1ovn-nbctl(8) OVN Manual ovn-nbctl(8)
2
6 ovn-nbctl - Open Virtual Network northbound db management utility
7
9 ovn-nbctl [options] command [arg...]
10
12 The ovn-nbctl program configures the OVN_Northbound database by provid‐
13 ing a high-level interface to its configuration database. See ovn-nb(5)
14 for comprehensive documentation of the database schema.
15 ovn-nbctl connects to an ovsdb-server process that maintains an
17 OVN_Northbound configuration database. Using this connection, it
18 queries and possibly applies changes to the database, depending on the
19 supplied commands.
20 ovn-nbctl can perform any number of commands in a single run, imple‐
22 mented as a single atomic transaction against the database.
23 The ovn-nbctl command line begins with global options (see OPTIONS be‐
25 low for details). The global options are followed by one or more com‐
26 mands. Each command should begin with -- by itself as a command-line
27 argument, to separate it from the following commands. (The -- before
28 the first command is optional.) The command itself starts with command-
29 specific options, if any, followed by the command name and any argu‐
30 ments.
31
33 When it is invoked in the most ordinary way, ovn-nbctl connects to an
34 OVSDB server that hosts the northbound database, retrieves a partial
35 copy of the database that is complete enough to do its work, sends a
36 transaction request to the server, and receives and processes the
37 server’s reply. In common interactive use, this is fine, but if the
38 database is large, the step in which ovn-nbctl retrieves a partial copy
39 of the database can take a long time, which yields poor performance
40 overall.
41 To improve performance in such a case, ovn-nbctl offers a "daemon
43 mode," in which the user first starts ovn-nbctl running in the back‐
44 ground and afterward uses the daemon to execute operations. Over sev‐
45 eral ovn-nbctl command invocations, this performs better overall be‐
46 cause it retrieves a copy of the database only once at the beginning,
47 not once per program run.
48 Use the --detach option to start an ovn-nbctl daemon. With this option,
50 ovn-nbctl prints the name of a control socket to stdout. The client
51 should save this name in environment variable OVN_NB_DAEMON. Under the
52 Bourne shell this might be done like this:
53 export OVN_NB_DAEMON=$(ovn-nbctl --pidfile --detach)
55 When OVN_NB_DAEMON is set, ovn-nbctl automatically and transparently
58 uses the daemon to execute its commands.
59 When the daemon is no longer needed, kill it and unset the environment
61 variable, e.g.:
62 kill $(cat $OVN_RUNDIR/ovn-nbctl.pid)
64 unset OVN_NB_DAEMON
65 When using daemon mode, an alternative to the OVN_NB_DAEMON environment
68 variable is to specify a path for the Unix socket. When starting the
69 ovn-nbctl daemon, specify the -u option with a full path to the loca‐
70 tion of the socket file. Here is an exmple:
71 ovn-nbctl --detach -u /tmp/mysock.ctl
73 Then to connect to the running daemon, use the -u option with the full
76 path to the socket created when the daemon was started:
77 ovn-nbctl -u /tmp/mysock.ctl show
79 Daemon Commands
82 Daemon mode is internally implemented using the same mechanism used by
84 ovn-appctl. One may also use ovn-appctl directly with the following
85 commands:
86 run [options] command [arg...] [-- [options] command [arg...]
88 ...]
89 Instructs the daemon process to run one or more ovn-nbctl
90 commands described above and reply with the results of
91 running these commands. Accepts the --no-wait, --wait,
92 --timeout, --dry-run, --oneline, and the options de‐
93 scribed under Table Formatting Options in addition to the
94 the command-specific options.
95 exit Causes ovn-nbctl to gracefully terminate.
97
99 The options listed below affect the behavior of ovn-nbctl as a whole.
100 Some individual commands also accept their own options, which are given
101 just before the command name. If the first command on the command line
102 has options, then those options must be separated from the global op‐
103 tions by --.
104 ovn-nbctl also accepts options from the OVN_NBCTL_OPTIONS environment
106 variable, in the same format as on the command line. Options from the
107 command line override those in the environment.
108 --no-wait | --wait=none
110 --wait=sb
111 --wait=hv
112 These options control whether and how ovn-nbctl waits for
113 the OVN system to become up-to-date with changes made in an
114 ovn-nbctl invocation.
115 By default, or if --no-wait or --wait=none, ovn-nbctl exits
117 immediately after confirming that changes have been commit‐
118 ted to the northbound database, without waiting.
119 With --wait=sb, before ovn-nbctl exits, it waits for
121 ovn-northd to bring the southbound database up-to-date with
122 the northbound database updates.
123 With --wait=hv, before ovn-nbctl exits, it additionally
125 waits for all OVN chassis (hypervisors and gateways) to be‐
126 come up-to-date with the northbound database updates. (This
127 can become an indefinite wait if any chassis is malfunc‐
128 tioning.)
129 Ordinarily, --wait=sb or --wait=hv only waits for changes
131 by the current ovn-nbctl invocation to take effect. This
132 means that, if none of the commands supplied to ovn-nbctl
133 change the database, then the command does not wait at all.
134 Use the sync command to override this behavior.
135 --db database
137 The OVSDB database remote to contact. If the OVN_NB_DB en‐
138 vironment variable is set, its value is used as the de‐
139 fault. Otherwise, the default is unix:/ovnnb_db.sock, but
140 this default is unlikely to be useful outside of single-ma‐
141 chine OVN test environments.
142 --leader-only
144 --no-leader-only
145 By default, or with --leader-only, when the database server
146 is a clustered database, ovn-nbctl will avoid servers other
147 than the cluster leader. This ensures that any data that
148 ovn-nbctl reads and reports is up-to-date. With
149 --no-leader-only, ovn-nbctl will use any server in the
150 cluster, which means that for read-only transactions it can
151 report and act on stale data (transactions that modify the
152 database are always serialized even with --no-leader-only).
153 Refer to Understanding Cluster Consistency in ovsdb(7) for
154 more information.
155 --shuffle-remotes
157 --no-shuffle-remotes
158 By default, or with --shuffle-remotes, when there are mul‐
159 tiple remotes specified in the OVSDB connection string
160 specified by --db or the OVN_NB_DB environment variable,
161 the order of the remotes will be shuffled before the client
162 tries to connect. The remotes will be shuffled only once to
163 a new order before the first connection attempt. The fol‐
164 lowing retries, if any, will follow the same new order. The
165 default behavior is to make sure clients of a clustered
166 database can distribute evenly to all memembers of the
167 cluster. With --no-shuffle-remotes, ovn-nbctl will use the
168 original order specified in the connection string to con‐
169 nect. This allows user to specify the preferred order,
170 which is particularly useful for testing.
171 --no-syslog
173 By default, ovn-nbctl logs its arguments and the details of
174 any changes that it makes to the system log. This option
175 disables this logging.
176 This option is equivalent to --verbose=nbctl:syslog:warn.
178 --oneline
180 Modifies the output format so that the output for each com‐
181 mand is printed on a single line. New-line characters that
182 would otherwise separate lines are printed as \fB\\n\fR,
183 and any instances of \fB\\\fR that would otherwise appear
184 in the output are doubled. Prints a blank line for each
185 command that has no output. This option does not affect the
186 formatting of output from the list or find commands; see
187 Table Formatting Options below.
188 --dry-run
190 Prevents ovn-nbctl from actually modifying the database.
191 -t secs
193 --timeout=secs
194 By default, or with a secs of 0, ovn-nbctl waits forever
195 for a response from the database. This option limits run‐
196 time to approximately secs seconds. If the timeout expires,
197 ovn-nbctl will exit with a SIGALRM signal. (A timeout would
198 normally happen only if the database cannot be contacted,
199 or if the system is overloaded.)
