Neutron ML2 l2 population Mechanism Drivers
l2 population (l2pop) mechanism drivers implements the ML2 driver to improve
open source plugins overlay implementations (VXLAN with Linux bridge and
GRE/VXLAN with OVS). This mechanism driver is implemented in ML2 to propagate
the forwarding information among agents using a common RPC API.
More informations could be found on the wiki page [1].
VXLAN Linux kernel:
-------------------
The VXLAN Linux kernel module provide all necessary functionalities to populate
the forwarding table and local ARP responder tables. This module appears on
release 3.7 of the vanilla Linux kernel in experimental:
- 3.8: first stable release, no edge replication (multicast necessary),
- 3.9: edge replication only for the broadcasted packets,
- 3.11: edge replication for broadcast, multicast and unknown packets.
Note: Some distributions (like RHEL) have backported this module on precedent
kernel version.
OpenvSwitch:
------------
The OVS OpenFlow tables provide all of the necessary functionality to populate
the forwarding table and local ARP responder tables.
A wiki page describe how the flow tables did evolve on OVS agents:
- [2] without local ARP responder
- [3] with local ARP responder. /!\ This functionality is only available since
the development branch 2.1. It's possible
to disable (enable by default) it through
the flag 'arp_responder'. /!\
Note: A difference persists between the LB and OVS agents when they are used
with the l2-pop mechanism driver (and local ARP responder available). The
LB agent will drop unknown unicast (VXLAN bridge mode), whereas the OVS
agent will flood it.
[1] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/L2population_blueprint
[2] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Ovs-flow-logic#OVS_flows_logic
[3] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Ovs-flow-logic#OVS_flows_logic_with_local_ARP_responder
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