Installing new version of Open vSwitch

The following instruction show how to replace the version of Open vSwitch that comes in the Mininet VM. This example shows how to upgrade to Open vSwitch 1.10, but the same basic instructions could be used to upgrade to any other version of Open vSwitch.

Become root:

mininet@mininet-vm:~$ sudo -s

Remove old packages:

root@mininet-vm:~# apt-get remove openvswitch-common openvswitch-datapath-dkms openvswitch-controller openvswitch-pki openvswitch-switch

Download and unpack OpenVSwitch 1.10:

root@mininet-vm:~# cd /root
root@mininet-vm:~# wget http://openvswitch.org/releases/openvswitch-1.10.0.tar.gz
root@mininet-vm:~# tar zxvf openvswitch-1.10.0.tar.gz

Build and install:

root@mininet-vm:~# cd openvswitch-1.10.0/
root@mininet-vm:~# ./configure --prefix=/usr --with-linux=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build
root@mininet-vm:~# make
root@mininet-vm:~# make install
root@mininet-vm:~# make modules_install
root@mininet-vm:~# rmmod openvswitch
root@mininet-vm:~# depmod -a

Disable to default controller from starting at boot:

root@mininet-vm:~# echo "manual" >> /etc/init/openvswitch-controller.override
root@mininet-vm:~# /etc/init.d/openvswitch-controller stop

Start OVS server process:

root@mininet-vm:~# /etc/init.d/openvswitch-switch start

That should be it. Once you have finished, you can confirm that you have the latest Open vSwitch installed and the latest kernel module. You should see something like the example below.

root@mininet-vm:~# ovs-vsctl show
a96f86e7-ca43-487f-b65d-e18b52a64330
    ovs_version: "1.10.0"

root@mininet21:~# modinfo openvswitch
filename:       /lib/modules/3.5.0-40-generic/extra/openvswitch.ko
version:        1.10.0
license:        GPL
description:    Open vSwitch switching datapath
srcversion:     90A0BE65A0CF67E0BEA2D57
depends:
vermagic:       3.5.0-40-generic SMP mod_unload modversions