200 --print-wait-time
202 When --wait is specified, the option --print-wait-time can
203 be used to print the time spent on waiting, depending on
204 the value specified in --wait option. If --wait=sb is
205 specified, it prints "ovn-northd delay before processing",
206 which is the time between the Northbound DB update by the
207 command and the moment when ovn-northd starts processing
208 the update, and "ovn-northd completion", which is the time
209 between the Northbound DB update and the moment when
210 ovn-northd completes the Southbound DB updating success‐
211 fully. If --wait=hv is specified, in addition to the above
212 information, it also prints "ovn-controller(s) completion",
213 which is the time between the Northbound DB update and the
214 moment when the slowest hypervisor finishes processing the
215 update.
216 Daemon Options
218 --pidfile[=pidfile]
219 Causes a file (by default, program.pid) to be created indicating
220 the PID of the running process. If the pidfile argument is not
221 specified, or if it does not begin with /, then it is created in
222 .
223 If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
225 --overwrite-pidfile
227 By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified pid‐
228 file already exists and is locked by a running process, the dae‐
229 mon refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pidfile to cause it to
230 instead overwrite the pidfile.
231 When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
233 --detach
235 Runs this program as a background process. The process forks,
236 and in the child it starts a new session, closes the standard
237 file descriptors (which has the side effect of disabling logging
238 to the console), and changes its current directory to the root
239 (unless --no-chdir is specified). After the child completes its
240 initialization, the parent exits.
241 --monitor
243 Creates an additional process to monitor this program. If it
244 dies due to a signal that indicates a programming error (SIGA‐
245 BRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGILL, SIGPIPE, SIGSEGV, SIGXCPU,
246 or SIGXFSZ) then the monitor process starts a new copy of it. If
247 the daemon dies or exits for another reason, the monitor process
248 exits.
249 This option is normally used with --detach, but it also func‐
251 tions without it.
252 --no-chdir
254 By default, when --detach is specified, the daemon changes its
255 current working directory to the root directory after it de‐
256 taches. Otherwise, invoking the daemon from a carelessly chosen
257 directory would prevent the administrator from unmounting the
258 file system that holds that directory.
259 Specifying --no-chdir suppresses this behavior, preventing the
261 daemon from changing its current working directory. This may be
262 useful for collecting core files, since it is common behavior to
263 write core dumps into the current working directory and the root
264 directory is not a good directory to use.
265 This option has no effect when --detach is not specified.
267 --no-self-confinement
269 By default this daemon will try to self-confine itself to work
270 with files under well-known directories determined at build
271 time. It is better to stick with this default behavior and not
272 to use this flag unless some other Access Control is used to
273 confine daemon. Note that in contrast to other access control
274 implementations that are typically enforced from kernel-space
275 (e.g. DAC or MAC), self-confinement is imposed from the user-
276 space daemon itself and hence should not be considered as a full
277 confinement strategy, but instead should be viewed as an addi‐
278 tional layer of security.
279 --user=user:group
281 Causes this program to run as a different user specified in
282 user:group, thus dropping most of the root privileges. Short
283 forms user and :group are also allowed, with current user or
284 group assumed, respectively. Only daemons started by the root
285 user accepts this argument.
286 On Linux, daemons will be granted CAP_IPC_LOCK and
288 CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICES before dropping root privileges. Daemons
289 that interact with a datapath, such as ovs-vswitchd, will be
290 granted three additional capabilities, namely CAP_NET_ADMIN,
291 CAP_NET_BROADCAST and CAP_NET_RAW. The capability change will
292 apply even if the new user is root.
293 On Windows, this option is not currently supported. For security
295 reasons, specifying this option will cause the daemon process
296 not to start.
297 Logging options
299 -v[spec]
300 --verbose=[spec]
301 Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for ev‐
302 ery module and destination to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list of
303 words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from each
304 category below:
305 • A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list command
307 on ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to the speci‐
308 fied module.
309 • syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change to
311 only to the system log, to the console, or to a file, re‐
312 spectively. (If --detach is specified, the daemon closes
313 its standard file descriptors, so logging to the console
314 will have no effect.)
315 On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is
317 only useful along with the --syslog-target option (the word
318 has no effect otherwise).
319 • off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log
321 level. Messages of the given severity or higher will be
322 logged, and messages of lower severity will be filtered
323 out. off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8) for a
324 definition of each log level.
325 Case is not significant within spec.
327 Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file will
329 not take place unless --log-file is also specified (see below).
330 For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as a
332 word but has no effect.
333 -v
335 --verbose
336 Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to --ver‐
337 bose=dbg.
338 -vPATTERN:destination:pattern
340 --verbose=PATTERN:destination:pattern
341 Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to ovs-ap‐
342 pctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
343 -vFACILITY:facility
345 --verbose=FACILITY:facility
346 Sets the RFC5424 facility of the log message. facility can be one
347 of kern, user, mail, daemon, auth, syslog, lpr, news, uucp, clock,
348 ftp, ntp, audit, alert, clock2, local0, local1, local2, local3,
349 local4, local5, local6 or local7. If this option is not specified,
350 daemon is used as the default for the local system syslog and lo‐
351 cal0 is used while sending a message to the target provided via
352 the --syslog-target option.
353 --log-file[=file]
355 Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is used
356 as the exact name for the log file. The default log file name used
357 if file is omitted is /var/log/ovn/program.log.
358 --syslog-target=host:port
360 Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the sys‐
361 tem syslog. The host must be a numerical IP address, not a host‐
362 name.
363 --syslog-method=method
365 Specify method as how syslog messages should be sent to syslog
366 daemon. The following forms are supported:
367 • libc, to use the libc syslog() function. Downside of using
369 this options is that libc adds fixed prefix to every mes‐
370 sage before it is actually sent to the syslog daemon over
371 /dev/log UNIX domain socket.
372 • unix:file, to use a UNIX domain socket directly. It is pos‐
374 sible to specify arbitrary message format with this option.
375 However, rsyslogd 8.9 and older versions use hard coded
376 parser function anyway that limits UNIX domain socket use.
377 If you want to use arbitrary message format with older
378 rsyslogd versions, then use UDP socket to localhost IP ad‐
379 dress instead.
380 • udp:ip:port, to use a UDP socket. With this method it is
382 possible to use arbitrary message format also with older
383 rsyslogd. When sending syslog messages over UDP socket ex‐
384 tra precaution needs to be taken into account, for example,
385 syslog daemon needs to be configured to listen on the spec‐
386 ified UDP port, accidental iptables rules could be inter‐
387 fering with local syslog traffic and there are some secu‐
388 rity considerations that apply to UDP sockets, but do not
389 apply to UNIX domain sockets.
390 • null, to discard all messages logged to syslog.
392 The default is taken from the OVS_SYSLOG_METHOD environment vari‐
394 able; if it is unset, the default is libc.
395 Table Formatting Options
397 These options control the format of output from the list and find com‐
398 mands.
399 -f format
401 --format=format
402 Sets the type of table formatting. The following types of
403 format are available:
404 table 2-D text tables with aligned columns.
406 list (default)
408 A list with one column per line and rows separated
409 by a blank line.
410 html HTML tables.
412 csv Comma-separated values as defined in RFC 4180.
414 json JSON format as defined in RFC 4627. The output is a
416 sequence of JSON objects, each of which corresponds
417 to one table. Each JSON object has the following
418 members with the noted values:
419 caption
421 The table’s caption. This member is omitted
422 if the table has no caption.
