init Initializes the database, if it is empty. If the database has
already been initialized, this command has no effect.
show [switch| router]
Prints a brief overview of the database contents. If switch is
provided, only records related to that logical switch are
shown. If router is provided, only records related to that
logical router are shown.
ls-add Creates a new, unnamed logical switch, which initially has no
ports. The switch does not have a name, other commands must
refer to this switch by its UUID.
[--may-exist | --add-duplicate] ls-add switch
Creates a new logical switch named switch, which initially has
no ports.
The OVN northbound database schema does not require logical
switch names to be unique, but the whole point to the names is
to provide an easy way for humans to refer to the switches,
making duplicate names unhelpful. Thus, without any options,
this command regards it as an error if switch is a duplicate
name. With --may-exist, adding a duplicate name succeeds but
does not create a new logical switch. With --add-duplicate,
the command really creates a new logical switch with a
duplicate name. It is an error to specify both options. If
there are multiple logical switches with a duplicate name,
configure the logical switches using the UUID instead of the
switch name.
[--if-exists] ls-del switch
Deletes switch. It is an error if switch does not exist,
unless --if-exists is specified.
ls-list
Lists all existing switches on standard output, one per line.
These commands operates on ACL objects for a given entity. The entity
can be either a logical switch or a port group. The entity can be
specified as uuid or name. The --type option can be used to specify
the type of the entity, in case both a logical switch and a port
groups exist with the same name specified for entity. type must be
either switch or port-group.
[--type={switch | port-group}] [--log] [--meter=meter]
[--severity=severity] [--name=name] [--may-exist] acl-addentity direction priority match verdict
Adds the specified ACL to entity. direction must be
either from-lport or to-lport. priority must be between
0 and 32767, inclusive. A full description of the
fields are in ovn-nb(5). If --may-exist is specified,
adding a duplicated ACL succeeds but the ACL is not
really created. Without --may-exist, adding a
duplicated ACL results in error.
The --log option enables packet logging for the ACL.
The options --severity and --name specify a severity
and name, respectively, for log entries (and also
enable logging). The severity must be one of alert,
warning, notice, info, or debug. If a severity is not
specified, the default is info. The --meter=meter
option is used to rate-limit packet logging. The meter
argument names a meter configured by meter-add.
[--type={switch | port-group}] acl-del entity [direction
[priority match]]
Deletes ACLs from entity. If only entity is supplied,
all the ACLs from the entity are deleted. If direction
is also specified, then all the flows in that direction
will be deleted from the entity. If all the fields are
given, then a single flow that matches all the fields
will be deleted.
[--type={switch | port-group}] acl-list entity
Lists the ACLs on entity.
[--may-exist] qos-add switch direction priority match [dscp=dscp]
[rate=rate [burst=burst]]
Adds QoS marking and metering rules to switch. direction must
be either from-lport or to-lport. priority must be between 0
and 32767, inclusive.
If dscp=dscp is specified, then matching packets will have
DSCP marking applied. dscp must be between 0 and 63,
inclusive. If rate=rate is specified then matching packets
will have metering applied at rate kbps. If metering is
configured, then burst=burst specifies the burst rate limit in
kilobits. dscp and/or rate are required arguments.
If --may-exist is specified, adding a duplicated QoS rule
succeeds but the QoS rule is not really created. Without
--may-exist, adding a duplicated QoS rule results in error.
qos-del switch [direction [priority match]]
Deletes QoS rules from switch. If only switch is supplied, all
the QoS rules from the logical switch are deleted. If
direction is also specified, then all the flows in that
direction will be deleted from the logical switch. If all the
fields are supplied, then a single flow that matches the given
fields will be deleted.
qos-list switch
Lists the QoS rules on switch.
meter-add name action rate unit [burst]
Adds the specified meter. name must be a unique name to
identify this meter. The action argument specifies what should
happen when this meter is exceeded. The only supported action
is drop.
The unit specifies the unit for the rate argument; valid
values are kbps and pktps for kilobits per second and packets
per second, respectively. The burst option configures the
maximum burst allowed for the band in kilobits or packets
depending on whether the unit chosen was kbps or pktps,
respectively. If a burst is not supplied, the switch is free
to select some reasonable value depending on its
configuration.
ovn-nbctl only supports adding a meter with a single band, but
the other commands support meters with multiple bands.
Names that start with "__" (two underscores) are reserved for
internal use by OVN, so ovn-nbctl does not allow adding them.
meter-del [name]
Deletes meters. By default, all meters are deleted. If name is
supplied, only the meter with that name will be deleted.
meter-list
Lists all meters.
[--may-exist] lsp-add switch port
Creates on lswitch a new logical switch port named port.
It is an error if a logical port named port already exists,
unless --may-exist is specified. Regardless of --may-exist, it
is an error if the existing port is in some logical switch
other than switch or if it has a parent port.
[--may-exist] lsp-add switch port parent tag_request
Creates on switch a logical switch port named port that is a
child of parent that is identified with VLAN ID tag_request,
which must be between 0 and 4095, inclusive. If tag_request is
0, ovn-northd generates a tag that is unique in the scope of
parent. This is useful in cases such as virtualized container
environments where Open vSwitch does not have a direct
connection to the container’s port and it must be shared with
the virtual machine’s port.
