ovs-flowviz(8) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | SUPPORTED FORMATS | JSON SYNTAX | STYLE CONFIGURATION FILE | FILTERING SYNTAX | EXAMPLES | AUTHOR | COPYRIGHT | COLOPHON

OVS-FLOWVIZ(8)                 Open vSwitch                OVS-FLOWVIZ(8)

NAME         top

       ovs-flowviz - utility for visualizing OpenFlow and datapath flows

SYNOPSIS         top

       ovs-flowviz [-i [alias,]file | --input [alias,]file] [-c file |
       --config file] [-f filter | --filter filter] [-l filter |
       --highlight filter] [--style style] flow-type format [args…]

       ovs-flowviz --help

DESCRIPTION         top

       ovs-flowviz helps visualize OpenFlow and datapath flow dumps in
       different formats in order to make them more easily understood.

       ovs-flowviz reads flows from stdin or from a file specified by the
       --input option, filters them, highlights them, and finally outputs
       them in one of the predefined formats.

OPTIONS         top

       -h, --help
              Print a brief help message to the console.

       -i [<alias>,]<file>, --input [<alias>,]<file>
              File to read flows from. If not provided, ovs-flowviz will
              read flows from stdin.

              This option can be specified multiple times.  The file path
              can prepended by an alias that will be shown in the output.
              For example: --input node1,/path/to/file1 --input
              node2,/path/to/file2

       -c <file>, --config <file>
              Style configuration file to use, overriding the default
              one.  Styles defined in the style configuration file can be
              selected using the --style option.

              For more details on the style configuration file, see the
              Style Configuration File section below.

       -f <filter>, --filter <filter>
              Flow filter expression. Only those flows matching the
              expression will be shown (although some formats implement
              filtering differently, see the Datapath tree format section
              below).

              The filtering syntax is detailed in Filtering Syntax.

       -l <filter>, --highlight <filter>
              Highlight the flows that match the provided filter
              expression.

              The filtering syntax is detailed in Filtering Syntax.

       --style <style>
              Style. The selected style must be defined in the style
              configuration file.

       flow-type
              openflow or datapath.

       format See the Supported formats section.

SUPPORTED FORMATS         top

       ovs-flowviz supports several visualization formats for both
       OpenFlow and datapath flows:
                 ────────────────────────────────────────────
                 │ Flow Type │ Format  │ Description        │
                 ├───────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
                 │ Both      │ console │ Prints the flows   │
                 │           │         │ in a configurable, │
                 │           │         │ colorful style in  │
                 │           │         │ the console.       │
                 ├───────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
                 │ Both      │ json    │ Prints the flows   │
                 │           │         │ in JSON format.    │
                 ├───────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
                 │ Both      │ html    │ Prints the flows   │
                 │           │         │ in an HTML list.   │
                 ├───────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
                 │ OpenFlow  │ cookie  │ Prints the flows   │
                 │           │         │ in the console     │
                 │           │         │ sorted by cookie.  │
                 ├───────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
                 │ OpenFlow  │ logic   │ Prints the logical │
                 │           │         │ structure of flows │
                 │           │         │ in the console.    │
                 ├───────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
                 │ Datapath  │ tree    │ Prints the flows   │
                 │           │         │ as a tree          │
                 │           │         │ structure arranged │
                 │           │         │ by recirc_id and   │
                 │           │         │ in_port.           │
                 ├───────────┼─────────┼────────────────────┤
                 │ Datapath  │ graph   │ Prints a graphviz  │
                 │           │         │ graph of the flows │
                 │           │         │ arranged by        │
                 │           │         │ recirc_id and      │
                 │           │         │ in_port.           │
                 └───────────┴─────────┴────────────────────┘

   Console format
       The console format works for both OpenFlow and datapath flow
       types, and prints flows in the terminal using the style determined
       by the --style option.

       Arguments:

       -h, --heat-map
              Color of the packet and byte counters to reflect their
              relative size.  The color gradient goes through the
              following colors: blue (coldest, lowest), cyan, green,
              yellow, red (hottest, highest)

              Note filtering is applied before the range is calculated.

   JSON format
       The json format works for both OpenFlow and datapath flow types,
       and prints flows in JSON format. See the JSON Syntax section for
       more details.

   HTML format
       The html format works for both OpenFlow and datapath flows, and
       prints flows in an HTML table that offers some basic
       interactivity. OpenFlow flows are sorted in tables and datapath
       flows are arranged in flow trees (see Datapath tree format for
       more details).

       Styles defined via Style Configuration File and selected via
       --style option also apply to the html format.

   OpenFlow cookie format
       The OpenFlow cookie format is similar to the console format but
       instead of arranging the flows by table, it arranges the flows by
       cookie.