423 headings
425 An array with one element per table column.
426 Each array element is a string giving the
427 corresponding column’s heading.
428 data An array with one element per table row. Each
430 element is also an array with one element per
431 table column. The elements of this second-
432 level array are the cells that constitute the
433 table. Cells that represent OVSDB data or
434 data types are expressed in the format de‐
435 scribed in the OVSDB specification; other
436 cells are simply expressed as text strings.
437 -d format
439 --data=format
440 Sets the formatting for cells within output tables unless
441 the table format is set to json, in which case json format‐
442 ting is always used when formatting cells. The following
443 types of format are available:
444 string (default)
446 The simple format described in the Database Values
447 section of ovs-vsctl(8).
448 bare The simple format with punctuation stripped off: []
450 and {} are omitted around sets, maps, and empty col‐
451 umns, items within sets and maps are space-sepa‐
452 rated, and strings are never quoted. This format may
453 be easier for scripts to parse.
454 json The RFC 4627 JSON format as described above.
456 --no-headings
458 This option suppresses the heading row that otherwise ap‐
459 pears in the first row of table output.
460 --pretty
462 By default, JSON in output is printed as compactly as pos‐
463 sible. This option causes JSON in output to be printed in a
464 more readable fashion. Members of objects and elements of
465 arrays are printed one per line, with indentation.
466 This option does not affect JSON in tables, which is always
468 printed compactly.
469 --bare
471 Equivalent to --format=list --data=bare --no-headings.
472 PKI Options
474 PKI configuration is required to use SSL for the connection to the
475 database.
476 -p privkey.pem
478 --private-key=privkey.pem
479 Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as
480 identity for outgoing SSL connections.
481 -c cert.pem
483 --certificate=cert.pem
484 Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate that certi‐
485 fies the private key specified on -p or --private-key to be
486 trustworthy. The certificate must be signed by the certifi‐
487 cate authority (CA) that the peer in SSL connections will
488 use to verify it.
489 -C cacert.pem
491 --ca-cert=cacert.pem
492 Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate for ver‐
493 ifying certificates presented to this program by SSL peers.
494 (This may be the same certificate that SSL peers use to
495 verify the certificate specified on -c or --certificate, or
496 it may be a different one, depending on the PKI design in
497 use.)
498 -C none
500 --ca-cert=none
501 Disables verification of certificates presented by SSL
502 peers. This introduces a security risk, because it means
503 that certificates cannot be verified to be those of known
504 trusted hosts.
505 --bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem
507 When cacert.pem exists, this option has the same effect
508 as -C or --ca-cert. If it does not exist, then the exe‐
509 cutable will attempt to obtain the CA certificate from
510 the SSL peer on its first SSL connection and save it to
511 the named PEM file. If it is successful, it will immedi‐
512 ately drop the connection and reconnect, and from then on
513 all SSL connections must be authenticated by a certifi‐
514 cate signed by the CA certificate thus obtained.
515 This option exposes the SSL connection to a man-in-the-
517 middle attack obtaining the initial CA certificate, but
518 it may be useful for bootstrapping.
519 This option is only useful if the SSL peer sends its CA
521 certificate as part of the SSL certificate chain. The SSL
522 protocol does not require the server to send the CA cer‐
523 tificate.
524 This option is mutually exclusive with -C and --ca-cert.
526 Other Options
528 -h
529 --help
530 Prints a brief help message to the console.
531 -V
533 --version
534 Prints version information to the console.
535
537 The following sections describe the commands that ovn-nbctl supports.
538 General Commands
540 init Initializes the database, if it is empty. If the database has
541 already been initialized, this command has no effect.
542 show [switch | router]
544 Prints a brief overview of the database contents. If switch is
545 provided, only records related to that logical switch are shown.
546 If router is provided, only records related to that logical
547 router are shown.
548 Logical Switch Commands
550 ls-add Creates a new, unnamed logical switch, which initially has no
551 ports. The switch does not have a name, other commands must re‐
552 fer to this switch by its UUID.
553 [--may-exist | --add-duplicate] ls-add switch
555 Creates a new logical switch named switch, which initially has
556 no ports.
557 The OVN northbound database schema does not require logical
559 switch names to be unique, but the whole point to the names is
560 to provide an easy way for humans to refer to the switches, mak‐
561 ing duplicate names unhelpful. Thus, without any options, this
562 command regards it as an error if switch is a duplicate name.
563 With --may-exist, adding a duplicate name succeeds but does not
564 create a new logical switch. With --add-duplicate, the command
565 really creates a new logical switch with a duplicate name. It is
566 an error to specify both options. If there are multiple logical
567 switches with a duplicate name, configure the logical switches
568 using the UUID instead of the switch name.
569 [--if-exists] ls-del switch
571 Deletes switch. It is an error if switch does not exist, unless
572 --if-exists is specified.
573 ls-list
575 Lists all existing switches on standard output, one per line.
576 ACL Commands
578 These commands operates on ACL objects for a given entity. The entity
579 can be either a logical switch or a port group. The entity can be spec‐
580 ified as uuid or name. The --type option can be used to specify the
581 type of the entity, in case both a logical switch and a port groups ex‐
582 ist with the same name specified for entity. type must be either switch
583 or port-group.
584 [--type={switch | port-group}] [--log] [--meter=meter] [--sever‐
586 ity=severity] [--name=name] [--label=label] [--may-exist]
587 acl-add entity direction priority match verdict
588 Adds the specified ACL to entity. direction must be ei‐
589 ther from-lport or to-lport. priority must be between 0
590 and 32767, inclusive. A full description of the fields
591 are in ovn-nb(5). If --may-exist is specified, adding a
592 duplicated ACL succeeds but the ACL is not really cre‐
593 ated. Without --may-exist, adding a duplicated ACL re‐
594 sults in error.
595 The --log option enables packet logging for the ACL. The
597 options --severity and --name specify a severity and
598 name, respectively, for log entries (and also enable log‐
599 ging). The severity must be one of alert, warning, no‐
600 tice, info, or debug. If a severity is not specified, the
601 default is info. The --meter=meter option is used to
602 rate-limit packet logging. The meter argument names a me‐
603 ter configured by meter-add.
604 [--type={switch | port-group}] acl-del entity [direction [prior‐
606 ity match]]
607 Deletes ACLs from entity. If only entity is supplied, all
608 the ACLs from the entity are deleted. If direction is
609 also specified, then all the flows in that direction will
610 be deleted from the entity. If all the fields are given,
611 then a single flow that matches all the fields will be
612 deleted.
613 [--type={switch | port-group}] acl-list entity
615 Lists the ACLs on entity.
616 Logical Switch QoS Rule Commands
618 [--may-exist] qos-add switch direction priority match [dscp=dscp]
619 [rate=rate [burst=burst]]
620 Adds QoS marking and metering rules to switch. direction must be
621 either from-lport or to-lport. priority must be between 0 and
622 32767, inclusive.
623 If dscp=dscp is specified, then matching packets will have DSCP
625 marking applied. dscp must be between 0 and 63, inclusive. If
626 rate=rate is specified then matching packets will have metering
627 applied at rate kbps. If metering is configured, then
628 burst=burst specifies the burst rate limit in kilobits. dscp
629 and/or rate are required arguments.
630 If --may-exist is specified, adding a duplicated QoS rule suc‐
632 ceeds but the QoS rule is not really created. Without --may-ex‐
633 ist, adding a duplicated QoS rule results in error.
634 qos-del switch [direction [priority match]]
636 Deletes QoS rules from switch. If only switch is supplied, all
637 the QoS rules from the logical switch are deleted. If direction
638 is also specified, then all the flows in that direction will be
639 deleted from the logical switch. If all the fields are supplied,
640 then a single flow that matches the given fields will be
641 deleted.
