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authorKeith Amidon <keith@nicira.com>2009-07-16 18:07:10 -0700
committerKeith Amidon <keith@nicira.com>2009-07-16 18:07:56 -0700
commite5660bae198d3272e4445e21716d381a97af67f0 (patch)
tree7f200d0a9b234aa5f088fbbb0716c6fa5f2878ef /README
parent3b01baa3970139c3a195017ab1ea3e42761e3db2 (diff)
Minor documentation fixups.
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What is Open vSwitch?
---------------------
-Open vSwitch is a versatile software-based Ethernet switch with the
-following features:
-
- * NIC bonding with automatic fail-over and source MAC-based TX
- load balancing ("SLB").
-
- * 802.1Q VLAN support.
-
- * Port mirroring, with optional VLAN tagging.
-
- * NetFlow v5 flow logging.
-
- * Connectivity to an external OpenFlow controller, such as NOX.
+Open vSwitch is a multilayer software switch licensed under the open
+source Apache 2 license. Our goal is to implement a production
+quality switch platform that supports standard management interfaces
+(e.g. NetFlow, RSPAN, ERSPAN, IOS-like CLI), and opens the forwarding
+functions to programmatic extension and control.
+
+Open vSwitch is well suited to function as a virtual switch in VM
+environments. In addition to exposing standard control and visibility
+interfaces to the virtual networking layer, it was designed to support
+distribution across multiple physical servers. Open vSwitch supports
+multiple Linux-based virtualization technologies including
+Xen/XenServer, KVM, and VirtualBox.
+
+The bulk of the code is written in platform-independent C and is
+easily ported to other environments. The current release of Open
+vSwitch supports the following features:
+
+ * Visibility into inter-VM communication via NetFlow, SPAN, and RSPAN
+ * Standard 802.1Q VLAN model with trunking
+ * Per VM policing
+ * NIC bonding with source-MAC load balancing
+ * Kernel-based forwarding
+ * Support for OpenFlow
+ * Compatibility layer for the Linux bridging code
Open vSwitch supports Linux 2.6.15 and up, with testing focused on
2.6.18 with Centos and Xen patches and version 2.6.26 from kernel.org.