It is an error if a logical port named port already exists,
unless --may-exist is specified. Regardless of --may-exist, it
is an error if the existing port is not in switch or if it
does not have the specified parent and tag_request.
[--if-exists] lsp-del port
Deletes port. It is an error if port does not exist, unless
--if-exists is specified.
lsp-list switch
Lists all the logical switch ports within switch on standard
output, one per line.
lsp-get-parent port
If set, get the parent port of port. If not set, print
nothing.
lsp-get-tag port
If set, get the tag for port traffic. If not set, print
nothing.
lsp-set-addresses port [address]...
Sets the addresses associated with port to address. Each
address should be one of the following:
an Ethernet address, optionally followed by a space and one or
more IP addresses
OVN delivers packets for the Ethernet address to this
port.
unknown
OVN delivers unicast Ethernet packets whose destination
MAC address is not in any logical port’s addresses
column to ports with address unknown.
dynamic
Use this keyword to make ovn-northd generate a globally
unique MAC address and choose an unused IPv4 address
with the logical port’s subnet and store them in the
port’s dynamic_addresses column.
router Accepted only when the type of the logical switch port
is router. This indicates that the Ethernet, IPv4, and
IPv6 addresses for this logical switch port should be
obtained from the connected logical router port, as
specified by router-port in lsp-set-options.
Multiple addresses may be set. If no address argument is
given, port will have no addresses associated with it.
lsp-get-addresses port
Lists all the addresses associated with port on standard
output, one per line.
lsp-set-port-security port [addrs]...
Sets the port security addresses associated with port to
addrs. Multiple sets of addresses may be set by using multiple
addrs arguments. If no addrs argument is given, port will not
have port security enabled.
Port security limits the addresses from which a logical port
may send packets and to which it may receive packets. See the
ovn-nb(5) documentation for the port_security column in the
Logical_Switch_Port table for details.
lsp-get-port-security port
Lists all the port security addresses associated with port on
standard output, one per line.
lsp-get-up port
Prints the state of port, either up or down.
lsp-set-enabled port state
Set the administrative state of port, either enabled or
disabled. When a port is disabled, no traffic is allowed into
or out of the port.
lsp-get-enabled port
Prints the administrative state of port, either enabled or
disabled.
lsp-set-type port type
Set the type for the logical port. The type must be one of the
following:
(empty string)
A VM (or VIF) interface.
router A connection to a logical router.
localnet
A connection to a locally accessible network from each
ovn-controller instance. A logical switch can only have
a single localnet port attached. This is used to model
direct connectivity to an existing network.
localport
A connection to a local VIF. Traffic that arrives on a
localport is never forwarded over a tunnel to another
chassis. These ports are present on every chassis and
have the same address in all of them. This is used to
model connectivity to local services that run on every
hypervisor.
l2gateway
A connection to a physical network.
vtep A port to a logical switch on a VTEP gateway.
lsp-get-type port
Get the type for the logical port.
lsp-set-options port [key=value]...
Set type-specific key-value options for the logical port.
lsp-get-options port
Get the type-specific options for the logical port.
lsp-set-dhcpv4-options port dhcp_options
Set the DHCPv4 options for the logical port. The dhcp_options
is a UUID referring to a set of DHCP options in the
DHCP_Options table.
lsp-get-dhcpv4-options port
Get the configured DHCPv4 options for the logical port.
lsp-set-dhcpv6-options port dhcp_options
Set the DHCPv6 options for the logical port. The dhcp_options
is a UUID referring to a set of DHCP options in the
DHCP_Options table.
lsp-get-dhcpv6-options port
Get the configured DHCPv6 options for the logical port.
lsp-get-ls port
Get the logical switch which the port belongs to.
lr-add Creates a new, unnamed logical router, which initially has no
ports. The router does not have a name, other commands must
refer to this router by its UUID.
[--may-exist | --add-duplicate] lr-add router
Creates a new logical router named router, which initially has
no ports.
The OVN northbound database schema does not require logical
router names to be unique, but the whole point to the names is
to provide an easy way for humans to refer to the routers,
making duplicate names unhelpful. Thus, without any options,
this command regards it as an error if router is a duplicate
name. With --may-exist, adding a duplicate name succeeds but
does not create a new logical router. With --add-duplicate,
the command really creates a new logical router with a
duplicate name. It is an error to specify both options. If
there are multiple logical routers with a duplicate name,
configure the logical routers using the UUID instead of the
router name.
[--if-exists] lr-del router
Deletes router. It is an error if router does not exist,
unless --if-exists is specified.
lr-list
Lists all existing routers on standard output, one per line.
[--may-exist] lrp-add router port mac network... [peer=peer]
Creates on router a new logical router port named port with
Ethernet address mac and one or more IP address/netmask for
each network.
The optional argument peer identifies a logical router port
that connects to this one. The following example adds a router
port with an IPv4 and IPv6 address with peer lr1:
lrp-add lr0 lrp0 00:11:22:33:44:55 192.168.0.1/242001:db8::1/64 peer=lr1
It is an error if a logical router port named port already
exists, unless --may-exist is specified. Regardless of
--may-exist, it is an error if the existing router port is in
some logical router other than router.