642 If switch and uuid are supplied, then the QoS rule with sepci‐
644 fied uuid is deleted.
645 qos-list switch
647 Lists the QoS rules on switch.
648 Meter Commands
650 meter-add name action rate unit [burst]
651 Adds the specified meter. name must be a unique name to identify
652 this meter. The action argument specifies what should happen
653 when this meter is exceeded. The only supported action is drop.
654 The unit specifies the unit for the rate argument; valid values
656 are kbps and pktps for kilobits per second and packets per sec‐
657 ond, respectively. The burst option configures the maximum burst
658 allowed for the band in kilobits or packets depending on whether
659 the unit chosen was kbps or pktps, respectively. If a burst is
660 not supplied, the switch is free to select some reasonable value
661 depending on its configuration.
662 ovn-nbctl only supports adding a meter with a single band, but
664 the other commands support meters with multiple bands.
665 Names that start with "__" (two underscores) are reserved for
667 internal use by OVN, so ovn-nbctl does not allow adding them.
668 meter-del [name]
670 Deletes meters. By default, all meters are deleted. If name is
671 supplied, only the meter with that name will be deleted.
672 meter-list
674 Lists all meters.
675 Logical Switch Port Commands
677 [--may-exist] lsp-add switch port
678 Creates on lswitch a new logical switch port named port.
679 It is an error if a logical port named port already exists, un‐
681 less --may-exist is specified. Regardless of --may-exist, it is
682 an error if the existing port is in some logical switch other
683 than switch or if it has a parent port.
684 [--may-exist] lsp-add switch port parent tag_request
686 Creates on switch a logical switch port named port that is a
687 child of parent that is identified with VLAN ID tag_request,
688 which must be between 0 and 4095, inclusive. If tag_request is
689 0, ovn-northd generates a tag that is unique in the scope of
690 parent. This is useful in cases such as virtualized container
691 environments where Open vSwitch does not have a direct connec‐
692 tion to the container’s port and it must be shared with the vir‐
693 tual machine’s port.
694 It is an error if a logical port named port already exists, un‐
696 less --may-exist is specified. Regardless of --may-exist, it is
697 an error if the existing port is not in switch or if it does not
698 have the specified parent and tag_request.
699 [--if-exists] lsp-del port
701 Deletes port. It is an error if port does not exist, unless
702 --if-exists is specified.
703 lsp-list switch
705 Lists all the logical switch ports within switch on standard
706 output, one per line.
707 lsp-get-parent port
709 If set, get the parent port of port. If not set, print nothing.
710 lsp-get-tag port
712 If set, get the tag for port traffic. If not set, print nothing.
713 lsp-set-addresses port [address]...
715 Sets the addresses associated with port to address. Each address
716 should be one of the following:
717 an Ethernet address, optionally followed by a space and one or
719 more IP addresses
720 OVN delivers packets for the Ethernet address to this
721 port.
722 unknown
724 OVN delivers unicast Ethernet packets whose destination
725 MAC address is not in any logical port’s addresses column
726 to ports with address unknown.
727 dynamic
729 Use this keyword to make ovn-northd generate a globally
730 unique MAC address and choose an unused IPv4 address with
731 the logical port’s subnet and store them in the port’s
732 dynamic_addresses column.
733 router Accepted only when the type of the logical switch port is
735 router. This indicates that the Ethernet, IPv4, and IPv6
736 addresses for this logical switch port should be obtained
737 from the connected logical router port, as specified by
738 router-port in lsp-set-options.
739 Multiple addresses may be set. If no address argument is given,
741 port will have no addresses associated with it.
742 lsp-get-addresses port
744 Lists all the addresses associated with port on standard output,
745 one per line.
746 lsp-set-port-security port [addrs]...
748 Sets the port security addresses associated with port to addrs.
749 Multiple sets of addresses may be set by using multiple addrs
750 arguments. If no addrs argument is given, port will not have
751 port security enabled.
752 Port security limits the addresses from which a logical port may
754 send packets and to which it may receive packets. See the
755 ovn-nb(5) documentation for the port_security column in the Log‐
756 ical_Switch_Port table for details.
757 lsp-get-port-security port
759 Lists all the port security addresses associated with port on
760 standard output, one per line.
761 lsp-get-up port
763 Prints the state of port, either up or down.
764 lsp-set-enabled port state
766 Set the administrative state of port, either enabled or dis‐
767 abled. When a port is disabled, no traffic is allowed into or
768 out of the port.
769 lsp-get-enabled port
771 Prints the administrative state of port, either enabled or dis‐
772 abled.
773 lsp-set-type port type
775 Set the type for the logical port. The type must be one of the
776 following:
777 (empty string)
779 A VM (or VIF) interface.
780 router A connection to a logical router.
782 localnet
784 A connection to a locally accessible network from each
785 ovn-controller instance. A logical switch can only have a
786 single localnet port attached. This is used to model di‐
787 rect connectivity to an existing network.
788 localport
790 A connection to a local VIF. Traffic that arrives on a
791 localport is never forwarded over a tunnel to another
792 chassis. These ports are present on every chassis and
793 have the same address in all of them. This is used to
794 model connectivity to local services that run on every
795 hypervisor.
796 l2gateway
798 A connection to a physical network.
799 vtep A port to a logical switch on a VTEP gateway.
801 lsp-get-type port
803 Get the type for the logical port.
804 lsp-set-options port [key=value]...
806 Set type-specific key-value options for the logical port.
807 lsp-get-options port
809 Get the type-specific options for the logical port.
810 lsp-set-dhcpv4-options port dhcp_options
812 Set the DHCPv4 options for the logical port. The dhcp_options is
813 a UUID referring to a set of DHCP options in the DHCP_Options
814 table.
815 lsp-get-dhcpv4-options port
817 Get the configured DHCPv4 options for the logical port.
818 lsp-set-dhcpv6-options port dhcp_options
820 Set the DHCPv6 options for the logical port. The dhcp_options is
821 a UUID referring to a set of DHCP options in the DHCP_Options
822 table.
823 lsp-get-dhcpv6-options port
825 Get the configured DHCPv6 options for the logical port.
826 lsp-get-ls port
828 Get the logical switch which the port belongs to.
829 Forwarding Group Commands
831 [--liveness]fwd-group-add group switch vip vmac ports
832 Creates a new forwarding group named group as the name with the
833 provided vip and vmac. vip should be a virtual IP address and
834 vmac should be a virtual MAC address to access the forwarding
835 group. ports are the logical switch port names that are put in
836 the forwarding group. Example for ports is lsp1 lsp2 ... Traffic
837 destined to virtual IP of the forwarding group will be load bal‐
838 anced to all the child ports.
839 When --liveness is specified then child ports are expected to be
841 bound to external devices like routers. BFD should be configured
842 between hypervisors and the external devices. The child port se‐
843 lection will become dependent on BFD status with its external
844 device.
845 [--if-exists] fwd-group-del group
847 Deletes group. It is an error if group does not exist, unless
848 --if-exists is specified.
849 fwd-group-list [switch]
851 Lists all existing forwarding groups, If switch is specified
852 then only the forwarding groups configured for switch will be
853 listed.
854 Logical Router Commands
856 lr-add Creates a new, unnamed logical router, which initially has no
857 ports. The router does not have a name, other commands must re‐
858 fer to this router by its UUID.
859 [--may-exist | --add-duplicate] lr-add router
861 Creates a new logical router named router, which initially has
862 no ports.
