Allowing users to specify custom `external-id`

[mnaser]

I have a scenario where I'd like to add a bunch of values to external-ids (because my OVS bridge is tapped into OVN and I'd like to set iface-id).

It doesn't seem like there's a way to do it right now, am I missing something to allow this or is this not part of the ovs-cni scope?

[phoracek]

Hey @mnaser! Do you want to set external-ids on Bridge, Port, or Interface object?

[mnaser]

Hi @phoracek -- sorry, better late than ever. We'd want to put it on the Interface, so for example, we do this right now inside of a VM that's running in host networking mode:

ovs-vsctl --may-exist add-port br-int o-hm0 \
        -- set Interface o-hm0 type=internal \
        -- set Interface o-hm0 external-ids:iface-status=active \
        -- set Interface o-hm0 external-ids:attached-mac=$HM_PORT_MAC \
        -- set Interface o-hm0 external-ids:iface-id=$HM_PORT_ID \
        -- set Interface o-hm0 external-ids:skip_cleanup=true

We would really like/rather than instead, we relied on the OVS CNI somehow :)

[phoracek]

@mnaser iface-id can be already configured by setting ovnPort in CNI_ARGS. The rest of the attributes however is not available.

I would be happy to accept a patch that extends the API in the following way:

• It adds a new attribute to NetConf called allowedExternalIds

  ovs-cni/pkg/types/types.go

  Line 30 in 6f8174b

  type NetConf struct {

• It accepts arbitrary external-id through NET_ARGS as long as it is listed in the NetConf

That way it will be possible for the user to request any external-id as long as it was allowed by the administrator in the network configuration.

cc @SchSeba

[SchSeba]

+1 from my side on this.

@mnaser if you are able to work on this I will be happy to review :)