Open vSwitch
 |
|
| Initial release | July 29, 2009 |
|---|---|
| Stable release |
2.5.0 / February 27, 2016
|
| Development status | Actively developed |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD |
| Type | Virtual network switch |
| License | Apache License 2.0 |
| Website | openvswitch |
Open vSwitch, sometimes abbreviated as OVS, is a production-quality open-source implementation of a distributed virtual multilayer switch. The main purpose of Open vSwitch is to provide a switching stack for hardware virtualization environments, while supporting multiple protocols and standards used in computer networks.
Project's source code is distributed under the terms of Apache License 2.0.
Open vSwitch is a software implementation of a virtual multilayer network switch, designed to enable effective network automation through programmatic extensions, while supporting standard management interfaces and protocols such as NetFlow, sFlow, SPAN, RSPAN, CLI, and 802.1ag. In addition, Open vSwitch is designed to support transparent distribution across multiple physical servers by enabling creation of cross-server switches in a way that abstracts out the underlying server architecture, similarly to the VMware vNetwork distributed vswitch or Cisco Nexus 1000V.
Open vSwitch can operate both as a software-based network switch running within the virtual machine (VM) hypervisors, and as the control stack for dedicated switching hardware; as a result, it has been ported to multiple virtualization platforms, switching chipsets, and networking hardware accelerators. Open vSwitch is the default network switch in the XenServer virtualization platform since its version 6.0, and in the Xen Cloud Platform via its XAPI management toolstack. It also supports Xen, Linux KVM, Proxmox VE and VirtualBox hypervisors, while a port to Hyper-V is also available. Open vSwitch has also been integrated into various cloud computing software platforms and virtualization management systems, including OpenStack, openQRM, OpenNebula and oVirt.
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