863 The OVN northbound database schema does not require logical
865 router names to be unique, but the whole point to the names is
866 to provide an easy way for humans to refer to the routers, mak‐
867 ing duplicate names unhelpful. Thus, without any options, this
868 command regards it as an error if router is a duplicate name.
869 With --may-exist, adding a duplicate name succeeds but does not
870 create a new logical router. With --add-duplicate, the command
871 really creates a new logical router with a duplicate name. It is
872 an error to specify both options. If there are multiple logical
873 routers with a duplicate name, configure the logical routers us‐
874 ing the UUID instead of the router name.
875 [--if-exists] lr-del router
877 Deletes router. It is an error if router does not exist, unless
878 --if-exists is specified.
879 lr-list
881 Lists all existing routers on standard output, one per line.
882 Logical Router Port Commands
884 [--may-exist] lrp-add router port mac network... [peer=peer]
885 Creates on router a new logical router port named port with Eth‐
886 ernet address mac and one or more IP address/netmask for each
887 network.
888 The optional argument peer identifies a logical router port that
890 connects to this one. The following example adds a router port
891 with an IPv4 and IPv6 address with peer lr1:
892 lrp-add lr0 lrp0 00:11:22:33:44:55 192.168.0.1/24 2001:db8::1/64
894 peer=lr1
895 It is an error if a logical router port named port already ex‐
897 ists, unless --may-exist is specified. Regardless of --may-ex‐
898 ist, it is an error if the existing router port is in some logi‐
899 cal router other than router.
900 [--if-exists] lrp-del port
902 Deletes port. It is an error if port does not exist, unless
903 --if-exists is specified.
904 lrp-list router
906 Lists all the logical router ports within router on standard
907 output, one per line.
908 lrp-set-enabled port state
910 Set the administrative state of port, either enabled or dis‐
911 abled. When a port is disabled, no traffic is allowed into or
912 out of the port.
913 lrp-get-enabled port
915 Prints the administrative state of port, either enabled or dis‐
916 abled.
917 lrp-set-gateway-chassis port chassis [priority]
919 Set gateway chassis for port. chassis is the name of the chas‐
920 sis. This creates a gateway chassis entry in Gateway_Chassis ta‐
921 ble. It won’t check if chassis really exists in OVN_Southbound
922 database. Priority will be set to 0 if priority is not provided
923 by user. priority must be between 0 and 32767, inclusive.
924 lrp-del-gateway-chassis port chassis
926 Deletes gateway chassis from port. It is an error if gateway
927 chassis with chassis for port does not exist.
928 lrp-get-gateway-chassis port
930 Lists all the gateway chassis with priority within port on stan‐
931 dard output, one per line, ordered based on priority.
932 Logical Router Static Route Commands
934 [--may-exist] [--policy=POLICY] [--ecmp] [--ecmp-symmetric-reply]
935 [--bfd[=UUID]] lr-route-add router prefix nexthop [port]
936 Adds the specified route to router. prefix describes an IPv4 or
937 IPv6 prefix for this route, such as 192.168.100.0/24. nexthop
938 specifies the gateway to use for this route, which should be the
939 IP address of one of router logical router ports or the IP ad‐
940 dress of a logical port. If port is specified, packets that
941 match this route will be sent out that port. When port is omit‐
942 ted, OVN infers the output port based on nexthop. Nexthop can be
943 set to discard for dropping packets which match the given route.
944 --policy describes the policy used to make routing decisions.
946 This should be one of "dst-ip" or "src-ip". If not specified,
947 the default is "dst-ip".
948 The --ecmp option allows for multiple routes with the same pre‐
950 fix POLICY but different nexthop and port to be added.
951 The --ecmp-symmetric-reply option makes it so that traffic that
953 arrives over an ECMP route will have its reply traffic sent out
954 over that same route. Setting --ecmp-symmetric-reply implies
955 --ecmp so it is not necessary to set both.
956 --bfd option is used to link a BFD session to the OVN route. If
958 the BFD session UUID is provided, it will be used for the OVN
959 route otherwise the next-hop will be used to perform a lookup in
960 the OVN BFD table. If the lookup fails and port is specified, a
961 new entry in the BFD table will be created using the nexthop as
962 dst_ip and port as logical_port.
963 It is an error if a route with prefix and POLICY already exists,
965 unless --may-exist, --ecmp, or --ecmp-symmetric-reply is speci‐
966 fied. If --may-exist is specified but not --ecmp or --ecmp-sym‐
967 metric-reply, the existed route will be updated with the new
968 nexthop and port. If --ecmp or --ecmp-symmetric-reply is speci‐
969 fied, a new route will be added, regardless of the existed
970 route., which is useful when adding ECMP routes, i.e. routes
971 with same POLICY and prefix but different nexthop and port.
972 [--if-exists] [--policy=POLICY] lr-route-del router [prefix [nexthop
974 [port]]]
975 Deletes routes from router. If only router is supplied, all the
976 routes from the logical router are deleted. If POLICY, prefix,
977 nexthop and/or port are also specified, then all the routes that
978 match the conditions will be deleted from the logical router.
979 It is an error if there is no matching route entry, unless
981 --if-exists is specified.
982 lr-route-list router
984 Lists the routes on router.
985 Logical Router Policy Commands
987 [--may-exist]lr-policy-add router priority match action [nexthop[,nex‐
988 thop,...]] [options key=value]]
989 Add Policy to router which provides a way to configure per‐
990 mit/deny and reroute policies on the router. Permit/deny poli‐
991 cies are similar to OVN ACLs, but exist on the logical-router.
992 Reroute policies are needed for service-insertion and service-
993 chaining. nexthop is an optional parameter. It needs to be pro‐
994 vided only when action is reroute. Multiple nexthops can be
995 specified for ECMP routing. A policy is uniquely identified by
996 priority and match. Multiple policies can have the same prior‐
997 ity. options sets the router policy options as key-value pair.
998 The supported option is : pkt_mark.
999 If --may-exist is specified, adding a duplicated routing policy
1001 with the same priority and match string is not really created.
1002 Without --may-exist, adding a duplicated routing policy results
1003 in error.
1004 The following example shows a policy to lr1, which will drop
1006 packets from192.168.100.0/24.
1007 lr-policy-add lr1 100 ip4.src == 192.168.100.0/24 drop.
1009 lr-policy-add lr1 100 ip4.src == 192.168.100.0/24 allow
1011 pkt_mark=100 .
1012 [--if-exists] lr-policy-del router [{priority | uuid} [match]]
1014 Deletes polices from router. If only router is supplied, all the
1015 polices from the logical router are deleted. If priority and/or
1016 match are also specified, then all the polices that match the
1017 conditions will be deleted from the logical router.
1018 If router and uuid are supplied, then the policy with sepcified
1020 uuid is deleted. It is an error if uuid does not exist, unless
1021 --if-exists is specified.
1022 lr-policy-list router
1024 Lists the polices on router.
1025 NAT Commands
1027 [--may-exist] [--stateless]lr-nat-add router type external_ip logi‐
1028 cal_ip [logical_port external_mac]
1029 Adds the specified NAT to router. The type must be one of snat,
1030 dnat, or dnat_and_snat. The external_ip is an IPv4 address. The
1031 logical_ip is an IPv4 network (e.g 192.168.1.0/24) or an IPv4
1032 address. The logical_port and external_mac are only accepted
1033 when router is a distributed router (rather than a gateway
1034 router) and type is dnat_and_snat. The logical_port is the name
1035 of an existing logical switch port where the logical_ip resides.
