[ovs-discuss] dpif-netdev usage

[Joe Stringer]

On 28 January 2015 at 15:38, Federico Di Domenicantonio
<fededido91 at hotmail.it> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm trying to use the userspace-only implementation of Open vSwitch (with
> dpif-netdev datapath). I followed the installation instructions provided,
> but when I start the daemon I get the following error:
>
> |00001|dpif_linux|ERR|Generic Netlink family 'ovs_datapath' does not exist.
> The Open vSwitch kernel module is probably not loaded.

This is showing that your bridge is trying to use the kernel datapath.
Make sure you have set the datapath_type of the bridge to netdev.


> The daemon then starts, I can add bridges with ovs-vsctl, but I fail to
> operate on them with ovs-dpctl, getting the same error (even with a simple
> command like "ovs-dpctl show"). I know that ovs-dpctl is supposed to work
> with kernel datapath, but looking inside it I've noticed that it operates
> with dpif functions, that can be implemented by either dpif-linux and
> dpif-netdev.
>
> In case ovs-dpctl is intended to operate only with kernel datapath, is there
> a tool to do the same with the userspace-only implementation?

ovs-appctl dpctl/*. I believe they are fairly similar to the ovs-dpctl
commands, but they talk to ovs-vswitchd rather than directly to the
Linux kernel.