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 A given logical switch may have at most one logical port of type
146 <code>router</code>. (This is not a significant restriction because
147 logical routers may be connected into arbitrary topologies.)
150 <column name="options" key="router-port" type='{"type": "uuid"}'>
151 Required. The UUID of the <ref table="Logical_Router_Port"/> to
152 which this logical switch port is connected.
156 <group title="Options for localnet ports">
158 These options apply when <ref column="type"/> is
159 <code>localnet</code>.
162 <column name="options" key="network_name">
163 Required. The name of the network to which the <code>localnet</code>
164 port is connected. Each hypervisor, via <code>ovn-controller</code>,
165 uses its local configuration to determine exactly how to connect to
166 this locally accessible network.
170 <group title="Options for vtep ports">
172 These options apply when <ref column="type"/> is <code>vtep</code>.
175 <column name="options" key="vtep-physical-switch">
176 Required. The name of the VTEP gateway.
179 <column name="options" key="vtep-logical-switch">
180 Required. A logical switch name connected by the VTEP gateway.
185 <group title="Containers">
187 When a large number of containers are nested within a VM, it may be too
188 expensive to dedicate a VIF to each container. OVN can use VLAN tags
189 to support such cases. Each container is assigned a VLAN ID and each
190 packet that passes between the hypervisor and the VM is tagged with the
191 appropriate ID for the container. Such VLAN IDs never appear on a
192 physical wire, even inside a tunnel, so they need not be unique except
193 relative to a single VM on a hypervisor.
197 These columns are used for VIFs that represent nested containers using
198 shared VIFs. For VMs and for containers that have dedicated VIFs, they
202 <column name="parent_name">
203 The VM interface through which the nested container sends its network
204 traffic. This must match the <ref column="name"/> column for some
205 other <ref table="Logical_Port"/>.
210 The VLAN tag in the network traffic associated with a container's
215 When <ref column="type"/> is set to <code>localnet</code>, this can
216 be set to indicate that the port represents a connection to a
217 specific VLAN on a locally accessible network. The VLAN ID is used to
218 match incoming traffic and is also added to outgoing traffic.
223 <group title="Port State">
225 This column is populated by <code>ovn-northd</code>, rather than by the
226 CMS plugin as is most of this database. When a logical port is bound
227 to a physical location in the OVN Southbound database <ref
228 db="OVN_Southbound" table="Binding"/> table, <code>ovn-northd</code>
229 sets this column to <code>true</code>; otherwise, or if the port
230 becomes unbound later, it sets it to <code>false</code>. This allows
231 the CMS to wait for a VM's (or container's) networking to become active
232 before it allows the VM (or container) to start.
235 <column name="enabled">
236 This column is used to administratively set port state. If this column
237 is empty or is set to <code>true</code>, the port is enabled. If this
238 column is set to <code>false</code>, the port is disabled. A disabled
239 port has all ingress and egress traffic dropped.
244 <group title="Addressing">
245 <column name="addresses">
247 Addresses owned by the logical port.
251 Each element in the set must take one of the following forms:
255 <dt><code><var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var></code></dt>
258 An Ethernet address owned by the logical port. Like a physical
259 Ethernet NIC, a logical port ordinarily has a single fixed
264 When a OVN logical switch processes a unicast Ethernet frame
265 whose destination MAC address is in a logical port's <ref
266 column="addresses"/> column, it delivers it only to that port, as
267 if a MAC learning process had learned that MAC address on the
272 <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>
275 This form has all the effects of the previous form. It also
276 indicates that the logical port owns the given IPv4 address.
280 The OVN logical switch uses this information to synthesize
281 responses to ARP requests without traversing the physical
282 network. The OVN logical router connected to the logical switch,
283 if any, uses this information to avoid issuing ARP requests for
284 logical switch ports.
288 <dt><code>unknown</code></dt>
290 This indicates that the logical port has an unknown set of Ethernet
291 addresses. When an OVN logical switch processes a unicast Ethernet
292 frame whose destination MAC address is not in any logical port's
293 <ref column="addresses"/> column, it delivers it to the port (or
294 ports) whose <ref column="addresses"/> columns include
295 <code>unknown</code>.
300 <column name="port_security">
302 A set of L2 (Ethernet) addresses from which the logical port is
303 allowed to send packets and to which it is allowed to receive
304 packets. If this column is empty, all addresses are permitted.
305 Logical ports are always allowed to receive packets addressed to
306 multicast and broadcast addresses.
310 Each member of the set is an Ethernet address in the form
311 <var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>.
