--- /dev/null
+Open vSwitch Advanced Features Tutorial
+=======================================
+
+Many tutorials cover the basics of OpenFlow. This is not such a
+tutorial. Rather, a knowledge of the basics of OpenFlow is a
+prerequisite. If you do not already understand how an OpenFlow flow
+table works, please go read a basic tutorial and then continue reading
+here afterward.
+
+It is also important to understand the basics of Open vSwitch before
+you begin. If you have never used ovs-vsctl or ovs-ofctl before, you
+should learn a little about them before proceeding.
+
+Most of the features covered in this tutorial are Open vSwitch
+extensions to OpenFlow. Also, most of the features in this tutorial
+are specific to the software Open vSwitch implementation. If you are
+using an Open vSwitch port to an ASIC-based hardware switch, this
+tutorial will not help you.
+
+This tutorial does not cover every aspect of the features that it
+mentions. You can find the details elsewhere in the Open vSwitch
+documentation, especially ovs-ofctl(8) and the comments in the
+include/openflow/nicira-ext.h header file.
+
+>>> In this tutorial, paragraphs set off like this designate notes
+ with additional information that readers may wish to skip on a
+ first read.
+
+
+Getting Started
+===============
+
+This is a hands-on tutorial. To get the most out of it, you will need
+Open vSwitch binaries. You do not, on the other hand, need any
+physical networking hardware or even supervisor privilege on your
+system. Instead, we will use a script called "ovs-sandbox", which
+accompanies the tutorial, that constructs a software simulated network
+environment based on Open vSwitch.
+
+You can use "ovs-sandbox" three ways:
+
+ * If you have already installed Open vSwitch on your system, then
+ you should be able to just run "ovs-sandbox" from this directory
+ without any options.
+
+ * If you have not installed Open vSwitch (and you do not want to
+ install it), then you can build Open vSwitch according to the
+ instructions in INSTALL, without installing it. Then run
+ "./ovs-sandbox -b DIRECTORY" from this directory, substituting
+ the Open vSwitch build directory for DIRECTORY.
+
+ * As a slight variant on the latter, you can run "make sandbox"
+ from an Open vSwitch build directory.
+
+When you run ovs-sandbox, it does the following:
+
+ 1. CAUTION: Deletes any subdirectory of the current directory
+ named "sandbox" and any files in that directory.
+
+ 2. Creates a new directory "sandbox" in the current directory.
+
+ 3. Sets up special environment variables that ensure that Open
+ vSwitch programs will look inside the "sandbox" directory
+ instead of in the Open vSwitch installation directory.
+
+ 4. If you are using a built but not installed Open vSwitch,
+ installs the Open vSwitch manpages in a subdirectory of
+ "sandbox" and adjusts the MANPATH environment variable to point
+ to this directory. This means that you can use, for example,
+ "man ovs-vsctl" to see a manpage for the ovs-vsctl program that
+ you built.
+
+ 5. Creates an empty Open vSwitch configuration database under
+ "sandbox".
+
+ 6. Starts ovsdb-server running under "sandbox".
+
+ 7. Starts ovs-vswitchd running under "sandbox", passing special
+ options that enable a special "dummy" mode for testing.
+
+ 8. Starts a nested interactive shell inside "sandbox".
+
+At this point, you can run all the usual Open vSwitch utilities from
+the nested shell environment. You can, for example, use ovs-vsctl to
+create a bridge:
+
+ ovs-vsctl add-br br0
+
+From Open vSwitch's perspective, the bridge that you create this way
+is as real as any other. You can, for example, connect it to an
+OpenFlow controller or use "ovs-ofctl" to examine and modify it and
+its OpenFlow flow table. On the other hand, the bridge is not visible
+to the operating system's network stack, so "ifconfig" or "ip" cannot
+see it or affect it, which means that utilities like "ping" and
+"tcpdump" will not work either. (That has its good side, too: you
+can't screw up your computer's network stack by manipulating a
+sandboxed OVS.)