[--if-exists] lrp-del port
Deletes port. It is an error if port does not exist, unless
--if-exists is specified.
lrp-list router
Lists all the logical router ports within router on standard
output, one per line.
lrp-set-enabled port state
Set the administrative state of port, either enabled or
disabled. When a port is disabled, no traffic is allowed into
or out of the port.
lrp-get-enabled port
Prints the administrative state of port, either enabled or
disabled.
lrp-set-gateway-chassis port chassis [priority]
Set gateway chassis for port. chassis is the name of the
chassis. This creates a gateway chassis entry in
Gateway_Chassis table. It won’t check if chassis really exists
in OVN_Southbound database. Priority will be set to 0 if
priority is not provided by user. priority must be between 0
and 32767, inclusive.
lrp-del-gateway-chassis port chassis
Deletes gateway chassis from port. It is an error if gateway
chassis with chassis for port does not exist.
lrp-get-gateway-chassis port
Lists all the gateway chassis with priority within port on
standard output, one per line, ordered based on priority.
[--may-exist] [--policy=POLICY] lr-route-add router prefix nexthop
[port]
Adds the specified route to router. prefix describes an IPv4
or IPv6 prefix for this route, such as 192.168.100.0/24.
nexthop specifies the gateway to use for this route, which
should be the IP address of one of router logical router ports
or the IP address of a logical port. If port is specified,
packets that match this route will be sent out that port. When
port is omitted, OVN infers the output port based on nexthop.
--policy describes the policy used to make routing decisions.
This should be one of "dst-ip" or "src-ip". If not specified,
the default is "dst-ip".
It is an error if a route with prefix already exists, unless
--may-exist is specified.
[--if-exists] lr-route-del router [prefix]
Deletes routes from router. If only router is supplied, all
the routes from the logical router are deleted. If prefix is
also specified, then all the routes that match the prefix will
be deleted from the logical router.
It is an error if prefix is specified and there is no matching
route entry, unless --if-exists is specified.
lr-route-list router
Lists the routes on router.
[--may-exist] lr-nat-add router type external_ip logical_ip
[logical_port external_mac]
Adds the specified NAT to router. The type must be one of
snat, dnat, or dnat_and_snat. The external_ip is an IPv4
address. The logical_ip is an IPv4 network (e.g
192.168.1.0/24) or an IPv4 address. The logical_port and
external_mac are only accepted when router is a distributed
router (rather than a gateway router) and type is
dnat_and_snat. The logical_port is the name of an existing
logical switch port where the logical_ip resides. The
external_mac is an Ethernet address.
When type is dnat, the externally visible IP address
external_ip is DNATted to the IP address logical_ip in the
logical space.
When type is snat, IP packets with their source IP address
that either matches the IP address in logical_ip or is in the
network provided by logical_ip is SNATed into the IP address
in external_ip.
When type is dnat_and_snat, the externally visible IP address
external_ip is DNATted to the IP address logical_ip in the
logical space. In addition, IP packets with the source IP
address that matches logical_ip is SNATed into the IP address
in external_ip.
When the logical_port and external_mac are specified, the NAT
rule will be programmed on the chassis where the logical_port
resides. This includes ARP replies for the external_ip, which
return the value of external_mac. All packets transmitted with
source IP address equal to external_ip will be sent using the
external_mac.
It is an error if a NAT already exists with the same values of
router, type, external_ip, and logical_ip, unless --may-exist
is specified. When --may-exist, logical_port, and external_mac
are all specified, the existing values of logical_port and
external_mac are overwritten.
[--if-exists] lr-nat-del router [type [ip]]
Deletes NATs from router. If only router is supplied, all the
NATs from the logical router are deleted. If type is also
specified, then all the NATs that match the type will be
deleted from the logical router. If all the fields are given,
then a single NAT rule that matches all the fields will be
deleted. When type is snat, the ip should be logical_ip. When
type is dnat or dnat_and_snat, the ip shoud be external_ip.
It is an error if ip is specified and there is no matching NAT
entry, unless --if-exists is specified.
lr-nat-list router
Lists the NATs on router.
[--may-exist | --add-duplicate] lb-add lb vip ips [protocol]
Creates a new load balancer named lb with the provided vip and
ips or adds the vip to an existing lb. vip should be a virtual
IP address (or an IP address and a port number with : as a
separator). Examples for vip are 192.168.1.4, fd0f::1, and
192.168.1.5:8080. ips should be comma separated IP endpoints
(or comma separated IP addresses and port numbers with : as a
separator). ips must be the same address family as vip.
Examples for ips are 10.0.0.1,10.0.0.2or
[fdef::1]:8800,[fdef::2]:8800.
The optional argument protocol must be either tcp or udp. This
argument is useful when a port number is provided as part of
the vip. If the protocol is unspecified and a port number is
provided as part of the vip, OVN assumes the protocol to be
tcp.
It is an error if the vip already exists in the load balancer
named lb, unless --may-exist is specified. With
--add-duplicate, the command really creates a new load
balancer with a duplicate name.
The following example adds a load balancer.
lb-add lb0 30.0.0.10:80192.168.10.10:80,192.168.10.20:80,192.168.10.30:80 udp
[--if-exists] lb-del lb [vip]
Deletes lb or the vip from lb. If vip is supplied, only the
vip will be deleted from the lb. If only the lb is supplied,
the lb will be deleted. It is an error if vip does not already
exist in lb, unless --if-exists is specified.
lb-list [lb]
Lists the LBs. If lb is also specified, then only the
specified lb will be listed.
