1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2 <database name="ovn-nb" title="OVN Northbound Database">
4 This database is the interface between OVN and the cloud management system
5 (CMS), such as OpenStack, running above it. The CMS produces almost all of
6 the contents of the database. The <code>ovn-northd</code> program
7 monitors the database contents, transforms it, and stores it into the <ref
8 db="OVN_Southbound"/> database.
12 We generally speak of ``the'' CMS, but one can imagine scenarios in
13 which multiple CMSes manage different parts of an OVN deployment.
19 Each of the tables in this database contains a special column, named
20 <code>external_ids</code>. This column has the same form and purpose each
25 <dt><code>external_ids</code>: map of string-string pairs</dt>
27 Key-value pairs for use by the CMS. The CMS might use certain pairs, for
28 example, to identify entities in its own configuration that correspond to
29 those in this database.
33 <table name="Logical_Switch" title="L2 logical switch">
35 Each row represents one L2 logical switch.
40 A name for the logical switch. This name has no special meaning or purpose
41 other than to provide convenience for human interaction with the ovn-nb
42 database. There is no requirement for the name to be unique. The
43 logical switch's UUID should be used as the unique identifier.
49 The logical ports connected to the logical switch.
53 It is an error for multiple logical switches to include the same
59 Access control rules that apply to packets within the logical switch.
62 <group title="Common Columns">
63 <column name="external_ids">
64 See <em>External IDs</em> at the beginning of this document.
69 <table name="Logical_Port" title="L2 logical switch port">
71 A port within an L2 logical switch.
74 <group title="Core Features">
77 The logical port name.
81 For entities (VMs or containers) that are spawned in the hypervisor,
82 the name used here must match those used in the <ref key="iface-id"
83 table="Interface" column="external_ids" db="Open_vSwitch"/> in the
84 <ref db="Open_vSwitch"/> database's <ref table="Interface"
85 db="Open_vSwitch"/> table, because hypervisors use <ref key="iface-id"
86 table="Interface" column="external_ids" db="Open_vSwitch"/> as a lookup
87 key to identify the network interface of that entity.
91 For containers that share a VIF within a VM, the name can be any
92 unique identifier. See <code>Containers</code>, below, for more
99 Specify a type for this logical port. Logical ports can be used to
100 model other types of connectivity into an OVN logical switch. The
101 following types are defined:
105 <dt>(empty string)</dt>
107 A VM (or VIF) interface.
110 <dt><code>router</code></dt>
112 A connection to a logical router.
115 <dt><code>localnet</code></dt>
117 A connection to a locally accessible network from each
118 <code>ovn-controller</code> instance. A logical switch can only
119 have a single <code>localnet</code> port attached and at most one
120 regular logical port. This is used to model direct connectivity to
124 <dt><code>vtep</code></dt>
126 A port to a logical switch on a VTEP gateway.
132 <group title="Options">
133 <column name="options">
134 This column provides key/value settings specific to the logical port
135 <ref column="type"/>. The type-specific options are described
139 <group title="Options for router ports">
141 These options apply when <ref column="type"/> is <code>router</code>.
145 If a given logical switch has multiple <code>router</code> ports, the
146 <ref table="Logical_Router_Port"/> rows that they reference must be
147 all on the same <ref table="Logical_Router"/> (for different
151 <column name="options" key="router-port">
152 Required. The <ref column="name"/> of the <ref
153 table="Logical_Router_Port"/> to which this logical switch port is
158 <group title="Options for localnet ports">
160 These options apply when <ref column="type"/> is
161 <code>localnet</code>.
164 <column name="options" key="network_name">
165 Required. The name of the network to which the <code>localnet</code>
166 port is connected. Each hypervisor, via <code>ovn-controller</code>,
167 uses its local configuration to determine exactly how to connect to
168 this locally accessible network.
172 <group title="Options for vtep ports">
174 These options apply when <ref column="type"/> is <code>vtep</code>.
177 <column name="options" key="vtep-physical-switch">
178 Required. The name of the VTEP gateway.
181 <column name="options" key="vtep-logical-switch">
182 Required. A logical switch name connected by the VTEP gateway.
186 <group title="VMI (or VIF) Options">
188 These options apply to logical ports with <ref column="type"/> having
192 <column name="options" key="policing_rate">
193 If set, indicates the maximum rate for data sent from this interface,
194 in kbps. Data exceeding this rate is dropped.
