The OVS Plugin

Introduction to the OVS Plugin

The OVS plugin is the native SDN implementations in CloudStack, using GRE isolation method. The plugin can be used by CloudStack to implement isolated guest networks and to provide additional services like NAT, port forwarding and load balancing.

Features of the OVS Plugin

The following table lists the CloudStack network services provided by the OVS Plugin.

Network ServiceCloudStack version
Virtual Networking>= 4.0
Static NAT>= 4.3
Port Forwarding>= 4.3
Load Balancing>= 4.3

Table: Supported Services

Note

The Virtual Networking service was originally called ‘Connectivity’ in CloudStack 4.0

The following hypervisors are supported by the OVS Plugin.

HypervisorCloudStack version
XenServer>= 4.0
KVM>= 4.3

Table: Supported Hypervisors

Configuring the OVS Plugin

Prerequisites

Before enabling the OVS plugin the hypervisor needs to be install OpenvSwitch. Default, XenServer has already installed OpenvSwitch. However, you must install OpenvSwitch manually on KVM. CentOS 6.4 and OpenvSwitch 1.10 are recommended.

KVM hypervisor:

  • CentOS 6.4 is recommended.
  • To make sure that the native bridge module will not interfere with openvSwitch the bridge module should be added to the blacklist. See the modprobe documentation for your distribution on where to find the blacklist. Make sure the module is not loaded either by rebooting or executing rmmod bridge before executing next steps.

Zone Configuration

CloudStack needs to have at least one physical network with the isolation method set to “GRE”. This network should be enabled for the Guest traffic type.

Note

With KVM, the traffic type should be configured with the traffic label that matches the name of the Integration Bridge on the hypervisor. For example, you should set the traffic label as following:

  • Management & Storage traffic: cloudbr0
  • Guest & Public traffic: cloudbr1 See KVM networking configuration guide for more detail.

a screenshot of a physical network with the GRE isolation type

Agent Configuration

Note

Only for KVM hypervisor

  • Configure network interfaces:

    1. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
    2. DEVICE=eth0
    3. BOOTPROTO=none
    4. IPV6INIT=no
    5. NM_CONTROLLED=no
    6. ONBOOT=yes
    7. TYPE=OVSPort
    8. DEVICETYPE=ovs
    9. OVS_BRIDGE=cloudbr0
    11. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
    12. DEVICE=eth1
    13. BOOTPROTO=none
    14. IPV6INIT=no
    15. NM_CONTROLLED=no
    16. ONBOOT=yes
    17. TYPE=OVSPort
    18. DEVICETYPE=ovs
    19. OVS_BRIDGE=cloudbr1
    21. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-cloudbr0
    22. DEVICE=cloudbr0
    23. ONBOOT=yes
    24. DEVICETYPE=ovs
    25. TYPE=OVSBridge
    26. BOOTPROTO=static
    27. IPADDR=172.16.10.10
    28. GATEWAY=172.16.10.1
    29. NETMASK=255.255.255.0
    30. HOTPLUG=no
    32. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-cloudbr1
    33. DEVICE=cloudbr1
    34. ONBOOT=yes
    35. DEVICETYPE=ovs
    36. TYPE=OVSBridge
    37. BOOTPROTO=none
    38. HOTPLUG=no
    40. /etc/sysconfig/network
    41. NETWORKING=yes
    42. HOSTNAME=testkvm1
    43. GATEWAY=172.10.10.1

  • Edit /etc/cloudstack/agent/agent.properties

    1. network.bridge.type=openvswitch
    2. libvirt.vif.driver=com.cloud.hypervisor.kvm.resource.OvsVifDriver

Enabling the service provider

The OVS provider is disabled by default. Navigate to the “Network Service Providers” configuration of the physical network with the GRE isolation type. Navigate to the OVS provider and press the “Enable Provider” button.

a screenshot of an enabled OVS provider

Network Offerings

Using the OVS plugin requires a network offering with Virtual Networking enabled and configured to use the OVS element. Typical use cases combine services from the Virtual Router appliance and the OVS plugin.

ServiceProvider
VPNVirtualRouter
DHCPVirtualRouter
DNSVirtualRouter
FirewallVirtualRouter
Load BalancerOVS
User DataVirtualRouter
Source NATVirtualRouter
Static NATOVS
Post ForwardingOVS
Virtual NetworkingOVS

Table: Isolated network offering with regular services from the Virtual Router.

a screenshot of a network offering.

Note

The tag in the network offering should be set to the name of the physical network with the OVS provider.

Isolated network with network services. The virtual router is still required to provide network services like dns and dhcp.

ServiceProvider
DHCPVirtualRouter
DNSVirtualRouter
User DataVirtualRouter
Source NATVirtualRouter
Static NATOVS
Post ForwardingOVS
Load BalancingOVS
Virtual NetworkingOVS

Table: Isolated network offering with network services

Using the OVS plugin with VPC

OVS plugin does not work with VPC at that time

Revision History

0-0 Mon Dec 2 2013 Nguyen Anh Tu tuna@apache.org Documentation created for 4.3.0 version of the OVS Plugin