[--may-exist] ls-lb-add switch lb
Adds the specified lb to switch. It is an error if a load
balancer named lb already exists in the switch, unless
--may-exist is specified.
[--if-exists] ls-lb-del switch [lb]
Removes lb from switch. If only switch is supplied, all the
LBs from the logical switch are removed. If lb is also
specified, then only the lb will be removed from the logical
switch. It is an error if lb does not exist in the switch,
unless --if-exists is specified.
ls-lb-list switch
Lists the LBs for the given switch.
[--may-exist] lr-lb-add router lb
Adds the specified lb to router. It is an error if a load
balancer named lb already exists in the router, unless
--may-exist is specified.
[--if-exists] lr-lb-del router [lb]
Removes lb from router. If only router is supplied, all the
LBs from the logical router are removed. If lb is also
specified, then only the lb will be removed from the logical
router. It is an error if lb does not exist in the router,
unless --if-exists is specified.
lr-lb-list router
Lists the LBs for the given router.
dhcp-options-create cidr [key=value]
Creates a new DHCP Options entry in the DHCP_Options table
with the specified cidr and optional external-ids.
dhcp-options-list
Lists the DHCP Options entries.
dhcp-options-del dhcp-option
Deletes the DHCP Options entry referred by dhcp-option UUID.
dhcp-options-set-options dhcp-option [key=value]...
Set the DHCP Options for the dhcp-option UUID.
dhcp-options-get-options dhcp-option
Lists the DHCP Options for the dhcp-option UUID.
pg-add group [port]...
Creates a new port group in the Port_Group table named group
with optional ports added to the group.
pg-set-ports group port...
Sets ports on the port group named group. It is an error if
group does not exist.
pg-del group
Deletes port group group. It is an error if group does not
exist.
ha-chassis-group-add group
Creates a new HA chassis group in the HA_Chassis_Group table
named group.
ha-chassis-group-del group
Deletes the HA chassis group group. It is an error if group
does not exist.
ha-chassis-group-list
Lists the HA chassis group group along with the HA chassis if
any associated with it.
ha-chassis-group-add-chassis group chassis priority
Adds a new HA chassis chassis to the HA Chassis group group
with the specified priority. If the chassis already exists,
then the priority is updated. The chassis should be the name
of the chassis in the OVN_Southbound.
ha-chassis-group-remove-chassis group chassis
Removes the HA chassis chassis from the HA chassis group
group. It is an error if chassis does not exist.
These commands query and modify the contents of ovsdb tables. They
are a slight abstraction of the ovsdb interface and as such they
operate at a lower level than other ovn-nbctl commands.
Identifying Tables, Records, and Columns
Each of these commands has a table parameter to identify a table
within the database. Many of them also take a record parameter that
identifies a particular record within a table. The record parameter
may be the UUID for a record, which may be abbreviated to its first 4
(or more) hex digits, as long as that is unique. Many tables offer
additional ways to identify records. Some commands also take column
parameters that identify a particular field within the records in a
table.
For a list of tables and their columns, see ovn-nb(5) or see the
table listing from the --help option.
Record names must be specified in full and with correct
capitalization, except that UUIDs may be abbreviated to their first 4
(or more) hex digits, as long as that is unique within the table.
Names of tables and columns are not case-sensitive, and - and _ are
treated interchangeably. Unique abbreviations of table and column
names are acceptable, e.g. d or dhcp is sufficient to identify the
DHCP_Options table.
Database Values
Each column in the database accepts a fixed type of data. The
currently defined basic types, and their representations, are:
integer
A decimal integer in the range -2**63 to 2**63-1,
inclusive.
real A floating-point number.
Boolean
True or false, written true or false, respectively.
string An arbitrary Unicode string, except that null bytes are
not allowed. Quotes are optional for most strings that
begin with an English letter or underscore and consist
only of letters, underscores, hyphens, and periods.
However, true and false and strings that match the
syntax of UUIDs (see below) must be enclosed in double
quotes to distinguish them from other basic types. When
double quotes are used, the syntax is that of strings
in JSON, e.g. backslashes may be used to escape special
characters. The empty string must be represented as a
pair of double quotes ("").
UUID Either a universally unique identifier in the style of
RFC 4122, e.g. f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6, or
an @name defined by a get or create command within the
same ovn-nbctl invocation.
Multiple values in a single column may be separated by spaces or a
single comma. When multiple values are present, duplicates are not
allowed, and order is not important. Conversely, some database
columns can have an empty set of values, represented as [], and
square brackets may optionally enclose other non-empty sets or single
values as well.
A few database columns are ``maps’’ of key-value pairs, where the key
and the value are each some fixed database type. These are specified
in the form key=value, where key and value follow the syntax for the
column’s key type and value type, respectively. When multiple pairs
are present (separated by spaces or a comma), duplicate keys are not
allowed, and again the order is not important. Duplicate values are
allowed. An empty map is represented as {}. Curly braces may
optionally enclose non-empty maps as well (but use quotes to prevent
the shell from expanding other-config={0=x,1=y} into other-config=0=xother-config=1=y, which may not have the desired effect).
