[ovs-dev] OVS Linux Kernel datapath compatibility.

[Pravin Shelar]

Currently OVS out of tree datapath supports a large number of kernel
versions. From 2.6.32 to 4.3 and various distribution-specific
kernels. But at this point major features are only available on more
recent kernels.  For example, stateful services are only available
starting in kernel 3.10 and STT is available on starting with 3.5. So
I'd like to propose that we review the compatibility matrix.

Since these features are becoming essential to many OVS deployments,
and the effort of maintaining the backports is high, I propose
deprecating kernel datapath support for linux kernels older than 3.10.
This means that OVS 2.5 will be the last version that supports these
older kernels.  OVS 2.5 is an LTS release, so it will be supported for
a while.

Please respond back to the list if this is particularly onerous.

Thanks.