ovn-nbctl(8) Open vSwitch Manual ovn-nbctl(8)
ovn-nbctl - Open Virtual Network northbound db management utility
ovn-nbctl [options] command [arg...]
This utility can be used to manage the OVN northbound database.
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-add
entity 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 00:11:22:33:44:55 192.168.0.1/24
2001: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 30.0.0.10:80
192.168.10.10:80,192.168.10.20:80,192.168.10.30:80 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=x other-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 the same
ovs-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 br0 datapath_id waits until a bridge
named br0 is created, then prints its
datapath_id column, whereas get bridge br0
datapath_id -- wait-until bridge 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 2020-12-18. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2020-12-16.) 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)
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