Database Command Syntax
[--if-exists] [--columns=column[,column]...] list table
[record]...
Lists the data in each specified record. If no records
are specified, lists all the records in table.
If --columns is specified, only the requested columns
are listed, in the specified order. Otherwise, all
columns are listed, in alphabetical order by column
name.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if any specified
record does not exist. With --if-exists, the command
ignores any record that does not exist, without
producing any output.
[--columns=column[,column]...] find table
[column[:key]=value]...
Lists the data in each record in table whose column
equals value or, if key is specified, whose column
contains a key with the specified value. The following
operators may be used where = is written in the syntax
summary:
= != < > <= >=
Selects records in which column[:key] equals,
does not equal, is less than, is greater than,
is less than or equal to, or is greater than or
equal to value, respectively.
Consider column[:key] and value as sets of
elements. Identical sets are considered equal.
Otherwise, if the sets have different numbers of
elements, then the set with more elements is
considered to be larger. Otherwise, consider a
element from each set pairwise, in increasing
order within each set. The first pair that
differs determines the result. (For a column
that contains key-value pairs, first all the
keys are compared, and values are considered
only if the two sets contain identical keys.)
{=} {!=}
Test for set equality or inequality,
respectively.
{<=} Selects records in which column[:key] is a
subset of value. For example, flood-vlans{<=}1,2
selects records in which the flood-vlans column
is the empty set or contains 1 or 2 or both.
{<} Selects records in which column[:key] is a
proper subset of value. For example,
flood-vlans{<}1,2 selects records in which the
flood-vlans column is the empty set or contains
1 or 2 but not both.
{>=} {>}
Same as {<=} and {<}, respectively, except that
the relationship is reversed. For example,
flood-vlans{>=}1,2 selects records in which the
flood-vlans column contains both 1 and 2.
For arithmetic operators (= != < > <= >=), when key is
specified but a particular record’s column does not
contain key, the record is always omitted from the
results. Thus, the condition other-config:mtu!=1500
matches records that have a mtu key whose value is not
1500, but not those that lack an mtu key.
For the set operators, when key is specified but a
particular record’s column does not contain key, the
comparison is done against an empty set. Thus, the
condition other-config:mtu{!=}1500 matches records that
have a mtu key whose value is not 1500 and those that
lack an mtu key.
Don’t forget to escape < or > from interpretation by
the shell.
If --columns is specified, only the requested columns
are listed, in the specified order. Otherwise all
columns are listed, in alphabetical order by column
name.
The UUIDs shown for rows created in the same ovn-nbctl
invocation will be wrong.
[--if-exists] [--id=@name] get table record [column[:key]]...
Prints the value of each specified column in the given
record in table. For map columns, a key may optionally
be specified, in which case the value associated with
key in the column is printed, instead of the entire
map.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
exist or key is specified, if key does not exist in
record. With --if-exists, a missing record yields no
output and a missing key prints a blank line.
If @name is specified, then the UUID for record may be
referred to by that name later in the same ovn-nbctl
invocation in contexts where a UUID is expected.
Both --id and the column arguments are optional, but
usually at least one or the other should be specified.
If both are omitted, then get has no effect except to
verify that record exists in table.
--id and --if-exists cannot be used together.
[--if-exists] set table record column[:key]=value...
Sets the value of each specified column in the given
record in table to value. For map columns, a key may
optionally be specified, in which case the value
associated with key in that column is changed (or
added, if none exists), instead of the entire map.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
record does not exist.
[--if-exists] add table record column [key=]value...
Adds the specified value or key-value pair to column in
record in table. If column is a map, then key is
required, otherwise it is prohibited. If key already
exists in a map column, then the current value is not
replaced (use the set command to replace an existing
value).
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
record does not exist.
[--if-exists] remove table record column value...
[--if-exists] remove table record column key...
[--if-exists] remove table record column key=value...
Removes the specified values or key-value pairs from
column in record in table. The first form applies to
columns that are not maps: each specified value is
removed from the column. The second and third forms
apply to map columns: if only a key is specified, then
any key-value pair with the given key is removed,
regardless of its value; if a value is given then a
pair is removed only if both key and value match.
It is not an error if the column does not contain the
specified key or value or pair.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
record does not exist.
[--if-exists] clear table record column...
Sets each column in record in table to the empty set or
empty map, as appropriate. This command applies only to
columns that are allowed to be empty.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
record does not exist.
[--id=@name] create table column[:key]=value...
Creates a new record in table and sets the initial
values of each column. Columns not explicitly set will
receive their default values. Outputs the UUID of the
new row.
If @name is specified, then the UUID for the new row
may be referred to by that name elsewhere in the same
\*(PN invocation in contexts where a UUID is expected.
Such references may precede or follow the create
command.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
Records in the Open vSwitch database are
significant only when they can be reached
directly or indirectly from the Open_vSwitch
table. Except for records in the QoS or Queue
tables, records that are not reachable from the
Open_vSwitch table are automatically deleted
from the database. This deletion happens
immediately, without waiting for additional
ovs-vsctl commands or other database activity.
Thus, a create command must generally be
accompanied by additional commands within thesameovs-vsctl invocation to add a chain of
references to the newly created record from the
top-level Open_vSwitch record. The EXAMPLES
section gives some examples that show how to do
this.
