[ovs-dev] [PATCH net 0/2] vxlan: Set a large MTU on ovs-created vxlan devices

[Jesse Gross]

On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 4:29 PM, David Wragg <david at weave.works> wrote:
> Jesse Gross <jesse at kernel.org> writes:
>> On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 3:25 PM, David Wragg <david at weave.works> wrote:
>>> I'm certainly open to suggestions of better ways to solve the problem.
>>
>> One option is to simply set the MTU on the device from userspace.
>
> If that worked I wouldn't be submitting a patch.
>
> The MTU value of 1500 is not merely the default.  It is also the maximum
> allowed for a vxlan netdev not associated with an underlying netdev.  If
> you do e.g. "ip link set dev vxlan-6784 mtu 8950", where vxlan-6784
> was created by an ovs vport, it fails with EINVAL.
>
> The first patch of the two submitted removes that limit.

I saw your first patch and I agree that it fixes a problem. I was
referring to the second patch.

>> The reality is that the code you're modifying is compatibility code.
>> Maybe we should make this change to preserve the old behavior or old
>> callers (although, again, it should not be just for VXLAN). But no new
>> features or tunnel types will be supported in this manner.
>
> That's fine.  Naturally, the ideal from our point of view is if the
> compatibility code is fully compatible, so we don't have to make changes
> on our side that involve different code paths for different kernel
> versions.  That's what my patches are intended to achieve.

The intention is to be fully backwards compatible with existing
software. If you want to take advantage of future functionality then,
yes, you will need to change to the new model.

I agree that behavior changed with existing compatibility code. I'm
fine with your series as long as you generalize it to all tunnel types
and not just VXLAN. Just be aware that you're going to have to find
another solution long term.

> Ok.  But please try to be gentle on the poor souls who have to come up
> with a single codebase that works on a range of kernel versions going
> back a few years.

I maintain a large program that needs to do this myself, so I am aware
that it can be challenging.