[ovs-discuss] Remote connection method for ovn-controller ovs-ofctl invocation.

[Lance Richardson]

> From: "Ben Pfaff" <blp at ovn.org>
> To: "Lance Richardson" <lrichard at redhat.com>
> Cc: "JaiSingh Rana" <JaiSingh.Rana at cavium.com>, ovs-discuss at openvswitch.org
> Sent: Thursday, 13 July, 2017 12:47:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [ovs-discuss] Remote connection method for ovn-controller ovs-ofctl	invocation.
> 
> On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 09:35:01AM -0400, Lance Richardson wrote:
> > > From: "JaiSingh Rana" <JaiSingh.Rana at cavium.com>
> > > To: ovs-discuss at openvswitch.org
> > > Sent: Thursday, 13 July, 2017 3:49:15 AM
> > > Subject: [ovs-discuss] Remote connection method for ovn-controller
> > > ovs-ofctl	invocation.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Currently in Openvswitch-2.7.1, ovn-controller hard codes connection
> > > method
> > > for ovs-ofctl invokation as unix:file as assumption is there will be unix
> > > file created by vswitchd in OVS_RUNDIR for managing OF controller on
> > > bridge
> > > e.g. br-int.mgmt
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > There is an issue in our Openvswitch offload model where vswitchd is
> > > running
> > > on nic and ovn-controller on host. As there is no option for telling
> > > ovn-controller to use tcp:port connection method for ovs-ofctl , flows
> > > are
> > > not being pushed to vswitchd.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > For providing the patch, need some input. Should connection method be
> > > provided as an argument to ovn-controller or it can be written to
> > > /etc/sysconfig/openvswitch from where ovn-controller can read and use if
> > > option is present otherwise it defaults to unix file method.
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > My suggestion would be to use external-ids in the local ovsdb, as is
> > currently done for ovn-remote and ovn-encap. Maybe something like:
> > 
> >     ovs-vsctl set open . external-ids:ovn-ofctl=tcp:w.x.y.z:abcd
> 
> Using the name "ovs-ofctl" here is weird.  ovn-controller doesn't use
> ovs-ofctl.
> 

Well, I'm terrible with naming things, and should have added a comment to that
effect :-) 

My rationale for "ovn-ofctl" was shallowly based on the the related file,
ovn/controller/ofctrl.c (well, I omitted the 'r' for some reason,.)

What would be a more appropriate name?

Thanks,
   Lance