+
+When you're done using OVS from the sandbox, exit the nested shell (by
+entering the "exit" shell command or pressing Control+D). This will
+kill the daemons that ovs-sandbox started, but it leaves the "sandbox"
+directory and its contents in place.
+
+The sandbox directory contains log files for the Open vSwitch dameons.
+You can examine them while you're running in the sandboxed environment
+or after you exit.
+
+
+Motivation
+==========
+
+The goal of this tutorial is to demonstrate the power of Open vSwitch
+flow tables. The tutorial works through the implementation of a
+MAC-learning switch with VLAN trunk and access ports. Outside of the
+Open vSwitch features that we will discuss, OpenFlow provides at least
+two ways to implement such a switch:
+
+ 1. An OpenFlow controller to implement MAC learning in a
+ "reactive" fashion. Whenever a new MAC appears on the switch,
+ or a MAC moves from one switch port to another, the controller
+ adjusts the OpenFlow flow table to match.
+
+ 2. The "normal" action. OpenFlow defines this action to submit a
+ packet to "the traditional non-OpenFlow pipeline of the
+ switch". That is, if a flow uses this action, then the packets
+ in the flow go through the switch in the same way that they
+ would if OpenFlow was not configured on the switch.
+
+Each of these approaches has unfortunate pitfalls. In the first
+approach, using an OpenFlow controller to implement MAC learning, has
+a significant cost in terms of network bandwidth and latency. It also
+makes the controller more difficult to scale to large numbers of
+switches, which is especially important in environments with thousands
+of hypervisors (each of which contains a virtual OpenFlow switch).
+MAC learning at an OpenFlow controller also behaves poorly if the
+OpenFlow controller fails, slows down, or becomes unavailable due to
+network problems.
+
+The second approach, using the "normal" action, has different
+problems. First, little about the "normal" action is standardized, so
+it behaves differently on switches from different vendors, and the
+available features and how those features are configured (usually not
+through OpenFlow) varies widely. Second, "normal" does not work well
+with other OpenFlow actions. It is "all-or-nothing", with little
+potential to adjust its behavior slightly or to compose it with other
+features.
+
+
+Scenario
+========
+
+We will construct Open vSwitch flow tables for a VLAN-capable,
+MAC-learning switch that has four ports:
+
+ * p1, a trunk port that carries all VLANs, on OpenFlow port 1.
+
+ * p2, an access port for VLAN 20, on OpenFlow port 2.
+
+ * p3 and p4, both access ports for VLAN 30, on OpenFlow ports 3
+ and 4, respectively.
+
+>>> The ports' names are not significant. You could call them eth1
+ through eth4, or any other names you like.
+
+>>> An OpenFlow switch always has a "local" port as well. This
+ scenario won't use the local port.
+
+Our switch design will consist of five main flow tables, each of which
+implements one stage in the switch pipeline:
+
+ Table 0: Admission control.
+
+ Table 1: VLAN input processing.
+
+ Table 2: Learn source MAC and VLAN for ingress port.
+
+ Table 3: Look up learned port for destination MAC and VLAN.
+
+ Table 4: Output processing.
+
+The section below describes how to set up the scenario, followed by a
+section for each OpenFlow table.
+
+You can cut and paste the "ovs-vsctl" and "ovs-ofctl" commands in each
+of the sections below into your "ovs-sandbox" shell. They are also
+available as shell scripts in this directory, named t-setup, t-stage0,
+t-stage1, ..., t-stage4. The "ovs-appctl" test commands are intended
+for cutting and pasting and are not supplied separately.
+
+
+Setup
+=====
+
+To get started, start "ovs-sandbox". Inside the interactive shell
+that it starts, run this command:
+
+ ovs-vsctl add-br br0 -- set Bridge br0 fail-mode=secure
+
+This command creates a new bridge "br0" and puts "br0" into so-called
+"fail-secure" mode. For our purpose, this just means that the
+OpenFlow flow table starts out empty.