197 <column name="options" key="policing_burst">
198 If set, indicates the maximum burst size for data sent from this
204 <group title="Containers">
206 When a large number of containers are nested within a VM, it may be too
207 expensive to dedicate a VIF to each container. OVN can use VLAN tags
208 to support such cases. Each container is assigned a VLAN ID and each
209 packet that passes between the hypervisor and the VM is tagged with the
210 appropriate ID for the container. Such VLAN IDs never appear on a
211 physical wire, even inside a tunnel, so they need not be unique except
212 relative to a single VM on a hypervisor.
216 These columns are used for VIFs that represent nested containers using
217 shared VIFs. For VMs and for containers that have dedicated VIFs, they
221 <column name="parent_name">
222 The VM interface through which the nested container sends its network
223 traffic. This must match the <ref column="name"/> column for some
224 other <ref table="Logical_Port"/>.
229 The VLAN tag in the network traffic associated with a container's
234 When <ref column="type"/> is set to <code>localnet</code>, this can
235 be set to indicate that the port represents a connection to a
236 specific VLAN on a locally accessible network. The VLAN ID is used to
237 match incoming traffic and is also added to outgoing traffic.
242 <group title="Port State">
244 This column is populated by <code>ovn-northd</code>, rather than by the
245 CMS plugin as is most of this database. When a logical port is bound
246 to a physical location in the OVN Southbound database <ref
247 db="OVN_Southbound" table="Binding"/> table, <code>ovn-northd</code>
248 sets this column to <code>true</code>; otherwise, or if the port
249 becomes unbound later, it sets it to <code>false</code>. This allows
250 the CMS to wait for a VM's (or container's) networking to become active
251 before it allows the VM (or container) to start.
254 <column name="enabled">
255 This column is used to administratively set port state. If this column
256 is empty or is set to <code>true</code>, the port is enabled. If this
257 column is set to <code>false</code>, the port is disabled. A disabled
258 port has all ingress and egress traffic dropped.
263 <group title="Addressing">
264 <column name="addresses">
266 Addresses owned by the logical port.
270 Each element in the set must take one of the following forms:
274 <dt><code><var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var></code></dt>
277 An Ethernet address owned by the logical port. Like a physical
278 Ethernet NIC, a logical port ordinarily has a single fixed
283 When a OVN logical switch processes a unicast Ethernet frame
284 whose destination MAC address is in a logical port's <ref
285 column="addresses"/> column, it delivers it only to that port, as
286 if a MAC learning process had learned that MAC address on the
291 <dt><code><var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var> <var>a</var>.<var>b</var>.<var>c</var>.<var>d</var></code></dt>
294 This form has all the effects of the previous form. It also
295 indicates that the logical port owns the given IPv4 address.
299 The OVN logical switch uses this information to synthesize
300 responses to ARP requests without traversing the physical
301 network. The OVN logical router connected to the logical switch,
302 if any, uses this information to avoid issuing ARP requests for
303 logical switch ports.
307 Note that the order here is important. The Ethernet address must
308 be listed before the IP address.
312 <dt><code>unknown</code></dt>
314 This indicates that the logical port has an unknown set of Ethernet
315 addresses. When an OVN logical switch processes a unicast Ethernet
316 frame whose destination MAC address is not in any logical port's
317 <ref column="addresses"/> column, it delivers it to the port (or
318 ports) whose <ref column="addresses"/> columns include
319 <code>unknown</code>.
324 <column name="port_security">
326 A set of L2 (Ethernet) addresses from which the logical port is
327 allowed to send packets and to which it is allowed to receive
328 packets. If this column is empty, all addresses are permitted.
329 Logical ports are always allowed to receive packets addressed to
330 multicast and broadcast addresses.
334 Each member of the set is an Ethernet address in the form
335 <var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>.
339 This specification will be extended to support L3 port security.
344 <group title="Common Columns">
345 <column name="external_ids">
346 See <em>External IDs</em> at the beginning of this document.
351 <table name="ACL" title="Access Control List (ACL) rule">
353 Each row in this table represents one ACL rule for a logical switch
354 that points to it through its <ref column="acls"/> column. The <ref
355 column="action"/> column for the highest-<ref column="priority"/>
356 matching row in this table determines a packet's treatment. If no row
357 matches, packets are allowed by default. (Default-deny treatment is
358 possible: add a rule with <ref column="priority"/> 0, <code>0</code> as
359 <ref column="match"/>, and <code>deny</code> as <ref column="action"/>.)