[--if-exists] destroy table record...
Deletes each specified record from table. Unless
--if-exists is specified, each records must exist.
--all destroy table
Deletes all records from the table.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
The destroy command is only useful for records
in the QoS or Queue tables. Records in other
tables are automatically deleted from the
database when they become unreachable from the
Open_vSwitch table. This means that deleting the
last reference to a record is sufficient for
deleting the record itself. For records in these
tables, destroy is silently ignored. See the
EXAMPLES section below for more information.
wait-until table record [column[:key]=value]...
Waits until table contains a record named record whose
column equals value or, if key is specified, whose
column contains a key with the specified value. Any of
the operators !=, <, >, <=, or >= may be substituted
for = to test for inequality, less than, greater than,
less than or equal to, or greater than or equal to,
respectively. (Don’t forget to escape < or > from
interpretation by the shell.)
If no column[:key]=value arguments are given, this
command waits only until record exists. If more than
one such argument is given, the command waits until all
of them are satisfied.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
Usually wait-until should be placed at the
beginning of a set of ovs-vsctl commands. For
example, wait-until bridge br0 -- get bridge br0datapath_id waits until a bridge named br0 is
created, then prints its datapath_id column,
whereas get bridge br0 datapath_id -- wait-untilbridge br0 will abort if no bridge named br0
exists when ovs-vsctl initially connects to the
database.
Consider specifying --timeout=0 along with
--wait-until, to prevent ovn-nbctl from terminating
after waiting only at most 5 seconds.
comment [arg]...
This command has no effect on behavior, but any
database log record created by the command will include
the command and its arguments.
sync Ordinarily, --wait=sb or --wait=hv only waits for changes by
the current ovn-nbctl invocation to take effect. This means
that, if none of the commands supplied to ovn-nbctl change the
database, then the command does not wait at all. With the sync
command, however, ovn-nbctl waits even for earlier changes to
the database to propagate down to the southbound database or
all of the OVN chassis, according to the argument to --wait.
get-connection
Prints the configured connection(s).
del-connection
Deletes the configured connection(s).
[--inactivity-probe=msecs] set-connection target...
Sets the configured manager target or targets. Use
--inactivity-probe=msecs to override the default idle
connection inactivity probe time. Use 0 to disable inactivity
probes.
get-ssl
Prints the SSL configuration.
del-ssl
Deletes the current SSL configuration.
[--bootstrap] set-ssl private-key certificate ca-cert [ssl-protocol-list [ssl-cipher-list]]
Sets the SSL configuration.
When it is invoked in the most ordinary way, ovn-nbctl connects to an
OVSDB server that hosts the northbound database, retrieves a partial
copy of the database that is complete enough to do its work, sends a
transaction request to the server, and receives and processes the
server’s reply. In common interactive use, this is fine, but if the
database is large, the step in which ovn-nbctl retrieves a partial
copy of the database can take a long time, which yields poor
performance overall.
To improve performance in such a case, ovn-nbctl offers a "daemon
mode," in which the user first starts ovn-nbctl running in the
background and afterward uses the daemon to execute operations. Over
several ovn-nbctl command invocations, this performs better overall
because it retrieves a copy of the database only once at the
beginning, not once per program run.
Use the --detach option to start an ovn-nbctl daemon. With this
option, ovn-nbctl prints the name of a control socket to stdout. The
client should save this name in environment variable OVN_NB_DAEMON.
Under the Bourne shell this might be done like this:
export OVN_NB_DAEMON=$(ovn-nbctl --pidfile --detach)
When OVN_NB_DAEMON is set, ovn-nbctl automatically and transparently
uses the daemon to execute its commands.
When the daemon is no longer needed, kill it and unset the
environment variable, e.g.:
kill $(cat /var/run/ovn-nbctl.pid)
unset OVN_NB_DAEMON
Daemon mode is experimental.
Daemon Commands
Daemon mode is internally implemented using the same mechanism used
by ovs-appctl. One may also use ovs-appctl directly with the
following commands:
run [options] command [arg...] [-- [options] command [arg...]
...]
Instructs the daemon process to run one or more
ovn-nbctl commands described above and reply with the
results of running these commands. Accepts the
--no-wait, --wait, --timeout, --dry-run, --oneline, and
the options described under Table Formatting Options in
addition to the the command-specific options.
exit Causes ovn-nbctl to gracefully terminate.
--no-wait | --wait=none--wait=sb--wait=hv
These options control whether and how ovn-nbctl waits for the
OVN system to become up-to-date with changes made in an
ovn-nbctl invocation.
By default, or if --no-wait or --wait=none, ovn-nbctl exits
immediately after confirming that changes have been committed to
the northbound database, without waiting.
With --wait=sb, before ovn-nbctl exits, it waits for ovn-northd
to bring the southbound database up-to-date with the northbound
database updates.
With --wait=hv, before ovn-nbctl exits, it additionally waits
for all OVN chassis (hypervisors and gateways) to become up-to-
date with the northbound database updates. (This can become an
indefinite wait if any chassis is malfunctioning.)
Ordinarily, --wait=sb or --wait=hv only waits for changes by the
current ovn-nbctl invocation to take effect. This means that, if
none of the commands supplied to ovn-nbctl change the database,
then the command does not wait at all. Use the sync command to
override this behavior.