+
+>>> If we did not do this, then the flow table would start out with a
+ single flow that executes the "normal" action. We could use that
+ feature to yield a switch that behaves the same as the switch we
+ are currently building, but with the caveats described under
+ "Motivation" above.)
+
+The new bridge has only one port on it so far, the "local port" br0.
+We need to add p1, p2, p3, and p4. A shell "for" loop is one way to
+do it:
+
+ for i in 1 2 3 4; do
+ ovs-vsctl add-port br0 p$i -- set Interface p$i ofport_request=$i
+ ovs-ofctl mod-port br0 p$i up
+ done
+
+In addition to adding a port, the ovs-vsctl command above sets its
+"ofport_request" column to ensure that port p1 is assigned OpenFlow
+port 1, p2 is assigned OpenFlow port 2, and so on.
+
+>>> We could omit setting the ofport_request and let Open vSwitch
+ choose port numbers for us, but it's convenient for the purposes
+ of this tutorial because we can talk about OpenFlow port 1 and
+ know that it corresponds to p1.
+
+The ovs-ofctl command above brings up the simulated interfaces, which
+are down initially, using an OpenFlow request. The effect is similar
+to "ifconfig up", but the sandbox's interfaces are not visible to the
+operating system and therefore "ifconfig" would not affect them.
+
+We have not configured anything related to VLANs or MAC learning.
+That's because we're going to implement those features in the flow
+table.
+
+To see what we've done so far to set up the scenario, you can run a
+command like "ovs-vsctl show" or "ovs-ofctl show br0".
+
+
+Implementing Table 0: Admission control
+=======================================
+
+Table 0 is where packets enter the switch. We use this stage to
+discard packets that for one reason or another are invalid. For
+example, packets with a multicast source address are not valid, so we
+can add a flow to drop them at ingress to the switch with:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 \
+ "table=0, dl_src=01:00:00:00:00:00/01:00:00:00:00:00, actions=drop"
+
+A switch should also not forward IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol
+(STP) packets, so we can also add a flow to drop those and other
+packets with reserved multicast protocols:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 \
+ "table=0, dl_dst=01:08:c2:00:00:00/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:f0, actions=drop"
+
+We could add flows to drop other protocols, but these demonstrate the
+pattern.
+
+We need one more flow, with a priority lower than the default, so that
+flows that don't match either of the "drop" flows we added above go on
+to pipeline stage 1 in OpenFlow table 1:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 "table=0, priority=0, actions=resubmit(,1)"
+
+(The "resubmit" action is an Open vSwitch extension to OpenFlow.)
+
+
+Testing Table 0
+---------------
+
+If we were using Open vSwitch to set up a physical or a virtual
+switch, then we would naturally test it by sending packets through it
+one way or another, perhaps with common network testing tools like
+"ping" and "tcpdump" or more specialized tools like Scapy. That's
+difficult with our simulated switch, since it's not visible to the
+operating system.
+
+Bur our simulated switch has a few specialized testing tools. The
+most powerful of these tools is "ofproto/trace". Given a switch and
+the specification of a flow, "ofproto/trace" shows, step-by-step, how
+such a flow would be treated as it goes through the switch.
+
+
+== EXAMPLE 1 ==
+
+Try this command:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_dst=01:08:c2:00:00:05
+
+The output should look something like this:
+
+ Flow: metadata=0,in_port=1,vlan_tci=0x0000,dl_src=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_dst=01:08:c2:00:00:05,dl_type=0x0000
+ Rule: table=0 cookie=0 dl_dst=01:08:c2:00:00:00/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:f0
+ OpenFlow actions=drop
+
+ Final flow: unchanged
+ Datapath actions: drop
+
+The first block of lines describes an OpenFlow table lookup. The
+first line shows the fields used for the table lookup (which is mostly
+zeros because that's the default if we don't specify everything). The
+second line gives the OpenFlow flow that the fields matched (called a
+"rule" because that is the name used inside Open vSwitch for an
+OpenFlow flow). In this case, we see that this packet that has a
+reserved multicast destination address matches the rule that drops
+those packets. The third line gives the rule's OpenFlow actions.