362 <column name="priority">
364 The ACL rule's priority. Rules with numerically higher priority
365 take precedence over those with lower. If two ACL rules with
366 the same priority both match, then the one actually applied to a
371 Return traffic from an <code>allow-related</code> flow is always
372 allowed and cannot be changed through an ACL.
376 <column name="direction">
377 <p>Direction of the traffic to which this rule should apply:</p>
380 <code>from-lport</code>: Used to implement filters on traffic
381 arriving from a logical port. These rules are applied to the
382 logical switch's ingress pipeline.
385 <code>to-lport</code>: Used to implement filters on traffic
386 forwarded to a logical port. These rules are applied to the
387 logical switch's egress pipeline.
392 <column name="match">
394 The packets that the ACL should match, in the same expression
395 language used for the <ref column="match" table="Logical_Flow"
396 db="OVN_Southbound"/> column in the OVN Southbound database's
397 <ref table="Logical_Flow" db="OVN_Southbound"/> table. The
398 <code>outport</code> logical port is only available in the
399 <code>to-lport</code> direction (the <code>inport</code> is
400 available in both directions).
404 By default all traffic is allowed. When writing a more
405 restrictive policy, it is important to remember to allow flows
406 such as ARP and IPv6 neighbor discovery packets.
410 Note that you can not create an ACL matching on a port with
415 <column name="action">
416 <p>The action to take when the ACL rule matches:</p>
419 <code>allow</code>: Forward the packet.
423 <code>allow-related</code>: Forward the packet and related traffic
424 (e.g. inbound replies to an outbound connection).
428 <code>drop</code>: Silently drop the packet.
432 <code>reject</code>: Drop the packet, replying with a RST for TCP or
433 ICMP unreachable message for other IP-based protocols.
434 <code>Not implemented--currently treated as drop</code>
441 If set to <code>true</code>, packets that match the ACL will trigger a
442 log message on the transport node or nodes that perform ACL processing.
443 Logging may be combined with any <ref column="action"/>.
447 Logging is not yet implemented.
451 <group title="Common Columns">
452 <column name="external_ids">
453 See <em>External IDs</em> at the beginning of this document.
458 <table name="Logical_Router" title="L3 logical router">
460 Each row represents one L3 logical router.
465 A name for the logical router. This name has no special meaning or purpose
466 other than to provide convenience for human interaction with the ovn-nb
467 database. There is no requirement for the name to be unique. The
468 logical router's UUID should be used as the unique identifier.
472 <column name="ports">
476 <column name="default_gw">
477 IP address to use as default gateway, if any.
480 <group title="Common Columns">
481 <column name="external_ids">
482 See <em>External IDs</em> at the beginning of this document.
487 <table name="Logical_Router_Port" title="L3 logical router port">
489 A port within an L3 logical router.
493 Exactly one <ref table="Logical_Router"/> row must reference a given
499 A name for the logical router port.
503 In addition to provide convenience for human interaction with the
504 ovn-nb database, this column is used as reference by its patch port in
505 <ref table="Logical_Port"/> or another logical router port in <ref
506 table="Logical_Router_Port"/>.
510 <column name="network">
511 The IP address of the router and the netmask. For example,
512 <code>192.168.0.1/24</code> indicates that the router's IP address is
513 192.168.0.1 and that packets destined to 192.168.0.<var>x</var> should be
518 The Ethernet address that belongs to this router port.
521 <column name="enabled">
522 This column is used to administratively set port state. If this column
523 is empty or is set to <code>true</code>, the port is enabled. If this
524 column is set to <code>false</code>, the port is disabled. A disabled
525 port has all ingress and egress traffic dropped.
528 <group title="Attachment">
530 A given router port serves one of two purposes:
535 To attach a logical switch to a logical router. A logical router
536 port of this type is referenced by exactly one <ref
537 table="Logical_Port"/> of type <code>router</code>. The value of
538 <ref column="name"/> is set as <code>router-port</code> in column
539 <ref column="options"/> of <ref table="Logical_Port"/>.
540 In this case <ref column="peer"/> column is empty.
544 To connect one logical router to another. This requires a pair of
545 logical router ports, each connected to a different router. Each
546 router port in the pair specifies the other in its <ref
547 column="peer"/> column. No <ref table="Logical_Switch"/> refers to
554 For a router port used to connect two logical routers, this
555 identifies the other router port in the pair by <ref column="name"/>.
559 For a router port attached to a logical switch, this column is empty.
564 <group title="Common Columns">
565 <column name="external_ids">
566 See <em>External IDs</em> at the beginning of this document.