   OpenFlow logic format
       The OpenFlow logic format helps visualize the logic structure of
       OpenFlow pipelines by arranging flows into logical blocks.  A
       logical block is a set of flows that have:

       • Same priority.

       • Match on the same fields (regardless of the match value and
         mask).

       • Execute the same actions (regardless of the actions’ arguments,
         except for resubmit and output).

       • Optionally, the cookie can be included as part of the logical
         flow.

       Arguments:

       -s, --show-flows
              Show all the flows under each logical block.

       -d, --ovn-detrace
              Use ovn-detrace.py script to extract cookie information
              (implies ‘-c’).

       -c, --cookie
              Consider the cookie in the logical block.

       --ovn-detrace-path <path>
              Use an alternative path to search for ovn_detrace.py.

       --ovnnb-db <conn>
              OVN NB database connection method (implies ‘-d’).  Default:
              “unix:/var/run/ovn/ovnnb_db.sock”.

       --ovnsb-db <conn>
              OVN SB database connection method (implies ‘-d’).  Default:
              “unix:/var/run/ovn/ovnsb_db.sock”.

       --o <filter>, --ovn-filter <filter>
              Specify the filter to be run on the ovn-detrace
              information.  Syntax: python regular expression (See ]8;;https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html\‐
              https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html ]8;;\).

       -h, --heat-map
              Change the color of the packet and byte counters to reflect
              their relative size. The color gradient goes through the
              following colors: blue (coldest, lowest), cyan, green,
              yellow, red (hottest, highest)

              Note filtering is applied before the range is calculated.

   Datapath tree format
       The datapath tree format arranges datapath flows in a hierarchical
       tree.  The tree is comprised of blocks with the same recirc_id and
       in_port.  Within those blocks, flows with the same action are
       combined. And matches which are the same are omitted to reduce the
       visual noise.

       When a flow’s actions includes the recirc() action with a specific
       recirc_id, flows matching on that recirc_id and the same in_port
       are listed below. This is done recursively for all actions.

       The result is a hierarchical representation that shows how actions
       are related to each other via recirculation. Note that flows with
       a specific non-zero recirc_id are listed below each group of flows
       that have a corresponding recirc() action. Therefore, the output
       contains duplicated flows and can be verbose.

       Filtering works in a slightly different way for datapath flow
       trees.  Unlike other formats where a filter simply removes
       non-matching flows, the output of a filtered datapath flow tree
       will show full sub-trees that contain at least one flow that
       satisfies the filter.

       The html format prints this same tree as an interactive HTML table
       and the graph format shows the same tree as a graphviz graph.

   Datapath graph format
       The datapath graph generates a graphviz visual representation of
       the same tree-like flow hierarchy that the tree format prints.

       Arguments:

       -h, --html
              Print the graphviz format as an svg image alongside an
              interactive HTML table of flows.

JSON SYNTAX         top

       Printing a single-file OpenFlow or datapath dump without PMD
       thread blocks in json format results in a list of JSON objects,
       each representing a flow.

       This list can be found inside one or more levels of JSON
       dictionaries if multiple files are processed (filename used as
       key) or if PMD thread blocks are found in datapath flows (name of
       the thread used as key).

       Each flow object includes the following keys:

       orig   Original flow string.

       info   Object with the flow information such as: cookie, duration,
              table, n_packets, n_bytes, etc.

       match  Object with the flow match.  For each match, the object
              contains a key-value where the key is the name of the match
              as defined in ovs-fields(7) and ovs-ofctl(8), and the value
              represents the match value. The way each value is
              represented depends on its type. See Value representation.

       actions
              List of action objects.  Each action is represented by an
              JSON object that has one key and one value.  The key
              corresponds to the action name. The value represents the
              arguments of the key. See Action representation.

       ufid   The UFID (datapath flows only).

   Value representation
       Values are represented differently depending on their type:

       • Flags: The value of flags is true.

       • Decimal / Hexadecimal: Represented by their integer value.  If
         they support masking, represented by a dictionary with two keys:
         value contains the field value and mask contains the mask.  Both
         are integers.

       • Ethernet: Represented by a string: {address}[/{mask}]

       • IPv4 / IPv6: Represented by a string {address}[/{mask}]

       • Registers: Represented by a dictionary with three keys: field`
         contains the field value (string), start, and end represent the
         first and last bit of the register value.

       For example, the register

          NXM_NX_REG10[0..15]

       is represented as

          {
              "field": "NXM_NX_REG10",
              "start": 0,
              "end": 15
          },

   Action representation
       Actions are generally represented by an object that has a single
       key and value. The key is the action name as defined
       ovs-actions(7).

       The value of actions that have no arguments (such as drop) is
       (boolean) true.

