path: root/share/man/man4/vxlan.4

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.Dd $Mdocdate: November 23 2023 $
.Dt VXLAN 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm vxlan
.Nd Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network tunnel interface
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "pseudo-device vxlan"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
pseudo-device provides interfaces for tunnelling or overlaying
Ethernet networks on top of IPv4 and IPv6 networks using the
Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) protocol.
.Pp
VXLAN datagrams consist of an Ethernet payload encapsulated by an
8-byte VXLAN header, which in turn is encapsulated by UDP and IP
headers.
Different VXLAN tunnels or overlays between the same VXLAN Tunnel
Endpoints (VTEPs) can be distinguished by an optional 24-bit Virtual
Network Identifier (VNI).
.Pp
A
.Nm
interface can be created using the
.Ic ifconfig vxlan Ns Ar N Ic create
command or by setting up a
.Xr hostname.if 5
configuration file for
.Xr netstart 8 .
.Pp
For correct operation, encapsulated traffic must not be routed
over the interface itself.
This can be implemented by adding a distinct or a more specific
route to the tunnel destination than the hosts or networks routed
via the tunnel interface.
Alternatively, the tunnel traffic may be configured in a separate
routing table to the encapsulated traffic.
.Pp
The interface can operate in the following tunnel modes:
.Bl -tag -width multicast
.It Ic point-to-point mode
When a unicast IP address is configured as the tunnel destination,
all traffic is sent to a single tunnel endpoint.
.It Ic learning mode
When a multicast IP address is configured as the tunnel destination,
.Nm
operates as a learning bridge.
Broadcast, multicast, and unknown unicast packets are sent to the
specified multicast group.
Packets received by the tunnel source address are used to dynamically
learn the endpoint addresses for the encapsulated Ethernet source
addresses.
.It Ic endpoint mode
When configured without a tunnel destination address,
.Nm
operates as a bridge, but with learning disabled.
Endpoints for Ethernet addresses must be added explicitly before
packets will be encapsulated for those addresses.
All valid VXLAN packets sent to the local address will be accepted.
.El
.Pp
.Nm
supports the following
.Xr ioctl 2
calls for configuration:
.Bl -tag -width indent -offset 3n
.It Dv SIOCSLIFPHYADDR Fa "struct if_laddrreq *"
Set the IPv4 or IPv6 addresses used for the exchange of encapsulated
traffic.
The interface will operate in point-to-point mode if the destination
address is unicast,
learning mode if the destination address is multicast,
or endpoint mode if the destination address is unspecified.
A non-standard UDP port for VXLAN packets can be specified by the
port in the source address, otherwise use 0 to request the default.
The addresses may only be configured while the interface is down.
.It Dv SIOCGLIFPHYADDR Fa "struct if_laddrreq *"
Get the addresses configured for the exchange of encapsulated packets.
.It Dv SIOCDIFPHYADDR Fa "struct ifreq *"
Clear the addresses used for the exchange of encapsulated packets.
The addresses may only be cleared while the interface is down.
.It Dv SIOCSVNETID Fa "struct ifreq *"
Configure a virtual network identifier for use in the VXLAN header.
The virtual network identifier may only be configured while the
interface is down.
.It Dv SIOCGVNETID Fa "struct ifreq *"
Get the virtual network identifier used in the VXLAN header.
.It Dv SIOCDVNETID Fa "struct ifreq *"
Remove the virtual network identifier.
The virtual network identifier may only be disabled while the
interface is down.
.It Dv SIOCSLIFPHYRTABLE Fa "struct ifreq *"
Set the routing table the encapsulated traffic operates in.
The routing table may only be configured while the interface is down.
.It Dv SIOCGLIFPHYRTABLE Fa "struct ifreq *"
Get the routing table the encapsulated traffic operates in.
.It Dv SIOCSLIFPHYTTL Fa "struct ifreq *"
Set the Time-To-Live field in IPv4 encapsulation headers, or the
Hop Limit field in IPv6 encapsulation headers.
.It Dv SIOCGLIFPHYTTL Fa "struct ifreq *"
Get the value used in the Time-To-Live field in an IPv4 encapsulation
header or the Hop Limit field in an IPv6 encapsulation header.
.It Dv SIOCSLIFPHYDF Fa "struct ifreq *"
Configure whether the encapsulated traffic sent by the interface
can be fragmented or not.
