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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/networking/openvswitch.txt | 248 |
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diff --git a/Documentation/networking/openvswitch.txt b/Documentation/networking/openvswitch.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b3b9ac61d --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/networking/openvswitch.txt @@ -0,0 +1,248 @@ +Open vSwitch datapath developer documentation +============================================= + +The Open vSwitch kernel module allows flexible userspace control over +flow-level packet processing on selected network devices. It can be +used to implement a plain Ethernet switch, network device bonding, +VLAN processing, network access control, flow-based network control, +and so on. + +The kernel module implements multiple "datapaths" (analogous to +bridges), each of which can have multiple "vports" (analogous to ports +within a bridge). Each datapath also has associated with it a "flow +table" that userspace populates with "flows" that map from keys based +on packet headers and metadata to sets of actions. The most common +action forwards the packet to another vport; other actions are also +implemented. + +When a packet arrives on a vport, the kernel module processes it by +extracting its flow key and looking it up in the flow table. If there +is a matching flow, it executes the associated actions. If there is +no match, it queues the packet to userspace for processing (as part of +its processing, userspace will likely set up a flow to handle further +packets of the same type entirely in-kernel). + + +Flow key compatibility +---------------------- + +Network protocols evolve over time. New protocols become important +and existing protocols lose their prominence. For the Open vSwitch +kernel module to remain relevant, it must be possible for newer +versions to parse additional protocols as part of the flow key. It +might even be desirable, someday, to drop support for parsing +protocols that have become obsolete. Therefore, the Netlink interface +to Open vSwitch is designed to allow carefully written userspace +applications to work with any version of the flow key, past or future. + +To support this forward and backward compatibility, whenever the +kernel module passes a packet to userspace, it also passes along the +flow key that it parsed from the packet. Userspace then extracts its +own notion of a flow key from the packet and compares it against the +kernel-provided version: + + - If userspace's notion of the flow key for the packet matches the + kernel's, then nothing special is necessary. + + - If the kernel's flow key includes more fields than the userspace + version of the flow key, for example if the kernel decoded IPv6 + headers but userspace stopped at the Ethernet type (because it + does not understand IPv6), then again nothing special is + necessary. Userspace can still set up a flow in the usual way, + as long as it uses the kernel-provided flow key to do it. + + - If the userspace flow key includes more fields than the + kernel's, for example if userspace decoded an IPv6 header but + the kernel stopped at the Ethernet type, then userspace can + forward the packet manually, without setting up a flow in the + kernel. This case is bad for performance because every packet + that the kernel considers part of the flow must go to userspace, + but the forwarding behavior is correct. (If userspace can + determine that the values of the extra fields would not affect + forwarding behavior, then it could set up a flow anyway.) + +How flow keys evolve over time is important to making this work, so +the following sections go into detail. + + +Flow key format +--------------- + +A flow key is passed over a Netlink socket as a sequence of Netlink +attributes. Some attributes represent packet metadata, defined as any +information about a packet that cannot be extracted from the packet +itself, e.g. the vport on which the packet was received. Most +attributes, however, are extracted from headers within the packet, +e.g. source and destination addresses from Ethernet, IP, or TCP +headers. + +The <linux/openvswitch.h> header file defines the exact format of the +flow key attributes. For informal explanatory purposes here, we write +them as comma-separated strings, with parentheses indicating arguments +and nesting. For example, the following could represent a flow key +corresponding to a TCP packet that arrived on vport 1: + + in_port(1), eth(src=e0:91:f5:21:d0:b2, dst=00:02:e3:0f:80:a4), + eth_type(0x0800), ipv4(src=172.16.0.20, dst=172.18.0.52, proto=17, tos=0, + frag=no), tcp(src=49163, dst=80) + +Often we ellipsize arguments not important to the discussion, e.g.: + + in_port(1), eth(...), eth_type(0x0800), ipv4(...), tcp(...) + + +Wildcarded flow key format +-------------------------- + +A wildcarded flow is described with two sequences of Netlink attributes +passed over the Netlink socket. A flow key, exactly as described above, and an +optional corresponding flow mask. + +A wildcarded flow can represent a group of exact match flows. Each '1' bit +in the mask specifies a exact match with the corresponding bit in the flow key. +A '0' bit specifies a don't care bit, which will match either a '1' or '0' bit +of a incoming packet. Using wildcarded flow can improve the flow set up rate +by reduce the number of new flows need to be processed by the user space program. + +Support for the mask Netlink attribute is optional for both the kernel and user +space program. The kernel can ignore the mask attribute, installing an exact +match flow, or reduce the number of don't care bits in the kernel to less than +what was specified by the user space program. In this case, variations in bits +that the kernel does not implement will simply result in additional flow setups. +The kernel module will also work with user space programs that neither support +nor supply flow mask attributes. + +Since the kernel may ignore or modify wildcard bits, it can be