1036 The external_mac is an Ethernet address. The --stateless
1037 When --stateless is specified then it implies that we will be
1039 not use connection tracker, i.e internal ip and external ip are
1040 1:1 mapped. This implies that --stateless is applicable only to
1041 dnat_and_snat type NAT rules. An external ip with --stateless
1042 NAT cannot be shared with any other NAT rule.
1043 When type is dnat, the externally visible IP address external_ip
1045 is DNATted to the IP address logical_ip in the logical space.
1046 When type is snat, IP packets with their source IP address that
1048 either matches the IP address in logical_ip or is in the network
1049 provided by logical_ip is SNATed into the IP address in exter‐
1050 nal_ip.
1051 When type is dnat_and_snat, the externally visible IP address
1053 external_ip is DNATted to the IP address logical_ip in the logi‐
1054 cal space. In addition, IP packets with the source IP address
1055 that matches logical_ip is SNATed into the IP address in exter‐
1056 nal_ip.
1057 When the logical_port and external_mac are specified, the NAT
1059 rule will be programmed on the chassis where the logical_port
1060 resides. This includes ARP replies for the external_ip, which
1061 return the value of external_mac. All packets transmitted with
1062 source IP address equal to external_ip will be sent using the
1063 external_mac.
1064 It is an error if a NAT already exists with the same values of
1066 router, type, external_ip, and logical_ip, unless --may-exist is
1067 specified. When --may-exist, logical_port, and external_mac are
1068 all specified, the existing values of logical_port and exter‐
1069 nal_mac are overwritten.
1070 [--if-exists] lr-nat-del router [type [ip]]
1072 Deletes NATs from router. If only router is supplied, all the
1073 NATs from the logical router are deleted. If type is also speci‐
1074 fied, then all the NATs that match the type will be deleted from
1075 the logical router. If all the fields are given, then a single
1076 NAT rule that matches all the fields will be deleted. When type
1077 is snat, the ip should be logical_ip. When type is dnat or
1078 dnat_and_snat, the ip shoud be external_ip.
1079 It is an error if ip is specified and there is no matching NAT
1081 entry, unless --if-exists is specified.
1082 lr-nat-list router
1084 Lists the NATs on router.
1085 Load Balancer Commands
1087 [--may-exist | --add-duplicate | --reject | --event] lb-add lb vip ips
1088 [protocol]
1089 Creates a new load balancer named lb with the provided vip and
1090 ips or adds the vip to an existing lb. vip should be a virtual
1091 IP address (or an IP address and a port number with : as a sepa‐
1092 rator). Examples for vip are 192.168.1.4, fd0f::1, and
1093 192.168.1.5:8080. ips should be comma separated IP endpoints (or
1094 comma separated IP addresses and port numbers with : as a sepa‐
1095 rator). ips must be the same address family as vip. Examples for
1096 ips are 10.0.0.1,10.0.0.2or [fdef::1]:8800,[fdef::2]:8800.
1097 The optional argument protocol must be either tcp, udp or sctp.
1099 This argument is useful when a port number is provided as part
1100 of the vip. If the protocol is unspecified and a port number is
1101 provided as part of the vip, OVN assumes the protocol to be tcp.
1102 It is an error if the vip already exists in the load balancer
1104 named lb, unless --may-exist is specified. With --add-duplicate,
1105 the command really creates a new load balancer with a duplicate
1106 name.
1107 If the load balancer is created with --reject option and it has
1109 no active backends, a TCP reset segment (for tcp) or an ICMP
1110 port unreachable packet (for all other kind of traffic) will be
1111 sent whenever an incoming packet is received for this load-bal‐
1112 ancer. Please note using --reject option will disable empty_lb
1113 SB controller event for this load balancer.
1114 If the load balancer is created with --event option and it has
1116 no active backends, whenever the lb receives traffic, the event
1117 is reported in the Controller_Event table in the SB db. Please
1118 note --event option can’t be specified with --reject one.
1119 The following example adds a load balancer.
1121 lb-add lb0 30.0.0.10:80
1123 192.168.10.10:80,192.168.10.20:80,192.168.10.30:80 udp
1124 [--if-exists] lb-del lb [vip]
1126 Deletes lb or the vip from lb. If vip is supplied, only the vip
1127 will be deleted from the lb. If only the lb is supplied, the lb
1128 will be deleted. It is an error if vip does not already exist in
1129 lb, unless --if-exists is specified.
1130 lb-list [lb]
1132 Lists the LBs. If lb is also specified, then only the specified
1133 lb will be listed.
1134 [--may-exist] ls-lb-add switch lb
1136 Adds the specified lb to switch. It is an error if a load bal‐
1137 ancer named lb already exists in the switch, unless --may-exist
1138 is specified.
1139 [--if-exists] ls-lb-del switch [lb]
1141 Removes lb from switch. If only switch is supplied, all the LBs
1142 from the logical switch are removed. If lb is also specified,
1143 then only the lb will be removed from the logical switch. It is
1144 an error if lb does not exist in the switch, unless --if-exists
1145 is specified.
1146 ls-lb-list switch
1148 Lists the LBs for the given switch.
1149 [--may-exist] lr-lb-add router lb
1151 Adds the specified lb to router. It is an error if a load bal‐
1152 ancer named lb already exists in the router, unless --may-exist
1153 is specified.
1154 [--if-exists] lr-lb-del router [lb]
1156 Removes lb from router. If only router is supplied, all the LBs
1157 from the logical router are removed. If lb is also specified,
1158 then only the lb will be removed from the logical router. It is
1159 an error if lb does not exist in the router, unless --if-exists
1160 is specified.
1161 lr-lb-list router
1163 Lists the LBs for the given router.
1164 DHCP Options commands
1166 dhcp-options-create cidr [key=value]
1167 Creates a new DHCP Options entry in the DHCP_Options table with
1168 the specified cidr and optional external-ids.
1169 dhcp-options-list
1171 Lists the DHCP Options entries.
1172 dhcp-options-del dhcp-option
1174 Deletes the DHCP Options entry referred by dhcp-option UUID.
1175 dhcp-options-set-options dhcp-option [key=value]...
1177 Set the DHCP Options for the dhcp-option UUID.
1178 dhcp-options-get-options dhcp-option
1180 Lists the DHCP Options for the dhcp-option UUID.
1181 Port Group commands
1183 pg-add group [port]...
1184 Creates a new port group in the Port_Group table named group
1185 with optional ports added to the group.
1186 pg-set-ports group port...
1188 Sets ports on the port group named group. It is an error if
1189 group does not exist.
1190 pg-del group
1192 Deletes port group group. It is an error if group does not ex‐
1193 ist.
1194 HA Chassis Group commands
1196 ha-chassis-group-add group
1197 Creates a new HA chassis group in the HA_Chassis_Group table
1198 named group.
1199 ha-chassis-group-del group
1201 Deletes the HA chassis group group. It is an error if group does
1202 not exist.
1203 ha-chassis-group-list
1205 Lists the HA chassis group group along with the HA chassis if
1206 any associated with it.
1207 ha-chassis-group-add-chassis group chassis priority
1209 Adds a new HA chassis chassis to the HA Chassis group group with
1210 the specified priority. If the chassis already exists, then the
1211 priority is updated. The chassis should be the name of the chas‐
1212 sis in the OVN_Southbound.