This sets the Don't Fragment (DF) bit on IPv4 packets,
and disables fragmentation of IPv6 packets.
.It Dv SIOCGLIFPHYDF Fa "struct ifreq *"
Get whether the encapsulated traffic sent by the interface can be
fragmented or not.
.It Dv SIOCSRXHPRIO Fa "struct ifreq *"
Set the priority value for received packets.
Values may be from 0 to 7,
.Dv IF_HDRPRIO_PACKET
to specify that the current priority of a packet should be kept,
or
.Dv IF_HDRPRIO_OUTER
to use the value in the Type of Service field in IPv4
or the Traffic Class field in IPv6 encapsulation headers.
.It Dv SIOCGRXHPRIO Fa "struct ifreq *"
Get the priority value for received packets.
.It Dv SIOCSTXHPRIO Fa "struct ifreq *"
Set the priority value used in the Type of Service field in IPv4
headers, or the Traffic Class field in IPv6 headers.
Values may be from 0 to 7, or
.Dv IF_HDRPRIO_PACKET
to specify that the current priority of a packet should be used.
.It Dv SIOCGTXHPRIO Fa "struct ifreq *"
Get the priority value used in the Type of Service field in IPv4
headers, or the Traffic Class field in IPv6 headers.
.It Dv SIOCSIFPARENT Fa "struct if_parent *"
Configure which interface will be joined to the multicast group
specified by the tunnel destination address.
The parent interface may only be configured for interfaces in
learning mode, and while the interface is down.
.It Dv SIOCGIFPARENT Fa "struct if_parent *"
Get the name of the interface used for multicast communication.
.It Dv SIOCDIFPARENT Fa "struct ifreq *"
Remove the configuration of the interface used for multicast
communication.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
Create a point-to-point tunnel using Virtual Network Identifier 5:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig vxlan0 tunnel 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.200 vnetid 5
# ifconfig vxlan0 10.1.1.100/24
.Ed
.Pp
The following examples creates a learning overlay network:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig vxlan0 tunnel 192.168.1.100 239.1.1.100
# ifconfig vxlan0 parent ix0
# ifconfig vxlan0 vnetid 7395
# ifconfig vxlan0 10.1.2.100/24
.Ed
.Pp
Prior to the assignment of UDP port 4789 by IANA, some early VXLAN
implementations used port 8472.
A non-standard port can be specified with the tunnel source
address:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig vxlan0 tunnel 192.168.1.100:8472 239.1.1.100
.Ed
.Sh SECURITY
.Nm
does not provide any integrated security features.
It is designed to be a simple protocol that can be used in trusted
data center environments, to carry VM traffic between virtual machine
hypervisors, and provide virtualized layer 2 networks in Cloud
infrastructures.
.Pp
To protect
.Nm
tunnels, the traffic can be protected with IPsec to add authentication
and encryption for confidentiality.
.Pp
The Packet Filter (PF) can be used to filter tunnel traffic with
endpoint policies in
.Xr pf.conf 5 :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
table <vxlantep> { 192.168.1.200, 192.168.1.201 }
block in on em0
pass out on em0
pass in on em0 proto udp from <vxlantep> to port vxlan
.Ed
.Pp
The Time-to-Live (TTL) value of the tunnel can be set to 1 or a low
value to restrict the traffic to the local network:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig vxlan0 tunnelttl 1
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr inet 4 ,
.Xr udp 4 ,
.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
.Xr netstart 8
.Sh STANDARDS
.Rs
.%A M. Mahalingam
.%A D. Dutt
.%A K. Duda
.%A P. Agarwal
.%A L. Kreeger
.%A T. Sridhar
.%A M. Bursell
.%A C. Wright
.%D August 2014
.%R RFC 7348
.%T Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN): A Framework for Overlaying Virtualized Layer 2 Networks over Layer 3 Networks
.Re
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
device first appeared in
.Ox 5.5 .
.Sh CAVEATS
The
.Nm
interface requires at least 50 bytes for the IP, UDP and VXLAN
protocol overhead and optionally 4 bytes for the encapsulated VLAN tag.
The default MTU is set to 1500 bytes but can be adjusted if the
transport interfaces carrying the tunnel traffic do not support larger
MTUs, the tunnel traffic is leaving the local network, or if
interoperability with another implementation requires running a
decreased MTU of 1450 bytes.
In any other case, it is commonly recommended to set the MTU of the
transport interfaces to at least 1600 bytes.