+
+The second block of lines summarizes the results, which are not very
+interesting here.
+
+
+== EXAMPLE 2 ==
+
+Try another command:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_dst=01:08:c2:00:00:10
+
+The output should be:
+
+ Flow: metadata=0,in_port=1,vlan_tci=0x0000,dl_src=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_dst=01:08:c2:00:00:10,dl_type=0x0000
+ Rule: table=0 cookie=0 priority=0
+ OpenFlow actions=resubmit(,1)
+
+ Resubmitted flow: unchanged
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ No match
+
+ Final flow: unchanged
+ Datapath actions: drop
+
+This time the flow we handed to "ofproto/trace" doesn't match any of
+our "drop" rules, so it falls through to the low-priority "resubmit"
+rule, which we see in the rule and the actions selected in the first
+block. The "resubmit" causes a second lookup in OpenFlow table 1,
+described by the additional block of indented text in the output. We
+haven't yet added any flows to OpenFlow table 1, so no flow actually
+matches in the second lookup. Therefore, the packet is still actually
+dropped, which means that the externally observable results would be
+identical to our first example.
+
+
+Implementing Table 1: VLAN Input Processing
+===========================================
+
+A packet that enters table 1 has already passed basic validation in
+table 0. The purpose of table 1 is validate the packet's VLAN, based
+on the VLAN configuration of the switch port through which the packet
+entered the switch. We will also use it to attach a VLAN header to
+packets that arrive on an access port, which allows later processing
+stages to rely on the packet's VLAN always being part of the VLAN
+header, reducing special cases.
+
+Let's start by adding a low-priority flow that drops all packets,
+before we add flows that pass through acceptable packets. You can
+think of this as a "default drop" rule:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 "table=1, priority=0, actions=drop"
+
+Our trunk port p1, on OpenFlow port 1, is an easy case. p1 accepts
+any packet regardless of whether it has a VLAN header or what the VLAN
+was, so we can add a flow that resubmits everything on input port 1 to
+the next table:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 \
+ "table=1, priority=99, in_port=1, actions=resubmit(,2)"
+
+On the access ports, we want to accept any packet that has no VLAN
+header, tag it with the access port's VLAN number, and then pass it
+along to the next stage:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flows br0 - <<'EOF'
+ table=1, priority=99, in_port=2, vlan_tci=0, actions=mod_vlan_vid:20, resubmit(,2)
+ table=1, priority=99, in_port=3, vlan_tci=0, actions=mod_vlan_vid:30, resubmit(,2)
+ table=1, priority=99, in_port=4, vlan_tci=0, actions=mod_vlan_vid:30, resubmit(,2)
+EOF
+
+We don't write any rules that match packets with 802.1Q that enter
+this stage on any of the access ports, so the "default drop" rule we
+added earlier causes them to be dropped, which is ordinarily what we
+want for access ports.
+
+>>> Another variation of access ports allows ingress of packets tagged
+ with VLAN 0 (aka 802.1p priority tagged packets). To allow such
+ packets, replace "vlan_tci=0" by "vlan_tci=0/0xfff" above.
+
+
+Testing Table 1
+---------------
+
+"ofproto/trace" allows us to test the ingress VLAN rules that we added
+above.
