[ovs-dev] [RFC] [PATCH 0/6] Add port_group to prevent loopback between interfaces

[Matthias May]

On 22/04/17 03:45, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 03, 2017 at 11:40:54AM +0200, Matthias May wrote:
>> When using openvswitch in combination with a hardware switch attached via dsa
>> it may be desirable to prevent frames from being looped back to interfaces
>> which reside on the same switch and are already processed by the
>> switching fabric in hardware.
>> This patch series achieves this by introducing a new parameter port_group to
>> be used by the normal action.
>> When the port_group is not set explicitly, it defaults to the ofp number.
>> Ports which are in the same group will not forward a frame between each other.
> 
> Thank you for proposing (and implementing) a new feature!  It's always
> great to see new people and companies coming into the Open vSwitch
> development community.  I'll take a more detailed look at each patch,
> but I have a few general questions here too.
> 
> What's dsa?
> 
> How is this feature related to LACP?
> 
> I guess that the answers to these questions should go in the
> documentation as well as in the thread here.
> 
> It looks like these patches depend on each other, so that if only some
> of them are applied, in some cases the system does not build.  The OVS
> philosophy is that each patch should be self-contained, so that after
> each one is applied (in order) the system builds, works, is
> self-consistent, and is completely documented.  I am not sure yet
> because I have not finished review, but it seems likely that this new
> feature should be a single patch.
> 
> Thanks again!
> 
> Ben.
> 

Hi Ben

Sorry for the delay...
Thank you for your feedback.

dsa is the "distributed switch architecture" implemented mostly by marvell switch chips (see [1]).

It is not related to LACP at all.
When I started with this, I first thought I could use/reuse the LACP code but I didn't see how.
We have sprint panning tomorrow and I will see that I get some time to work on this.
I will send a v2 rebased on HEAD with your feedback integrated and more/better explanation.

BR
Matthias


[1] https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/networking/dsa/dsa.txt