315 This specification will be extended to support L3 port security.
320 <group title="Common Columns">
321 <column name="external_ids">
322 See <em>External IDs</em> at the beginning of this document.
327 <table name="ACL" title="Access Control List (ACL) rule">
329 Each row in this table represents one ACL rule for a logical switch
330 that points to it through its <ref column="acls"/> column. The <ref
331 column="action"/> column for the highest-<ref column="priority"/>
332 matching row in this table determines a packet's treatment. If no row
333 matches, packets are allowed by default. (Default-deny treatment is
334 possible: add a rule with <ref column="priority"/> 1, <code>1</code> as
335 <ref column="match"/>, and <code>deny</code> as <ref column="action"/>.)
338 <column name="priority">
340 The ACL rule's priority. Rules with numerically higher priority
341 take precedence over those with lower. If two ACL rules with
342 the same priority both match, then the one actually applied to a
347 Return traffic from an <code>allow-related</code> flow is always
348 allowed and cannot be changed through an ACL.
352 <column name="direction">
353 <p>Direction of the traffic to which this rule should apply:</p>
356 <code>from-lport</code>: Used to implement filters on traffic
357 arriving from a logical port. These rules are applied to the
358 logical switch's ingress pipeline.
361 <code>to-lport</code>: Used to implement filters on traffic
362 forwarded to a logical port. These rules are applied to the
363 logical switch's egress pipeline.
368 <column name="match">
370 The packets that the ACL should match, in the same expression
371 language used for the <ref column="match" table="Logical_Flow"
372 db="OVN_Southbound"/> column in the OVN Southbound database's
373 <ref table="Logical_Flow" db="OVN_Southbound"/> table. The
374 <code>outport</code> logical port is only available in the
375 <code>to-lport</code> direction (the <code>inport</code> is
376 available in both directions).
380 By default all traffic is allowed. When writing a more
381 restrictive policy, it is important to remember to allow flows
382 such as ARP and IPv6 neighbor discovery packets.
386 <column name="action">
387 <p>The action to take when the ACL rule matches:</p>
390 <code>allow</code>: Forward the packet.
394 <code>allow-related</code>: Forward the packet and related traffic
395 (e.g. inbound replies to an outbound connection).
399 <code>drop</code>: Silently drop the packet.
403 <code>reject</code>: Drop the packet, replying with a RST for TCP or
404 ICMP unreachable message for other IP-based protocols.
405 <code>Not implemented--currently treated as drop</code>
412 If set to <code>true</code>, packets that match the ACL will trigger a
413 log message on the transport node or nodes that perform ACL processing.
414 Logging may be combined with any <ref column="action"/>.
418 Logging is not yet implemented.
422 <group title="Common Columns">
423 <column name="external_ids">
424 See <em>External IDs</em> at the beginning of this document.
429 <table name="Logical_Router" title="L3 logical router">
431 Each row represents one L3 logical router.
436 A name for the logical router. This name has no special meaning or purpose
437 other than to provide convenience for human interaction with the ovn-nb
438 database. There is no requirement for the name to be unique. The
439 logical router's UUID should be used as the unique identifier.
443 <column name="ports">
447 <column name="default_gw">
448 IP address to use as default gateway, if any.
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_Port" title="L3 logical router port">
460 A port within an L3 logical router.
464 Exactly one <ref table="Logical_Router"/> row must reference a given
470 A name for the logical router port. This name has no special meaning or purpose
471 other than to provide convenience for human interaction with the ovn-nb
472 database. There is no requirement for the name to be unique. The
473 logical router port's UUID should be used as the unique identifier.
477 <column name="network">
478 The IP address of the router and the netmask. For example,
479 <code>192.168.0.1/24</code> indicates that the router's IP address is
480 192.168.0.1 and that packets destined to 192.168.0.<var>x</var> should be
485 The Ethernet address that belongs to this router port.
488 <column name="enabled">
489 This column is used to administratively set port state. If this column
490 is empty or is set to <code>true</code>, the port is enabled. If this
491 column is set to <code>false</code>, the port is disabled. A disabled
492 port has all ingress and egress traffic dropped.
495 <group title="Attachment">
497 A given router port serves one of two purposes:
502 To attach a logical switch to a logical router. A logical router
503 port of this type is referenced by exactly one <ref
504 table="Logical_Port"/> of type <code>router</code>. The <ref
505 column="peer"/> column is empty.
509 To connect one logical router to another. This requires a pair of
510 logical router ports, each connected to a different router. Each
511 router port in the pair specifies the other in its <ref
512 column="peer"/> column. No <ref table="Logical_Switch"/> refers to
519 For a router port used to connect two logical routers, this
520 identifies the other router port in the pair.
524 For a router port attached to a logical switch, this column is empty.
529 <group title="Common Columns">
530 <column name="external_ids">
531 See <em>External IDs</em> at the beginning of this document.