# ovs-testcontroller

## 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/TLS
                  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/TLS
                  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/TLS peers.  (This may be the same
                  certificate that SSL/TLS 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/TLS
                  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/TLS 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/TLS 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/TLS 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:**
    


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