+
+
+== EXAMPLE 1: Packet on Trunk Port ==
+
+Here's a test of a packet coming in on the trunk port:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,vlan_tci=5
+
+The output shows the lookup in table 0, the resubmit to table 1, and
+the resubmit to table 2 (which does nothing because we haven't put
+anything there yet):
+
+ Flow: metadata=0,in_port=1,vlan_tci=0x0005,dl_src=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_dst=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_type=0x0000
+ Rule: table=0 cookie=0 priority=0
+ OpenFlow actions=resubmit(,1)
+
+ Resubmitted flow: unchanged
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ Rule: table=1 cookie=0 priority=99,in_port=1
+ OpenFlow actions=resubmit(,2)
+
+ Resubmitted flow: unchanged
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ No match
+
+ Final flow: unchanged
+ Datapath actions: drop
+
+
+== EXAMPLE 2: Valid Packet on Access Port ==
+
+Here's a test of a valid packet (a packet without an 802.1Q header)
+coming in on access port p2:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=2
+
+The output is similar to that for the previous case, except that it
+additionally tags the packet with p2's VLAN 20 before it passes it
+along to table 2:
+
+ Flow: metadata=0,in_port=2,vlan_tci=0x0000,dl_src=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_dst=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_type=0x0000
+ Rule: table=0 cookie=0 priority=0
+ OpenFlow actions=resubmit(,1)
+
+ Resubmitted flow: unchanged
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ Rule: table=1 cookie=0 priority=99,in_port=2,vlan_tci=0x0000
+ OpenFlow actions=mod_vlan_vid:20,resubmit(,2)
+
+ Resubmitted flow: metadata=0,in_port=2,dl_vlan=20,dl_vlan_pcp=0,dl_src=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_dst=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_type=0x0000
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ No match
+
+ Final flow: unchanged
+ Datapath actions: drop
+
+
+== EXAMPLE 3: Invalid Packet on Access Port ==
+
+This tests an invalid packet (one that includes an 802.1Q header)
+coming in on access port p2:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=2,vlan_tci=5
+
+The output shows the packet matching the default drop rule:
+
+ Flow: metadata=0,in_port=2,vlan_tci=0x0005,dl_src=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_dst=00:00:00:00:00:00,dl_type=0x0000
+ Rule: table=0 cookie=0 priority=0
+ OpenFlow actions=resubmit(,1)
+
+ Resubmitted flow: unchanged
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ Rule: table=1 cookie=0 priority=0
+ OpenFlow actions=drop
+
+ Final flow: unchanged
+ Datapath actions: drop
+
+
+Implementing Table 2: MAC+VLAN Learning for Ingress Port
+========================================================
+
+This table allows the switch we're implementing to learn that the
+packet's source MAC is located on the packet's ingress port in the
+packet's VLAN.
+
+>>> This table is a good example why table 1 added a VLAN tag to
+ packets that entered the switch through an access port. We want
+ to associate a MAC+VLAN with a port regardless of whether the VLAN
+ in question was originally part of the packet or whether it was an
+ assumed VLAN associated with an access port.
+
+It only takes a single flow to do this. The following command adds
+it:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 \
+ "table=2 actions=learn(table=10, NXM_OF_VLAN_TCI[0..11], \
+ NXM_OF_ETH_DST[]=NXM_OF_ETH_SRC[], \
+ load:NXM_OF_IN_PORT[]->NXM_NX_REG0[0..15]), \
+ resubmit(,3)"
+
+The "learn" action (an Open vSwitch extension to OpenFlow) modifies a
+flow table based on the content of the flow currently being processed.
+Here's how you can interpret each part of the "learn" action above:
+
+ table=10
+
+ Modify flow table 10. This will be the MAC learning table.
+
+ NXM_OF_VLAN_TCI[0..11]
+
+ Make the flow that we add to flow table 10 match the same VLAN
+ ID that the packet we're currently processing contains. This
+ effectively scopes the MAC learning entry to a single VLAN,
+ which is the ordinary behavior for a VLAN-aware siwtch.
+
+ NXM_OF_ETH_DST[]=NXM_OF_ETH_SRC[]
+
+ Make the flow that we add to flow table 10 match, as Ethernet
+ destination, the Ethernet source address of the packet we're
+ currently processing.
