HP A5500 EI - Missing cookie in PacketIn message

[tom333kk]

My HP A5500 EI doesn't send cookie in PacketIn message. 

Cookie of flow, which redirected packet to controller is 0x75bd23a. Despite this in PacketIn cookie is equal 0xffffffffffffffff.

Example PacketIn:

{ofm:[V_1_3,PACKET_IN,106,0],inPort=0x90000b(9437195),reason=ACTION,tabId=3,packet=[[ETHERNET, IP, UDP, UNKNOWN], dst=3c:e5:a6:55:a3:d6, src=00:0c:29:79:df:6f]}
  Buffer ID : 0xffffffff(NO_BUFFER)
  In Port   : 0x90000b
  In PhyPort: 0x90000b
  Total Frame Len : 64
  Reason: ACTION
  Table ID: 3
  cookie: 0xffffffffffffffff
  Match: {Match(V_1_3):[type=OXM,len=12],fields=IN_PORT}
    {Oxm:V_1_3:[cls=0x8000(OPENFLOW_BASIC),ft=0(IN_PORT),hm=false,len=4],port=0x90000b(9437195)}
  Frame Data length: 64
  Packet=[[ETHERNET, IP, UDP, UNKNOWN], dst=3c:e5:a6:55:a3:d6, src=00:0c:29:79:df:6f]

HP SDN Controller 2.5.15, HP A5500-48G-PoE+ EI(Comware 5.20.99, Release 2221P15)

How can I solve this problem?

[Joetel]

Hi Tom,

It is the expected behaviour for Comware switches. If you look at the HP VAN SDN Controller and Applications Support Matrix manual section 1.6.2 - "HP Comware-based switches and PACKET_IN message cookies"  (page 10) it says:

"HP Comware-based switches do not support the use of cookie values to determine if a packet sent to the controller is being sent because of a specific flow modification. HP Comware-based switches always send a fixed value of 0xffffffffffffffff in the cookie field of a PACKET_IN message. "

Something else that might be important is that the Packet_In output you posted lists the Table ID for the matching flow as 3. This indicates that you are using the switch in non default table configuration, perhaps by adding a MAC IP table? Using the switch in non default table configuration is not supported by current versions of the HP VAN SDN Controller, see the above mentioned manual, section 1.6.1 - "OpenFlow table support" (page 9):

"The HP VAN SDN Controller does not support the use of tables other than the default OpenFlow tables for the HP ProVision-based and HP Comware-based switches it controls. The default OpenFlow tables are the following: "

and then for Comware switches:

"Table 0 for HP Comware-based switches.
Using configuration options that add or change the default OpenFlow table configuration, such as adding a MAC IP table (flow-table mac-ip 0 extensibility 1), are not supported. "

Let me know if this is of help . Thanks!

Best regards,

Wouter

HP SDN CoE team