Open vSwitch on Proxmox

Since Open vSwitch (ovs) and Linux bridging can’t mix, it is advised to switch to ovs before creating a whole lot of bridges.

# apt install openvswitch-switch

In networking of the node, I deleted vmbr0 of type=linux bridge, and added a new bridge vmbr0 of type ovs bridge. Proxmox likes to reboot after that, perhaps a restart of networking had been enough. Only restarting openvswitch-switch was not enough.

A presentation on an Open vSwitch conference suggested to edit two files:

  • /etc/default/lxc-net
    • set USE_LXC_BRIDGE=”false”
  • /etc/lxc/default.conf
    • set lxc.net.0.link = ovsbr1 ; would be vmbr0 in my case

The first is already set in /etc/default/lxc. The file lxc-net does not exist (though it is referenced in the lxc file).

The second file is almost empty, it has only the line ‘lxc.net.0.type = empty’.

Adding a new container uses vmbr0 by default; now I don’t know whether that is because I named the new bridge the same as the old one, or because OVS is being used by default.

Anyway: the container asked for a DHCP lease and received it from the router.

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