--db database
The OVSDB database remote to contact. If the OVN_NB_DB
environment variable is set, its value is used as the default.
Otherwise, the default is
unix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/ovnnb_db.sock, but this
default is unlikely to be useful outside of single-machine OVN
test environments.
--leader-only--no-leader-only
By default, or with --leader-only, when the database server is a
clustered database, ovn-nbctl will avoid servers other than the
cluster leader. This ensures that any data that ovn-nbctl reads
and reports is up-to-date. With --no-leader-only, ovn-nbctl will
use any server in the cluster, which means that for read-only
transactions it can report and act on stale data (transactions
that modify the database are always serialized even with
--no-leader-only). Refer to Understanding Cluster Consistency in
ovsdb(7) for more information.
--shuffle-remotes--no-shuffle-remotes
By default, or with --shuffle-remotes, when there are multiple
remotes specified in the OVSDB connection string specified by
--db or the OVN_NB_DB environment variable, the order of the
remotes will be shuffled before the client tries to connect. The
remotes will be shuffled only once to a new order before the
first connection attempt. The following retries, if any, will
follow the same new order. The default behavior is to make sure
clients of a clustered database can distribute evenly to all
memembers of the cluster. With --no-shuffle-remotes, ovn-nbctl
will use the original order specified in the connection string
to connect. This allows user to specify the preferred order,
which is particularly useful for testing.
Daemon Options--pidfile[=pidfile]
Causes a file (by default, program.pid) to be created
indicating the PID of the running process. If the pidfile
argument is not specified, or if it does not begin with /,
then it is created in /usr/local/var/run/openvswitch.
If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
--overwrite-pidfile
By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified
pidfile already exists and is locked by a running process, the
daemon refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pidfile to cause
it to instead overwrite the pidfile.
When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
--detach
Runs this program as a background process. The process forks,
and in the child it starts a new session, closes the standard
file descriptors (which has the side effect of disabling
logging to the console), and changes its current directory to
the root (unless --no-chdir is specified). After the child
completes its initialization, the parent exits.
--monitor
Creates an additional process to monitor this program. If it
dies due to a signal that indicates a programming error
(SIGABRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGILL, SIGPIPE, SIGSEGV,
SIGXCPU, or SIGXFSZ) then the monitor process starts a new
copy of it. If the daemon dies or exits for another reason,
the monitor process exits.
This option is normally used with --detach, but it also
functions without it.
--no-chdir
By default, when --detach is specified, the daemon changes its
current working directory to the root directory after it
detaches. Otherwise, invoking the daemon from a carelessly
chosen directory would prevent the administrator from
unmounting the file system that holds that directory.
Specifying --no-chdir suppresses this behavior, preventing the
daemon from changing its current working directory. This may
be useful for collecting core files, since it is common
behavior to write core dumps into the current working
directory and the root directory is not a good directory to
use.
This option has no effect when --detach is not specified.
--no-self-confinement
By default this daemon will try to self-confine itself to work
with files under well-known directories whitelisted at build
time. It is better to stick with this default behavior and not
to use this flag unless some other Access Control is used to
confine daemon. Note that in contrast to other access control
implementations that are typically enforced from kernel-space
(e.g. DAC or MAC), self-confinement is imposed from the user-
space daemon itself and hence should not be considered as a
full confinement strategy, but instead should be viewed as an
additional layer of security.
--user=user:group
Causes this program to run as a different user specified in
user:group, thus dropping most of the root privileges. Short
forms user and :group are also allowed, with current user or
group assumed, respectively. Only daemons started by the root
user accepts this argument.
On Linux, daemons will be granted CAP_IPC_LOCK and
CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICES before dropping root privileges. Daemons
that interact with a datapath, such as ovs-vswitchd, will be
granted three additional capabilities, namely CAP_NET_ADMIN,
CAP_NET_BROADCAST and CAP_NET_RAW. The capability change will
apply even if the new user is root.
On Windows, this option is not currently supported. For
security reasons, specifying this option will cause the daemon
process not to start.
-v[spec]
--verbose=[spec]
Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for
every module and destination to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list
of words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from
each category below:
· A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list
command on ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to
the specified module.
· syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change
to only to the system log, to the console, or to a file,
respectively. (If --detach is specified, the daemon
closes its standard file descriptors, so logging to the
console will have no effect.)
On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is
only useful along with the --syslog-target option (the
word has no effect otherwise).
· off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log
level. Messages of the given severity or higher will be
logged, and messages of lower severity will be filtered
out. off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8) for
a definition of each log level.
Case is not significant within spec.
Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file
will not take place unless --log-file is also specified (see
below).
For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as
a word but has no effect.
-v--verbose
Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to
--verbose=dbg.
-vPATTERN:destination:pattern--verbose=PATTERN:destination:pattern
Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to
ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
-vFACILITY:facility--verbose=FACILITY:facility
Sets the RFC5424 facility of the log message. facility can be
one of kern, user, mail, daemon, auth, syslog, lpr, news, uucp,
clock, ftp, ntp, audit, alert, clock2, local0, local1, local2,
local3, local4, local5, local6 or local7. If this option is not
specified, daemon is used as the default for the local system
syslog and local0 is used while sending a message to the target
provided via the --syslog-target option.
