ovs-testcontroller(8) — Linux manual page
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 testing 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][:host]
ptcp:[port][:host]
Listens for OpenFlow connections on port. The
default port is 6653. By default, connections are
allowed from any IPv4 address. Specify host as an
IPv4 address or a bracketed IPv6 address (e.g.
ptcp:6653:[::1]). On Linux, use %device to
designate a scope for IPv6 link-level addresses,
e.g. ptcp:6653:[fe80::1234%eth0]. DNS names can be
used if built with unbound library. For pssl, the
--private-key,--certificate, and --ca-cert options
are mandatory.
punix:file
Listens for OpenFlow connections on the Unix domain
server socket named file.
ssl:host[:port]
tcp:host[:port]
The specified port on the given host, which can be
expressed either as a DNS name (if built with
unbound library) or an IP address in IPv4 or IPv6
address format. Wrap IPv6 addresses in square
brackets, e.g. tcp:[::1]:6653. On Linux, use
%device to designate a scope for IPv6 link-level
addresses, e.g. tcp:[fe80::1234%eth0]: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, connect to a local named pipe that is
represented by a file created in the path file to
mimic the behavior of a Unix domain socket.
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 wildcard_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
messages sent to it by switches.
This option is only for debugging the Open vSwitch
implementation 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 number, 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 --certificate, 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 certificates 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
certificates to send to SSL peers. peer-cacert.pem should
be the CA certificate used to sign ovs-testcontroller's
own certificate, that is, the certificate specified on -c
or --certificate. If ovs-testcontroller's certificate is
self-signed, then --certificate 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 certificate on its first SSL connection.
Daemon Options
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 argument is not specified, or if it does not begin
with /, then it is created in
/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch.
If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
--overwrite-pidfile
By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified
pidfile already exists and is locked by a running process,
ovs-testcontroller refuses to start. Specify
--overwrite-pidfile to cause it to instead overwrite the
pidfile.
When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no
effect.
--detach
Runs ovs-testcontroller as a background process. The
process forks, and in the child it starts a new session,
closes the standard file descriptors (which has the side
effect of disabling logging to the console), and changes
its current directory to the root (unless --no-chdir is
specified). After the child completes its initialization,
the parent exits.
--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
functions 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.
--no-self-confinement
By default daemon will try to self-confine itself to work
with files under well-known directories determined during
build. It is better to stick with this default behavior
and not to use this flag unless some other Access Control
is used to confine daemon. Note that in contrast to other
access control implementations that are typically enforced
from kernel-space (e.g. DAC or MAC), self-confinement is
imposed from the user-space daemon itself and hence should
not be considered as a full confinement strategy, but
instead should be viewed as an additional layer of
security.
--user Causes ovs-testcontroller to run as a different user
specified in "user:group", thus dropping most of the 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 that interact with a datapath, such as
ovs-vswitchd, will be granted three additional
capabilities, namely CAP_NET_ADMIN, CAP_NET_BROADCAST and
CAP_NET_RAW. The capability change will apply even if the
new user is root.
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
command 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. (If --detach is
specified, ovs-testcontroller closes its standard
file descriptors, so logging to the console will
have no effect.)
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
--verbose=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
/usr/local/var/log/openvswitch/ovs-testcontroller.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 daemon. Following forms are supported:
• libc, use libc syslog() function. 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
possible 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 possible 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 sockets, but do
not apply to UNIX domain sockets.
• null, discards all messages logged to syslog.
The default is taken from the OVS_SYSLOG_METHOD
environment variable; if it is unset, the default is libc.
--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 interpreted as relative to
/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch. If --unixctl is not used
at all, the default socket is
/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/ovs-testcontroller.pid.ctl,
where pid is ovs-testcontroller's process ID.
On Windows a local named pipe is used to listen for
runtime management commands. A file is created in the
absolute path as pointed by socket or if --unixctl is not
used at all, a file is created as ovs-testcontroller.ctl
in the configured OVS_RUNDIR directory. The file exists
just to mimic the behavior of a Unix domain socket.
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
establishing an OpenFlow session.
These protocol versions are enabled by default:
• OpenFlow10, for OpenFlow 1.0.
The following protocol versions are generally supported, but for
compatibility with older versions of Open vSwitch they are not
enabled by default:
• OpenFlow11, for OpenFlow 1.1.
• OpenFlow12, for OpenFlow 1.2.
• OpenFlow13, for OpenFlow 1.3.
• OpenFlow14, for OpenFlow 1.4.
• OpenFlow15, for OpenFlow 1.5.
EXAMPLES
To bind locally to port 6653 (the default) and wait for incoming
connections from OpenFlow switches:
% ovs-testcontroller ptcp:
SEE ALSO
ovs-appctl(8), ovs-ofctl(8), ovs-dpctl(8)
COLOPHON
This page is part of the Open vSwitch (a distributed virtual
multilayer switch) project. Information about the project can be
found at ⟨http://openvswitch.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for
this manual page, send it to bugs@openvswitch.org. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs.git⟩ on 2024-06-14. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2024-06-07.) If you discover any rendering
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is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
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