List openvswitch virtual switch with ip command

I’ve configured openvswitch virtual switch and can list it with ip command as follows:

# Show all interfaces
ip link

Output:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00

<snip>

5: ovs-system: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 8a:94:11:48:01:db brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
6: ovsbr0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether e6:db:3f:88:4b:48 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

The openvswitch from this output is named ovsbr0

Now I want to use the ip command to list only this virtual switch and exclude other interfaces, for example:

# List only bridges
ip link show type bridge

Expected output:

6: ovsbr0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether e6:db:3f:88:4b:48 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Actual output:

<no output>

Why do I expect this command to output ovsbr0?

This problem is specific to openvswitch because if I use the same command to list bridges that are not openvswitch then it works fine.

Example with a bridge that is created with ip command:

# Create bridge named "br0"
sudo ip link add br0 type bridge

# Show the newly created bridge called "br0"
ip link show type bridge

Provides expected output:

7: br0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 6a:76:6f:50:da:35 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

As you can see the command works if the bridge is created with ip command.
But it doesn’t work for openvswitch

Question:

  1. How do I use the ip command to list only openvswitch interfaces (virtual switches)?
  2. Why the ip command does not work to list openvswitch interfaces (virtual switches)?

Additional context:

The openvswitch was not created with ip command, instead it was created with the ovs-vsctl command that is part of openvswitch package:

sudo ovs-vsctl add-br ovsbr0

This openvswitch bridge can however be deleted with ip command just fine even though it was not created with ip command:

# Delete it with ip command
sudo ip link delete ovsbr0

# Alternative and conventional method
sudo ovs-vsctl del-br ovsbr0

What have I tried:

# List openvswitch only but specifying type other than TYPE bridge
ip link show type TYPE

What are other interface types to test listing?

# See TYPE := section from this output for types other than "bridge"
ip link show help
Asked By: metablaster

||
Source

The Open vSwitch interface is not a kernel bridge interface, but a kernel(-accelerated) openvswitch interface, with its own separate driver.

In case of doubt, any interface type will be displayed with the -details option (edited to match OP):

$ ip -details link show dev ovsbr0
6: ovsbr0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether e6:db:3f:88:4b:48 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff promiscuity 1 allmulti 0 minmtu 68 maxmtu 65535 
    openvswitch numtxqueues 1 numrxqueues 1 gso_max_size 65536 gso_max_segs 65535 tso_max_size 65536 tso_max_segs 65535 gro_max_size 65536 gso_ipv4_max_size 65536 gro_ipv4_max_size 65536 
$ ip -details -json link show dev ovsbr0 | jq -r '.[].linkinfo.info_kind'
openvswitch

So naturally the command to display only this type is:

ip link show type openvswitch

This resource being developed separately from iproute2 one shouldn’t be surprised if the help doesn’t include it. For example, likewise, wireguard doesn’t appear in the help, but a (kernel-based) WireGuard interface would be displayed using ip link show type wireguard.

Answered By: A.B