Configuring switchd

switchd is the daemon at the heart of Cumulus Linux. It communicates between the switch and Cumulus Linux, and all the applications running on Cumulus Linux.

The switchd configuration is stored in /etc/cumulus/switchd.conf.

The switchd File System

switchd also exports a file system, mounted on /cumulus/switchd, that presents all the switchd configuration options as a series of files arranged in a tree structure. To show the contents, run the tree /cumulus/switchd command. The following example shows output for a switch with one switch port configured:

cumulus@switch:~$ sudo tree /cumulus/switchd/
/cumulus/switchd/
├── clear
│   └── stats
│       ├── vlan
│       └── vxlan
├── config
│   ├── acl
│   │   ├── flow_based_mirroring
│   │   ├── non_atomic_update_mode
│   │   ├── optimize_hw
│   │   └── vxlan_tnl_arp_punt_disable
│   ├── arp
│   │   ├── drop_during_failed_state
│   │   └── next_hops
│   ├── bridge
│   │   ├── broadcast_frame_to_cpu
│   │   └── optimized_mcast_flood
│   ├── buf_util
│   │   ├── measure_interval
│   │   └── poll_interval
│   ├── coalesce
│   │   ├── offset
│   │   ├── reducer
│   │   └── timeout
│   ├── disable_internal_hw_err_restart
│   ├── disable_internal_parity_restart
│   ├── hal
│   │   └── bcm
│   │       ├── l3
│   │       │   └── per_vlan_router_mac_lookup_for_vrrp
│   │       ├── linkscan_interval
│   │       ├── logging
│   │       │   └── l3mc
│   │       ├── per_vlan_router_mac_lookup
│   │       └── vxlan_support
│   ├── ignore_non_swps
│   ├── interface
│   │   ├── swp1
│   │   │   ├── ethtool_mode
│   │   │   ├── interface_mode
│   │   │   ├── port_security
│   │   │   │   ├── enable
│   │   │   │   ├── mac_limit
│   │   │   │   ├── static_mac
│   │   │   │   ├── sticky_aging
│   │   │   │   ├── sticky_mac
│   │   │   │   ├── sticky_timeout
│   │   │   │   ├── violation_mode
│   │   │   │   └── violation_timeout
│   │   │   └── storm_control
│   │   │       ├── broadcast
│   │   │       ├── multicast
│   │   │       └── unknown_unicast
...

Configure switchd Parameters

To configure the switchd parameters, edit the /etc/cumulus/switchd.conf file. An example is provided below.

cumulus@switch:~$ sudo nano /etc/cumulus/switchd.conf
#
# /etc/cumulus/switchd.conf - switchd configuration file
#

# Statistic poll interval (in msec)
#stats.poll_interval = 2000

# Buffer utilization poll interval (in msec), 0 means disable
#buf_util.poll_interval = 0

# Buffer utilization measurement interval (in mins)
#buf_util.measure_interval = 0

# Optimize ACL HW resources for better utilization
#acl.optimize_hw = FALSE

# Enable Flow based mirroring.
#acl.flow_based_mirroring = TRUE

# Enable non atomic acl update
acl.non_atomic_update_mode = FALSE

# Send ARPs for next hops
#arp.next_hops = TRUE

# Kernel routing table ID, range 1 - 2^31, default 254
#route.table = 254
...

When you update the /etc/cumulus/switchd.conf file, you must restart switchd for the changes to take effect. See Restart switchd, below.

Restart switchd

Whenever you modify a switchd hardware configuration file (for example, you update any *.conf file that requires making a change to the switching hardware, like /etc/cumulus/datapath/traffic.conf), you must restart the switchd service for the change to take effect:

cumulus@switch:~$ sudo systemctl restart switchd.service

You do not have to restart the switchd service when you update a network interface configuration (for example, when you edit the /etc/network/interfaces file).