difficult for +the userspace program to know exactly what matches are installed. There are +two possible approaches: reactively install flows as they miss the kernel +flow table (and therefore not attempt to determine wildcard changes at all) +or use the kernel's response messages to determine the installed wildcards. + +When interacting with userspace, the kernel should maintain the match portion +of the key exactly as originally installed. This will provides a handle to +identify the flow for all future operations. However, when reporting the +mask of an installed flow, the mask should include any restrictions imposed +by the kernel. + +The behavior when using overlapping wildcarded flows is undefined. It is the +responsibility of the user space program to ensure that any incoming packet +can match at most one flow, wildcarded or not. The current implementation +performs best-effort detection of overlapping wildcarded flows and may reject +some but not all of them. However, this behavior may change in future versions. + + +Unique flow identifiers +----------------------- + +An alternative to using the original match portion of a key as the handle for +flow identification is a unique flow identifier, or "UFID". UFIDs are optional +for both the kernel and user space program. + +User space programs that support UFID are expected to provide it during flow +setup in addition to the flow, then refer to the flow using the UFID for all +future operations. The kernel is not required to index flows by the original +flow key if a UFID is specified. + + +Basic rule for evolving flow keys +--------------------------------- + +Some care is needed to really maintain forward and backward +compatibility for applications that follow the rules listed under +"Flow key compatibility" above. + +The basic rule is obvious: + + ------------------------------------------------------------------ + New network protocol support must only supplement existing flow + key attributes. It must not change the meaning of already defined + flow key attributes. + ------------------------------------------------------------------ + +This rule does have less-obvious consequences so it is worth working +through a few examples. Suppose, for example, that the kernel module +did not already implement VLAN parsing. Instead, it just interpreted +the 802.1Q TPID (0x8100) as the Ethertype then stopped parsing the +packet. The flow key for any packet with an 802.1Q header would look +essentially like this, ignoring metadata: + + eth(...), eth_type(0x8100) + +Naively, to add VLAN support, it makes sense to add a new "vlan" flow +key attribute to contain the VLAN tag, then continue to decode the +encapsulated headers beyond the VLAN tag using the existing field +definitions. With this change, a TCP packet in VLAN 10 would have a +flow key much like this: + + eth(...), vlan(vid=10, pcp=0), eth_type(0x0800), ip(proto=6, ...), tcp(...) + +But this change would negatively affect a userspace application that +has not been updated to understand the new "vlan" flow key attribute. +The application could, following the flow compatibility rules above, +ignore the "vlan" attribute that it does not understand and therefore +assume that the flow contained IP packets. This is a bad assumption +(the flow only contains IP packets if one parses and skips over the +802.1Q header) and it could cause the application's behavior to change +across kernel versions even though it follows the compatibility rules. + +The solution is to use a set of nested attributes. This is, for +example, why 802.1Q support uses nested attributes. A TCP packet in +VLAN 10 is actually expressed as: + + eth(...), eth_type(0x8100), vlan(vid=10, pcp=0), encap(eth_type(0x0800), + ip(proto=6, ...), tcp(...))) + +Notice how the "eth_type", "ip", and "tcp" flow key attributes are +nested inside the "encap" attribute. Thus, an application that does +not understand the "vlan" key will not see either of those attributes +and therefore will not misinterpret them. (Also, the outer eth_type +is still 0x8100, not changed to 0x0800.) + +Handling malformed packets +-------------------------- + +Don't drop packets in the kernel for malformed protocol headers, bad +checksums, etc. This would prevent userspace from implementing a +simple Ethernet switch that forwards every packet. + +Instead, in such a case, include an attribute with "empty" content. +It doesn't matter if the empty content could be valid protocol values, +as long as those values are rarely seen in practice, because userspace +can always forward all packets with those values to userspace and +handle them individually. + +For example, consider a packet that contains an IP header that +indicates protocol 6 for TCP, but which is truncated just after the IP +header, so that the TCP header is missing. The flow key for this +packet would include a tcp attribute with all-zero src and dst, like +this: + + eth(...), eth_type(0x0800), ip(proto=6, ...), tcp(src=0, dst=0) + +As another example, consider a packet with an Ethernet type of 0x8100, +indicating that a VLAN TCI should follow, but which is truncated just +after the Ethernet type. The flow key for this packet would include +an all-zero-bits vlan and an empty encap attribute, like this: + + eth(...), eth_type(0x8100), vlan(0), encap() + +Unlike a TCP packet with source and destination ports 0, an +all-zero-bits VLAN TCI is not that rare, so the CFI bit (aka +VLAN_TAG_PRESENT inside the kernel) is ordinarily set in a vlan +attribute expressly to allow this situation to be distinguished. +Thus, the flow key in this second example unambiguously indicates a +missing or malformed VLAN TCI. + +Other rules +----------- + +The other rules for flow keys are much less subtle: + + - Duplicate attributes are not allowed at a given nesting level. + + - Ordering of attributes is not significant. + + - When the kernel sends a given flow key to userspace, it always + composes it the same way. This allows userspace to hash and + compare entire flow keys that it may not be able to fully + interpret. |