       The value of actions that have a list of arguments (e.g:
       resubmit([port],[table],[ct])) is an object that has the name of
       the argument as key. The argument names for each action is defined
       in ovs-actions. For example, the action

          resubmit(,10)

       is represented as

          {
              "resubmit": {
                  "port": "",
                  "table": 10
              }
          }

       The value of actions that have a key-word list as arguments (e.g:
       ct([argument])) is an object whose keys correspond to the keys
       defined in ovs-actions(7). The way values are represented depends
       on the type of the argument.  For example, the action

          ct(table=14,zone=NXM_NX_REG12[0..15],nat)

       is represented as

          {
              "ct": {
                  "table": 14,
                  "zone": {
                      "field": "NXM_NX_REG12",
                      "start": 0,
                      "end": 15
                  },
                  "nat": true
              }
          }

STYLE CONFIGURATION FILE         top

       The style configuration file is selected via the --config option
       and has INI syntax. It can define any number of styles to be used
       by both console and html formats. Once defined in the
       configuration file, formats are selected using the --style option.

       INI sections are used to define styles, [styles.mystyle] defines a
       style called mystle. Within a section styles can be defined as:

          [FORMAT].[PORTION].[SELECTOR].[ELEMENT] = [VALUE]

       FORMAT Either console or html

       PORTION
              Part of the key-value the style applies to: key to indicate
              the key part of a key-value, value to indicate the value
              part of a key-value, flag to indicate a single flag or
              delim to indicate delimiters such as parentheses, brackets,
              etc.

       SELECTOR
              Select the key-value the style applies to: highlighted to
              indicate highlighted key-values, type.<type> to indicate
              certain types such as IPAddress or EthMask or <keyname> to
              select a particular key name.

       ELEMENT
              Select the style element to modify: color or underline
              (only for console format).

       VALUE  Ether a color hex, other color names defined in the rich
              python library (]8;;https://rich.readthedocs.io/en/stable/appendix/colors.html\‐
              https://rich.readthedocs.io/en/stable/appendix/colors.html ]8;;\)
              or true if the element is underline.

       A default configuration file is shipped with ovs-flowviz and its
       path is printed in the --help output. A detailed description of
       the syntax alongside some examples are available there.

FILTERING SYNTAX         top

       ovs-flowviz provides rich highlighting and filtering. The special
       command ovs-flowviz filter dumps the filtering syntax:

          $ ovs-flowviz filter
          Filter Syntax
          *************

             [! | not ] {key}[[.subkey]...] [OPERATOR] {value})] [LOGICAL OPERATOR] ...

            Comparison operators:
                =   equality
                <   less than
                >   more than
                ~=  masking (valid for IP and Ethernet fields)

            Logical operators:
                !{expr}:  NOT
                {expr} && {expr}: AND
                {expr} || {expr}: OR

            Matches and flow metadata:
                To compare against a match or info field, use the field directly, e.g:
                    priority=100
                    n_bytes>10
                Use simple keywords for flags:
                    tcp and ip_src=192.168.1.1

            Actions:
                Actions values might be dictionaries, use subkeys to access individual
                values, e.g:
                    output.port=3
                Use simple keywords for flags
                    drop

            Examples of valid filters:
                nw_addr~=192.168.1.1 && (tcp_dst=80 || tcp_dst=443)
                arp=true && !arp_tsa=192.168.1.1
                n_bytes>0 && drop=true

       Example expressions:

          n_bytes > 0 and drop
          nw_src~=192.168.1.1 or arp.tsa=192.168.1.1
          ! tcp && output.port=2

EXAMPLES         top

       Print OpenFlow flows sorted by cookie adding OVN data to each one:

          $ ovs-flowviz -i flows.txt openflow cookie --ovn-detrace

       Print OpenFlow logical structure, showing the flows and heat-map:

          $ ovs-flowviz -i flows.txt openflow logic --show-flows --heat-map

       Display OpenFlow flows in HTML format with “light” style and
       highlight drops:

          $ ovs-flowviz -i flows.txt --style "light" --highlight "n_packets > 0 and drop" openflow html > flows.html

       Display the datapath flows in an interactive graphviz + HTML view:

          $ ovs-flowviz -i flows.txt datapath graph --html > flows.html

       Display the datapath flow trees that lead to packets being sent to
       port 10:

          $ ovs-flowviz -i flows.txt --filter "output.port=10" datapath tree

AUTHOR         top

       The Open vSwitch Development Community

COPYRIGHT         top

       2016-2024, The Open vSwitch Development Community

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the Open vSwitch (a distributed virtual
       multilayer switch) project.  Information about the project can be
       found at ⟨http://openvswitch.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for
       this manual page, send it to bugs@openvswitch.org.  This page was
       obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs.git⟩ on 2025-02-02.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-01-30.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

3.5.90                         Feb 01, 2025                OVS-FLOWVIZ(8)