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Configuring Support for OpenFlow on MX Series Routers

The following sections configure MX Series routers to support OpenFlow using interfaces that participate solely in OpenFlow. For information about configuring hybrid interfaces, which concurrently support OpenFlow logical interfaces and non-OpenFlow logical interfaces, see Configuring OpenFlow Hybrid Interfaces on MX Series Routers.

Before configuring support for OpenFlow, ensure that the router meets the following requirements:

  • MX Series router running Junos OS Release 13.3 or a later release

  • OpenFlow software package with a software package release that matches the Junos OS release of the device on which it is installed

  • TCP connection between the router and an OpenFlow controller

  • Connection between the management interface of the router and the management network, which is reachable from the controller IP address

Configuration tasks are described in detail in the following sections:

Configuring the OpenFlow Interfaces

You must configure interfaces participating in OpenFlow as Layer 2 interfaces. On MX Series routers, you configure the interfaces with encapsulation ethernet-bridge and protocol family bridge.

To configure the OpenFlow Interfaces:

  • Configure the physical link-layer encapsulation type and the logical interface and protocol family.

Configuring the OpenFlow Protocol

To configure support for OpenFlow, create a virtual switch instance, and specify a switch name, which must be 60 characters or less. For the virtual switch instance, configure the OpenFlow controller information and the participating logical interfaces. Optionally, configure the default action for packets that do not match a flow entry, the purge timer for invalid flows, and any OpenFlow traceoptions.

To configure the OpenFlow protocol:

  1. Configure the OpenFlow controller IP address and the connection protocol.
  2. Specify the logical interfaces participating in OpenFlow under this virtual switch instance.
  3. (Optional) Configure the default-action statement for packets that do not match on an existing flow entry.

    If you do not configure the default-action statement, the default is packet-in, which indicates that packets with no matching flow entry must be sent to the controller for processing.

  4. (Optional) Configure the purge-flow-timer statement, which is the number of seconds after which an invalid flow is purged from the flow table.
  5. (Optional) Configure OpenFlow traceoptions.

    If you do not configure a log filename, OpenFlow trace messages are logged in the default OpenFlow log file /var/log/ofd .

Configuring the OpenFlow Routing Instance

To configure the virtual switch routing instance for OpenFlow traffic:

  1. Configure the routing instance type as virtual-switch.
  2. Configure the bridge domain name and type.
  3. Configure the VLAN ID as none.
  4. Configure the OpenFlow logical interfaces that will be bound to the routing instance.
  5. (Optional) If you use the NORMAL forward action to forward OpenFlow traffic using traditional Layer 2 and Layer 3 processing, configure an integrated routing and bridging (IRB) interface, and include the appropriate logical interface in the bridge domain configuration.

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