+
+ load:NXM_OF_IN_PORT[]->NXM_NX_REG0[0..15]
+
+ Whereas the preceding parts specify fields for the new flow to
+ match, this specifies an action for the flow to take when it
+ matches. The action is for the flow to load the ingress port
+ number of the current packet into register 0 (a special field
+ that is an Open vSwitch extension to OpenFlow).
+
+>>> A real use of "learn" for MAC learning would probably involve two
+ additional elements. First, the "learn" action would specify a
+ hard_timeout for the new flow, to enable a learned MAC to
+ eventually expire if no new packets were seen from a given source
+ within a reasonable interval. Second, one would usually want to
+ limit resource consumption by using the Flow_Table table in the
+ Open vSwitch configuration database to specify a maximum number of
+ flows in table 10.
+
+This definitely calls for examples.
+
+
+Testing Table 2
+---------------
+
+== EXAMPLE 1 ==
+
+Try the following test command:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,vlan_tci=20,dl_src=50:00:00:00:00:01 -generate
+
+The output shows that "learn" was executed, but it isn't otherwise
+informative, so we won't include it here.
+
+The "-generate" keyword is new. Ordinarily, "ofproto/trace" has no
+side effects: "output" actions do not actually output packets, "learn"
+actions do not actually modify the flow table, and so on. With
+"-generate", though, "ofproto/trace" does execute "learn" actions.
+That's important now, because we want to see the effect of the "learn"
+action on table 10. You can see that by running:
+
+ ovs-ofctl dump-flows br0 table=10
+
+which (omitting the "duration" and "idle_age" fields, which will vary
+based on how soon you ran this command after the previous one, as well
+as some other uninteresting fields) prints something like:
+
+ NXST_FLOW reply (xid=0x4):
+ table=10, vlan_tci=0x0014/0x0fff,dl_dst=50:00:00:00:00:01 actions=load:0x1->NXM_NX_REG0[0..15]
+
+You can see that the packet coming in on VLAN 20 with source MAC
+50:00:00:00:00:01 became a flow that matches VLAN 20 (written in
+hexadecimal) and destination MAC 50:00:00:00:00:01. The flow loads
+port number 1, the input port for the flow we tested, into register 0.
+
+
+== EXAMPLE 2 ==
+
+Here's a second test command:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=2,dl_src=50:00:00:00:00:01 -generate
+
+The flow that this command tests has the same source MAC and VLAN as
+example 1, although the VLAN comes from an access port VLAN rather
+than an 802.1Q header. If we again dump the flows for table 10 with:
+
+ ovs-ofctl dump-flows br0 table=10
+
+then we see that the flow we saw previously has changed to indicate
+that the learned port is port 2, as we would expect:
+
+ NXST_FLOW reply (xid=0x4):
+ table=10, vlan_tci=0x0014/0x0fff,dl_dst=50:00:00:00:00:01 actions=load:0x2->NXM_NX_REG0[0..15]
+
+
+Implementing Table 3: Look Up Destination Port
+==============================================
+
+This table figures out what port we should send the packet to based on
+the destination MAC and VLAN. That is, if we've learned the location
+of the destination (from table 2 processing some previous packet with
+that destination as its source), then we want to send the packet
+there.
+
+We need only one flow to do the lookup:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 \
+ "table=3 priority=50 actions=resubmit(,10), resubmit(,4)"
+
+The flow's first action resubmits to table 10, the table that the
+"learn" action modifies. As you saw previously, the learned flows in
+this table write the learned port into register 0. If the destination
+for our packet hasn't been learned, then there will be no matching
+flow, and so the "resubmit" turns into a no-op. Because registers are
+initialized to 0, we can use a register 0 value of 0 in our next
+pipeline stage as a signal to flood the packet.
+
+The second action resubmits to table 4, continuing to the next
+pipeline stage.
