What is OVS?

Open vSwitch (OVS) is an open-source, production-quality, multilayer virtual switch licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. It is designed to enable massive network automation through programmatic extension, while still supporting standard management interfaces and protocols like NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX, RSPAN, and CLI. OVS is commonly used as a switching stack within hypervisors (e.g., Xen, KVM) and in cloud environments. It also functions as a virtual distributed switch, enabling the distribution of switching capacity across multiple server hosts.