).

.IP \fBmod_vlan_pcp\fR:\fIvlan_pcp\fR
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 \fBmod_vlan_vid\fR action to set this).

.IP \fBstrip_vlan\fR
Strips the VLAN tag from a packet if it is present.

.IP \fBmod_dl_src\fB:\fImac\fR
Sets the source Ethernet address to \fImac\fR.

.IP \fBmod_dl_dst\fB:\fImac\fR
Sets the destination Ethernet address to \fImac\fR.
.RE

.IP
(The OpenFlow protocol supports other actions that \fBovs\-ofctl\fR does
not yet expose to the user.)

.PP
The \fBadd-flow\fR, \fBadd-flows\fR, and \fBdel-flows\fR commands
support an additional optional field:

.IP \fBpriority=\fIvalue\fR
The priority at which a wildcarded entry will match in comparison to
others.  \fIvalue\fR is a number between 0 and 65535, inclusive.  A higher 
\fIvalue\fR 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.

.PP
The \fBadd-flow\fR and \fBadd-flows\fR commands support additional
optional fields:

.TP
\fBidle_timeout=\fIseconds\fR
Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds of
inactivity.  A value of 0 prevents a flow from expiring due to
inactivity.  The default is 60 seconds.

.IP \fBhard_timeout=\fIseconds\fR
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.

.PP
The \fBdump-flows\fR, \fBdump-aggregate\fR, \fBdel-flow\fR 
and \fBdel-flows\fR commands support one additional optional field:

.TP
\fBout_port=\fIport\fR
If set, a matching flow must include an output action to \fIport\fR.

.PP
The \fBdump-flows\fR and \fBdump-aggregate\fR commands support an
additional optional field:

.IP \fBtable=\fInumber\fR
If specified, limits the flows about which statistics are gathered to
those in the table with the given \fInumber\fR.  Tables are numbered
as shown by the \fBdump-tables\fR command.

If this field is not specified, or if \fInumber\fR is given as
\fB255\fR, statistics are gathered about flows from all tables.

.SS "Table Entry Output"

The \fBdump-tables\fR and \fBdump-aggregate\fR commands print information 
about the entries in a datapath's tables.  Each line of output is a 
unique flow entry, which begins with some common information:

.IP \fBduration\fR
The number of seconds the entry has been in the table.

.IP \fBtable_id\fR
The table that contains the flow.  When a packet arrives, the switch 
begins searching for an entry at the lowest numbered table.  Tables are 
numbered as shown by the \fBdump-tables\fR command.

.IP \fBpriority\fR
The priority of the entry in relation to other entries within the same
table.  A higher value will match before a lower one.

.IP \fBn_packets\fR
The number of packets that have matched the entry.

.IP \fBn_bytes\fR
The total number of bytes from packets that have matched the entry.

.PP
The rest of the line consists of a description of the flow entry as 
described in \fBFlow Syntax\fR, above.


.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB--strict\fR
Uses strict matching when running flow modification commands.

.TP
\fB-t\fR, \fB--timeout=\fIsecs\fR
Limits \fBovs\-ofctl\fR runtime to approximately \fIsecs\fR seconds.  If
the timeout expires, \fBovs\-ofctl\fR will exit with a \fBSIGALRM\fR
signal.

.TP
\fB-p\fR, \fB--private-key=\fIprivkey.pem\fR
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as the
identity for SSL connections to a switch.

.TP
\fB-c\fR, \fB--certificate=\fIcert.pem\fR
Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate, signed by the
controller's certificate authority (CA), that certifies the
private key to identify a trustworthy controller.

.TP
\fB-C\fR, \fB--ca-cert=\fIcacert.pem\fR
Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate used to verify that
a switch is trustworthy.

.so lib/vlog.man
.so lib/common.man

.SH EXAMPLES

The following examples assume that an OpenFlow switch on the local
host has been configured to listen for management connections on a
Unix domain socket named \fB@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR, e.g. by
specifying \fB--listen=punix:@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR on the
\fBsecchan\fR(8) command line.

.TP
\fBovs\-ofctl dump-tables unix:@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR
Prints out the switch's table stats.  (This is more interesting after
some traffic has passed through.)

.TP
\fBovs\-ofctl dump-flows unix:@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR
Prints the flow entries in the switch.

.SH "SEE ALSO"

.BR ovs\-appctl (8),
.BR ovs\-controller (8),
.BR ovs\-vswitchd (8)