1213 ha-chassis-group-remove-chassis group chassis
1215 Removes the HA chassis chassis from the HA chassis group group.
1216 It is an error if chassis does not exist.
1217 Control Plane Protection Policy commands
1219 These commands manage meters configured in Copp table linking them to
1220 logical datapaths through copp column in Logical_Switch or Logi‐
1221 cal_Router tables. Protocol packets for which CoPP is enforced when
1222 sending packets to ovn-controller (if configured):
1223 • ARP
1225 • ND_NS
1227 • ND_NA
1229 • ND_RA
1231 • ND
1233 • DNS
1235 • IGMP
1237 • packets that require ARP resolution before forwarding
1239 • packets that require ND_NS before forwarding
1241 • packets that need to be replied to with ICMP Errors
1243 • packets that need to be replied to with TCP RST
1245 • packets that need to be replied to with DHCP_OPTS
1247 • packets that trigger a reject action
1249 • packets that trigger a SCTP abort action
1251 • controller_events
1253 • BFD
1255 ls-copp-add switch proto meter
1257 Adds the control proto to meter mapping to the switch
1258 control plane protection policy. If no policy exists yet,
1259 it creates one. If a mapping already existed for proto,
1260 this will overwrite it.
1261 ls-copp-del switch [proto]
1263 Removes the control proto mapping from the switch control
1264 plane protection policy. If proto is not specified, the
1265 whole control plane protection policy is destroyed.
1266 ls-copp-list switch
1268 Display the current control plane protection policy for
1269 switch.
1270 lr-copp-add router proto meter
1272 Adds the control proto to meter mapping to the router
1273 control plane protection policy. If no policy exists yet,
1274 it creates one. If a mapping already existed for proto,
1275 this will overwrite it.
1276 lr-copp-del router [proto]
1278 Removes the control proto mapping from the router control
1279 plane protection policy. If proto is not specified, the
1280 whole control plane protection policy is destroyed.
1281 lr-copp-list router
1283 Display the current control plane protection policy for
1284 router.
1285 Synchronization Commands
1287 sync Ordinarily, --wait=sb or --wait=hv only waits for changes by the
1288 current ovn-nbctl invocation to take effect. This means that, if
1289 none of the commands supplied to ovn-nbctl change the database,
1290 then the command does not wait at all. With the sync command,
1291 however, ovn-nbctl waits even for earlier changes to the data‐
1292 base to propagate down to the southbound database or all of the
1293 OVN chassis, according to the argument to --wait.
1294 Remote Connectivity Commands
1296 These commands manipulate the connections column in the NB_Global table
1297 and rows in the Connection table. When ovsdb-server is configured to
1298 use the connections column for OVSDB connections, this allows the ad‐
1299 ministrator to use ovn-nbctl to configure database connections.
1300 get-connection
1302 Prints the configured connection(s).
1303 del-connection
1305 Deletes the configured connection(s).
1306 [--inactivity-probe=msecs] set-connection target...
1308 Sets the configured manager target or targets. Use --in‐
1309 activity-probe=msecs to override the default idle connec‐
1310 tion inactivity probe time. Use 0 to disable inactivity
1311 probes.
1312 SSL Configuration Commands
1314 get-ssl
1315 Prints the SSL configuration.
1316 del-ssl
1318 Deletes the current SSL configuration.
1319 [--bootstrap] set-ssl private-key certificate ca-cert [ssl-protocol-
1321 list [ssl-cipher-list]]
1322 Sets the SSL configuration.
1323 Database Commands
1325 These commands query and modify the contents of ovsdb tables. They are
1326 a slight abstraction of the ovsdb interface and as such they operate at
1327 a lower level than other ovn-nbctl commands.
1328 Identifying Tables, Records, and Columns
1330 Each of these commands has a table parameter to identify a table within
1332 the database. Many of them also take a record parameter that identifies
1333 a particular record within a table. The record parameter may be the
1334 UUID for a record, which may be abbreviated to its first 4 (or more)
1335 hex digits, as long as that is unique. Many tables offer additional
1336 ways to identify records. Some commands also take column parameters
1337 that identify a particular field within the records in a table.
1338 For a list of tables and their columns, see ovn-nb(5) or see the table
1340 listing from the --help option.
1341 Record names must be specified in full and with correct capitalization,
1343 except that UUIDs may be abbreviated to their first 4 (or more) hex
1344 digits, as long as that is unique within the table. Names of tables and
1345 columns are not case-sensitive, and - and _ are treated interchange‐
1346 ably. Unique abbreviations of table and column names are acceptable,
1347 e.g. d or dhcp is sufficient to identify the DHCP_Options table.
1348 Database Values
1350 Each column in the database accepts a fixed type of data. The currently
1352 defined basic types, and their representations, are:
1353 integer
1355 A decimal integer in the range -2**63 to 2**63-1, inclu‐
1356 sive.
1357 real A floating-point number.
1359 Boolean
1361 True or false, written true or false, respectively.
1362 string An arbitrary Unicode string, except that null bytes are
1364 not allowed. Quotes are optional for most strings that
1365 begin with an English letter or underscore and consist
1366 only of letters, underscores, hyphens, and periods. How‐
1367 ever, true and false and strings that match the syntax of
1368 UUIDs (see below) must be enclosed in double quotes to
1369 distinguish them from other basic types. When double
1370 quotes are used, the syntax is that of strings in JSON,
1371 e.g. backslashes may be used to escape special charac‐
1372 ters. The empty string must be represented as a pair of
1373 double quotes ("").
1374 UUID Either a universally unique identifier in the style of
1376 RFC 4122, e.g. f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6, or
1377 an @name defined by a get or create command within the
1378 same ovs-vsctl invocation.
1379 Multiple values in a single column may be separated by spaces or a sin‐
1381 gle comma. When multiple values are present, duplicates are not al‐
1382 lowed, and order is not important. Conversely, some database columns
1383 can have an empty set of values, represented as [], and square brackets
1384 may optionally enclose other non-empty sets or single values as well.
1385 A few database columns are ``maps’’ of key-value pairs, where the key
1387 and the value are each some fixed database type. These are specified in
1388 the form key=value, where key and value follow the syntax for the col‐
1389 umn’s key type and value type, respectively. When multiple pairs are
1390 present (separated by spaces or a comma), duplicate keys are not al‐
1391 lowed, and again the order is not important. Duplicate values are al‐
1392 lowed. An empty map is represented as {}. Curly braces may optionally
1393 enclose non-empty maps as well (but use quotes to prevent the shell
1394 from expanding other-config={0=x,1=y} into other-config=0=x other-con‐
1395 fig=1=y, which may not have the desired effect).
1396 Database Command Syntax
1398 [--if-exists] [--columns=column[,column]...] list table
1400 [record]...
1401 Lists the data in each specified record. If no records
1402 are specified, lists all the records in table.
1403 If --columns is specified, only the requested columns are
1405 listed, in the specified order. Otherwise, all columns
1406 are listed, in alphabetical order by column name.
1407 Without --if-exists, it is an error if any specified
1409 record does not exist. With --if-exists, the command ig‐
1410 nores any record that does not exist, without producing
1411 any output.
1412 [--columns=column[,column]...] find table [col‐
1414 umn[:key]=value]...
1415 Lists the data in each record in table whose column
1416 equals value or, if key is specified, whose column con‐
1417 tains a key with the specified value. The following oper‐
1418 ators may be used where = is written in the syntax sum‐
1419 mary:
1420 = != < > <= >=
1422 Selects records in which column[:key] equals, does
1423 not equal, is less than, is greater than, is less
1424 than or equal to, or is greater than or equal to
1425 value, respectively.
1426 Consider column[:key] and value as sets of ele‐
1428 ments. Identical sets are considered equal. Other‐
1429 wise, if the sets have different numbers of ele‐
1430 ments, then the set with more elements is consid‐
1431 ered to be larger. Otherwise, consider a element
1432 from each set pairwise, in increasing order within
1433 each set. The first pair that differs determines
1434 the result. (For a column that contains key-value
1435 pairs, first all the keys are compared, and values
1436 are considered only if the two sets contain iden‐
1437 tical keys.)