--log-file[=file]
Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is used
as the exact name for the log file. The default log file name
used if file is omitted is
/usr/local/var/log/openvswitch/program.log.
--syslog-target=host:port
Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the
system syslog. The host must be a numerical IP address, not a
hostname.
--syslog-method=method
Specify method as how syslog messages should be sent to syslog
daemon. The following forms are supported:
· libc, to use the libc syslog() function. Downside of
using this options is that libc adds fixed prefix to
every message before it is actually sent to the syslog
daemon over /dev/log UNIX domain socket.
· unix:file, to use a UNIX domain socket directly. It is
possible to specify arbitrary message format with this
option. However, rsyslogd 8.9 and older versions use hard
coded parser function anyway that limits UNIX domain
socket use. If you want to use arbitrary message format
with older rsyslogd versions, then use UDP socket to
localhost IP address instead.
· udp:ip:port, to use a UDP socket. With this method it is
possible to use arbitrary message format also with older
rsyslogd. When sending syslog messages over UDP socket
extra precaution needs to be taken into account, for
example, syslog daemon needs to be configured to listen
on the specified UDP port, accidental iptables rules
could be interfering with local syslog traffic and there
are some security considerations that apply to UDP
sockets, but do not apply to UNIX domain sockets.
· null, to discard all messages logged to syslog.
The default is taken from the OVS_SYSLOG_METHOD environment
variable; if it is unset, the default is libc.
These options control the format of output from the list and find
commands.
-f format--format=format
Sets the type of table formatting. The following types of
format are available:
table 2-D text tables with aligned columns.
list (default)
A list with one column per line and rows separated
by a blank line.
html HTML tables.
csv Comma-separated values as defined in RFC 4180.
json JSON format as defined in RFC 4627. The output is
a sequence of JSON objects, each of which
corresponds to one table. Each JSON object has the
following members with the noted values:
caption
The table’s caption. This member is omitted
if the table has no caption.
headings
An array with one element per table column.
Each array element is a string giving the
corresponding column’s heading.
data An array with one element per table row.
Each element is also an array with one
element per table column. The elements of
this second-level array are the cells that
constitute the table. Cells that represent
OVSDB data or data types are expressed in
the format described in the OVSDB
specification; other cells are simply
expressed as text strings.
-d format--data=format
Sets the formatting for cells within output tables unless
the table format is set to json, in which case json
formatting is always used when formatting cells. The
following types of format are available:
string (default)
The simple format described in the Database Values
section of ovs-vsctl(8).
bare The simple format with punctuation stripped off:
[] and {} are omitted around sets, maps, and empty
columns, items within sets and maps are space-
separated, and strings are never quoted. This
format may be easier for scripts to parse.
json The RFC 4627 JSON format as described above.
--no-headings
This option suppresses the heading row that otherwise
appears in the first row of table output.
--pretty
By default, JSON in output is printed as compactly as
possible. This option causes JSON in output to be printed
in a more readable fashion. Members of objects and
elements of arrays are printed one per line, with
indentation.
This option does not affect JSON in tables, which is
always printed compactly.
--bare
Equivalent to --format=list --data=bare --no-headings.
PKI Options
PKI configuration is required to use SSL for the connection to the
database.
-p privkey.pem--private-key=privkey.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as
identity for outgoing SSL connections.
-c cert.pem--certificate=cert.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate that
certifies the private key specified on -p or
--private-key to be trustworthy. The certificate must be
signed by the certificate authority (CA) that the peer in
SSL connections will use to verify it.
-C cacert.pem--ca-cert=cacert.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate for
verifying certificates presented to this program by SSL
peers. (This may be the same certificate that SSL peers
use to verify the certificate specified on -c or
--certificate, or it may be a different one, depending on
the PKI design in use.)
-C none--ca-cert=none
Disables verification of certificates presented by SSL
peers. This introduces a security risk, because it means
that certificates cannot be verified to be those of known
trusted hosts.
--bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem
When cacert.pem exists, this option has the same effect
as -C or --ca-cert. If it does not exist, then the
executable will attempt to obtain the CA certificate
from the SSL peer on its first SSL connection and save
it to the named PEM file. If it is successful, it will
immediately drop the connection and reconnect, and from
then on all SSL connections must be authenticated by a
certificate signed by the CA certificate thus obtained.
This option exposes the SSL connection to a man-in-the-
middle attack obtaining the initial CA certificate, but
it may be useful for bootstrapping.
This option is only useful if the SSL peer sends its CA
certificate as part of the SSL certificate chain. The
SSL protocol does not require the server to send the CA
certificate.
This option is mutually exclusive with -C and
--ca-cert.
Other Options-h--help
Prints a brief help message to the console.
-V--version
Prints version information to the console.
This page is part of the Open vSwitch (a distributed virtual
multilayer switch) project. Information about the project can be
found at ⟨http://openvswitch.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for
this manual page, send it to bugs@openvswitch.org. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs.git⟩ on 2020-08-13. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the repos‐
itory was 2020-08-12.) If you discover any rendering problems in
this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is a better or
more up-to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or
improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which is not part
of the original manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
Open vSwitch 2.12.90 ovn-nbctl ovn-nbctl(8)