After some pondering, I've concluded that the initial Windows datapath
should use Netlink for userspace-kernel datapath communication,
primarily because Netlink is extensible in a forward- and
backward-compatible fashion. That is, as we add new features to the
kernel module, existing userspace continues to work, and newer
userspace also easily continue to work with older kernel modules.
This isn't just theoretical, it's a feature that we've been using with
the Linux kernel module for years: any version of Open vSwitch
userspace works with any version of the Open vSwitch kernel module[*].
It makes" for smoother upgrades, because userspace and the kernel can
be upgraded separately, giving administrators more flexibility.
[*] Except the versions before Netlink support, of course.
This isn't a decision to go with the VMware or the Cloudbase version
of Windows support, by the way, but it does mean that the VMware
kernel module will require significant changes.
Now I'm going to go review Alin's userspace changes that allow the
userspace dpif-linux code to compile on Windows. (After those changes
are in, we probably want to rename dpif-linux to dpif-netlink.)
_______________________________________________
dev mailing list
dev@openvswitch.org
http://openvswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