+
+We can add another flow to skip the learning table lookup for
+multicast and broadcast packets, since those should always be flooded:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 \
+ "table=3 priority=99 dl_dst=01:00:00:00:00:00/01:00:00:00:00:00 \
+ actions=resubmit(,4)"
+
+>>> We don't strictly need to add this flow, because multicast
+ addresses will never show up in our learning table. (In turn,
+ that's because we put a flow into table 0 to drop packets that
+ have a multicast source address.)
+
+
+Testing Table 3
+---------------
+
+== EXAMPLE ==
+
+Here's a command that should cause OVS to learn that f0:00:00:00:00:01
+is on p1 in VLAN 20:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_vlan=20,dl_src=f0:00:00:00:00:01,dl_dst=90:00:00:00:00:01 -generate
+
+Here's an excerpt from the output that shows (from the "no match"
+looking up the resubmit to table 10) that the flow's destination was
+unknown:
+
+ Resubmitted flow: unchanged
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ Rule: table=3 cookie=0 priority=50
+ OpenFlow actions=resubmit(,10),resubmit(,4)
+
+ Resubmitted flow: unchanged
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ No match
+
+You can verify that the packet's source was learned two ways. The
+most direct way is to dump the learning table with:
+
+ ovs-ofctl dump-flows br0 table=10
+
+which ought to show roughly the following, with extraneous details
+removed:
+
+ table=10, vlan_tci=0x0014/0x0fff,dl_dst=f0:00:00:00:00:01 actions=load:0x1->NXM_NX_REG0[0..15]
+
+>>> If you tried the examples for the previous step, or if you did
+ some of your own experiments, then you might see additional flows
+ there. These additional flows are harmless. If they bother you,
+ then you can remove them with "ovs-ofctl del-flows br0 table=10".
+
+The other way is to inject a packet to take advantage of the learning
+entry. For example, we can inject a packet on p2 whose destination is
+the MAC address that we just learned on p1:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=2,dl_src=90:00:00:00:00:01,dl_dst=f0:00:00:00:00:01 -generate
+
+Here's an interesting excerpt from that command's output. This group
+of lines traces the "resubmit(,10)", showing that the packet matched
+the learned flow for the first MAC we used, loading the OpenFlow port
+number for the learned port p1 into register 0:
+
+ Resubmitted flow: unchanged
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ Rule: table=10 cookie=0 vlan_tci=0x0014/0x0fff,dl_dst=f0:00:00:00:00:01
+ OpenFlow actions=load:0x1->NXM_NX_REG0[0..15]
+
+
+If you read the commands above carefully, then you might have noticed
+that they simply have the Ethernet source and destination addresses
+exchanged. That means that if we now rerun the first ovs-appctl
+command above, e.g.:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_vlan=20,dl_src=f0:00:00:00:00:01,dl_dst=90:00:00:00:00:01 -generate
+
+then we see in the output that the destination has now been learned:
+
+ Resubmitted flow: unchanged
+ Resubmitted regs: reg0=0x0 reg1=0x0 reg2=0x0 reg3=0x0 reg4=0x0 reg5=0x0 reg6=0x0 reg7=0x0
+ Resubmitted odp: drop
+ Rule: table=10 cookie=0 vlan_tci=0x0014/0x0fff,dl_dst=90:00:00:00:00:01
+ OpenFlow actions=load:0x2->NXM_NX_REG0[0..15]
+
+
+Implementing Table 4: Output Processing
+=======================================
+
+At entry to stage 4, we know that register 0 contains either the
+desired output port or is zero if the packet should be flooded. We
+also know that the packet's VLAN is in its 802.1Q header, even if the
+VLAN was implicit because the packet came in on an access port.
+
+The job of the final pipeline stage is to actually output packets.
