Comments on: How to Install and use Open vSwitch with KVM on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

By: Mohamed Ali

Mohamed Ali — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 08:55:37 +0000

Really interesting post.
One question please, ip addr flush command disconnected my server. I am using a cloud dedicated server. Any solution for this issue please ?

By: Gilbert Standen

Gilbert Standen — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 22:02:01 +0000

Great article, thank you! This guide was very helpful for me. Appreciated you taking the time to write it up.

NOTE: If you are installing OpenvSwitch in CentOS 7.9 you may run into this conntrack bug: ‘https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1890095’

The messages you may see during build from source if you hit this bug are:

In file included from lib/netlink-conntrack.c:27:0:
/usr/include/linux/netfilter/nf_conntrack_sctp.h:25:2: error: unknown type name ‘u8’
u8 last_dir;
^
/usr/include/linux/netfilter/nf_conntrack_sctp.h:26:2: error: unknown type name ‘u8′
u8 flags;
^
make[2]: *** [lib/netlink-conntrack.lo] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/opt/olxc/home/ubuntu/Downloads/orabuntu-lxc-master/uekulele/openvswitch/rpmbuild/BUILD/openvswitch-2.9.2′
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/opt/olxc/home/ubuntu/Downloads/orabuntu-lxc-master/uekulele/openvswitch/rpmbuild/BUILD/openvswitch-2.9.2’
make: *** [all] Error 2
error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.nz3AXB (%build)

RPM build errors:
Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.nz3AXB (%build)
[ubuntu@c7sv1 openvswitch]$ clear

Fortunately the conntrack issue is fixed in OpenvSwitch 2.12.1 and so he workaround is to install OpenvSwitch 2.12.1 instead of 2.9.2

see also: ‘https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2020:5307’

With those advisories in mind, the changes to accomplish the OpenvSwitch install on CentOS 7.9 are minimal as shown below:

As mentioned by Flaviof in a previous comment, python-six is needed:

sudo yum -y install python-six

For OpenvSwitch 2.12.1 three additional packages are needed if not already installed:

sudo yum -y install gcc-c++ unbound unbound-devel

With those changes, RPM package build was successful for me on:

[ubuntu@c7sv1 openvswitch]$ cat /etc/centos-release
CentOS Linux release 7.9.2009 (Core)
[ubuntu@c7sv1 openvswitch]$ uname -a
Linux c7sv1 3.10.0-1160.6.1.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Nov 17 13:59:11 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[ubuntu@c7sv1 openvswitch]$

Using the build command as follows (I use an alternate topdir, which is optional)

rpmbuild –define “_topdir /opt/olxc/”$DistDir”/uekulele/openvswitch/rpmbuild” -ba –without check ./openvswitch-2.12.1/rhel/openvswitch-fedora.spec

By: Pradeep Kumar

Pradeep Kumar — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 02:21:18 +0000

In reply to Doyoung. In CentOS 8, we have OVN (Open Virtual Network) in place of openvswitch. OVN is a part for OVS project.

By: Doyoung

Doyoung — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 00:53:58 +0000

This is not working on CentOS 8. When Do you think openvswitch with CentOS 8 is supported?

By: Flaviof

Flaviof — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 15:36:03 +0000

In reply to Flaviof.

Nit: maybe add “python-six ” to initial yum install commad:

$ rpmbuild -bb –nocheck openvswitch-2.9.2/rhel/openvswitch-fedora.spec
error: Failed build dependencies:
python-six is needed by openvswitch-2.9.2-1.el7

sudo yum install -y python-six

By: Flaviof

Flaviof — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 15:05:14 +0000

Great job! Thank you for writing this.

By: sairaj

sairaj — Wed, 15 May 2019 05:38:12 +0000

how to change password for ovs root

By: Saurabh

Saurabh — Wed, 08 May 2019 09:21:11 +0000

Great Article, Very well explained!!
Keep up good work.

By: loic

loic — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 03:53:58 +0000

This was one the best article I have seen for OVS

By: simon

simon — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 01:20:01 +0000

In reply to cyclism. I would like to know this as well