+The job is trivial for output to our trunk port p1:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flow br0 "table=4 reg0=1 actions=1"
+
+For output to the access ports, we just have to strip the VLAN header
+before outputting the packet:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flows br0 - <<'EOF'
+ table=4 reg0=2 actions=strip_vlan,2
+ table=4 reg0=3 actions=strip_vlan,3
+ table=4 reg0=4 actions=strip_vlan,4
+EOF
+
+The only slightly tricky part is flooding multicast and broadcast
+packets and unicast packets with unlearned destinations. For those,
+we need to make sure that we only output the packets to the ports that
+carry our packet's VLAN, and that we include the 802.1Q header in the
+copy output to the trunk port but not in copies output to access
+ports:
+
+ ovs-ofctl add-flows br0 - <<'EOF'
+ table=4 reg0=0 priority=99 dl_vlan=20 actions=1,strip_vlan,2
+ table=4 reg0=0 priority=99 dl_vlan=30 actions=1,strip_vlan,3,4
+ table=4 reg0=0 priority=50 actions=1
+EOF
+
+>>> Our rules rely on the standard OpenFlow behavior that an output
+ action will not forward a packet back out the port it came in on.
+ That is, if a packet comes in on p1, and we've learned that the
+ packet's destination MAC is also on p1, so that we end up with
+ "actions=1" as our actions, the switch will not forward the packet
+ back out its input port. The multicast/broadcast/unknown
+ destination cases above also rely on this behavior.
+
+
+Testing Table 4
+---------------
+
+== EXAMPLE 1: Broadcast, Multicast, and Unknown Destination ==
+
+Try tracing a broadcast packet arriving on p1 in VLAN 30:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_dst=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff,dl_vlan=30
+
+The interesting part of the output is the final line, which shows that
+the switch would remove the 802.1Q header and then output the packet to
+p3 and p4, which are access ports for VLAN 30:
+
+ Datapath actions: pop_vlan,3,4
+
+Similarly, if we trace a broadcast packet arriving on p3:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=3,dl_dst=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
+
+then we see that it is output to p1 with an 802.1Q tag and then to p4
+without one:
+
+ Datapath actions: push_vlan(vid=30,pcp=0),1,pop_vlan,4
+
+>>> Open vSwitch could simplify the datapath actions here to just
+ "4,push_vlan(vid=30,pcp=0),1" but it is not smart enough to do so.
+
+The following are also broadcasts, but the result is to drop the
+packets because the VLAN only belongs to the input port:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_dst=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_dst=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff,dl_vlan=55
+
+Try some other broadcast cases on your own:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_dst=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff,dl_vlan=20
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=2,dl_dst=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=4,dl_dst=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
+
+You can see the same behavior with multicast packets and with unicast
+packets whose destination has not been learned, e.g.:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=4,dl_dst=01:00:00:00:00:00
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_dst=90:12:34:56:78:90,dl_vlan=20
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_dst=90:12:34:56:78:90,dl_vlan=30
+
+
+== EXAMPLE 2: MAC Learning ==
+
+Let's follow the same pattern as we did for table 3. First learn a
+MAC on port p1 in VLAN 30:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_vlan=30,dl_src=10:00:00:00:00:01,dl_dst=20:00:00:00:00:01 -generate
+
+You can see from the last line of output that the packet's destination
+is unknown, so it gets flooded to both p3 and p4, the other ports in
+VLAN 30:
+
+ Datapath actions: pop_vlan,3,4
+
+Then reverse the MACs and learn the first flow's destination on port
+p4:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=4,dl_src=20:00:00:00:00:01,dl_dst=10:00:00:00:00:01 -generate
+
+The last line of output shows that the this packet's destination is
+known to be p1, as learned from our previous command:
+
+ Datapath actions: push_vlan(vid=30,pcp=0),1
+
+Now, if we rerun our first command:
+
+ ovs-appctl ofproto/trace br0 in_port=1,dl_vlan=30,dl_src=10:00:00:00:00:01,dl_dst=20:00:00:00:00:01 -generate
+
+we can see that the result is no longer a flood but to the specified
+learned destination port p4:
+
+ Datapath actions: pop_vlan,4
+
+
+Contact
+=======
+
+bugs@openvswitch.org
+http://openvswitch.org/
projects / cascardo / ovs.git / commitdiff