1438 {=} {!=}
1440 Test for set equality or inequality, respectively.
1441 {<=} Selects records in which column[:key] is a subset
1443 of value. For example, flood-vlans{<=}1,2 selects
1444 records in which the flood-vlans column is the
1445 empty set or contains 1 or 2 or both.
1446 {<} Selects records in which column[:key] is a proper
1448 subset of value. For example, flood-vlans{<}1,2
1449 selects records in which the flood-vlans column is
1450 the empty set or contains 1 or 2 but not both.
1451 {>=} {>}
1453 Same as {<=} and {<}, respectively, except that
1454 the relationship is reversed. For example,
1455 flood-vlans{>=}1,2 selects records in which the
1456 flood-vlans column contains both 1 and 2.
1457 The following operators are available only in Open
1459 vSwitch 2.16 and later:
1460 {in} Selects records in which every element in col‐
1462 umn[:key] is also in value. (This is the same as
1463 {<=}.)
1464 {not-in}
1466 Selects records in which every element in col‐
1467 umn[:key] is not in value.
1468 For arithmetic operators (= != < > <= >=), when key is
1470 specified but a particular record’s column does not con‐
1471 tain key, the record is always omitted from the results.
1472 Thus, the condition other-config:mtu!=1500 matches
1473 records that have a mtu key whose value is not 1500, but
1474 not those that lack an mtu key.
1475 For the set operators, when key is specified but a par‐
1477 ticular record’s column does not contain key, the compar‐
1478 ison is done against an empty set. Thus, the condition
1479 other-config:mtu{!=}1500 matches records that have a mtu
1480 key whose value is not 1500 and those that lack an mtu
1481 key.
1482 Don’t forget to escape < or > from interpretation by the
1484 shell.
1485 If --columns is specified, only the requested columns are
1487 listed, in the specified order. Otherwise all columns are
1488 listed, in alphabetical order by column name.
1489 The UUIDs shown for rows created in the same ovs-vsctl
1491 invocation will be wrong.
1492 [--if-exists] [--id=@name] get table record [column[:key]]...
1494 Prints the value of each specified column in the given
1495 record in table. For map columns, a key may optionally be
1496 specified, in which case the value associated with key in
1497 the column is printed, instead of the entire map.
1498 Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
1500 exist or key is specified, if key does not exist in
1501 record. With --if-exists, a missing record yields no out‐
1502 put and a missing key prints a blank line.
1503 If @name is specified, then the UUID for record may be
1505 referred to by that name later in the same ovs-vsctl in‐
1506 vocation in contexts where a UUID is expected.
1507 Both --id and the column arguments are optional, but usu‐
1509 ally at least one or the other should be specified. If
1510 both are omitted, then get has no effect except to verify
1511 that record exists in table.
1512 --id and --if-exists cannot be used together.
1514 [--if-exists] set table record column[:key]=value...
1516 Sets the value of each specified column in the given
1517 record in table to value. For map columns, a key may op‐
1518 tionally be specified, in which case the value associated
1519 with key in that column is changed (or added, if none ex‐
1520 ists), instead of the entire map.
1521 Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
1523 exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
1524 record does not exist.
1525 [--if-exists] add table record column [key=]value...
1527 Adds the specified value or key-value pair to column in
1528 record in table. If column is a map, then key is re‐
1529 quired, otherwise it is prohibited. If key already exists
1530 in a map column, then the current value is not replaced
1531 (use the set command to replace an existing value).
1532 Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
1534 exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
1535 record does not exist.
1536 [--if-exists] remove table record column value...
1538 [--if-exists] remove table record column key...
1540 [--if-exists] remove table record column key=value...
1542 Removes the specified values or key-value pairs from col‐
1543 umn in record in table. The first form applies to columns
1544 that are not maps: each specified value is removed from
1545 the column. The second and third forms apply to map col‐
1546 umns: if only a key is specified, then any key-value pair
1547 with the given key is removed, regardless of its value;
1548 if a value is given then a pair is removed only if both
1549 key and value match.
1550 It is not an error if the column does not contain the
1552 specified key or value or pair.
1553 Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
1555 exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
1556 record does not exist.
1557 [--if-exists] clear table record column...
1559 Sets each column in record in table to the empty set or
1560 empty map, as appropriate. This command applies only to
1561 columns that are allowed to be empty.
1562 Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
1564 exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
1565 record does not exist.
1566 [--id=@name] create table column[:key]=value...
1568 Creates a new record in table and sets the initial values
1569 of each column. Columns not explicitly set will receive
1570 their default values. Outputs the UUID of the new row.
1571 If @name is specified, then the UUID for the new row may
1573 be referred to by that name elsewhere in the same \*(PN
1574 invocation in contexts where a UUID is expected. Such
1575 references may precede or follow the create command.
1576 Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
1578 Records in the Open vSwitch database are signifi‐
1579 cant only when they can be reached directly or in‐
1580 directly from the Open_vSwitch table. Except for
1581 records in the QoS or Queue tables, records that
1582 are not reachable from the Open_vSwitch table are
1583 automatically deleted from the database. This
1584 deletion happens immediately, without waiting for
1585 additional ovs-vsctl commands or other database
1586 activity. Thus, a create command must generally be
1587 accompanied by additional commands within the same
1588 ovs-vsctl invocation to add a chain of references
1589 to the newly created record from the top-level
1590 Open_vSwitch record. The EXAMPLES section gives
1591 some examples that show how to do this.
1592 [--if-exists] destroy table record...
1594 Deletes each specified record from table. Unless --if-ex‐
1595 ists is specified, each records must exist.
1596 --all destroy table
1598 Deletes all records from the table.
1599 Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
1601 The destroy command is only useful for records in
1602 the QoS or Queue tables. Records in other tables
1603 are automatically deleted from the database when
1604 they become unreachable from the Open_vSwitch ta‐
1605 ble. This means that deleting the last reference
1606 to a record is sufficient for deleting the record
1607 itself. For records in these tables, destroy is
1608 silently ignored. See the EXAMPLES section below
1609 for more information.
1610 wait-until table record [column[:key]=value]...
1612 Waits until table contains a record named record whose
1613 column equals value or, if key is specified, whose column
1614 contains a key with the specified value. This command
1615 supports the same operators and semantics described for
1616 the find command above.
1617 If no column[:key]=value arguments are given, this com‐
1619 mand waits only until record exists. If more than one
1620 such argument is given, the command waits until all of
1621 them are satisfied.
1622 Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
1624 Usually wait-until should be placed at the begin‐
1625 ning of a set of ovs-vsctl commands. For example,
1626 wait-until bridge br0 -- get bridge br0 data‐
1627 path_id waits until a bridge named br0 is created,
1628 then prints its datapath_id column, whereas get
1629 bridge br0 datapath_id -- wait-until bridge br0
1630 will abort if no bridge named br0 exists when
1631 ovs-vsctl initially connects to the database.
1632 Consider specifying --timeout=0 along with --wait-until,
1634 to prevent ovs-vsctl from terminating after waiting only
1635 at most 5 seconds.
1636 comment [arg]...
1638 This command has no effect on behavior, but any database
1639 log record created by the command will include the com‐
1640 mand and its arguments.
1641
1643 OVN_NB_DAEMON
1644 If set, this should name the Unix domain socket for an ovn-nbctl
1645 server process. See Daemon Mode, above, for more information.
1646 OVN_NBCTL_OPTIONS
1648 If set, a set of options for ovn-nbctl to apply automatically,
1649 in the same form as on the command line.
1650 OVN_NB_DB
1652 If set, the default database to contact when the --db option is
1653 not used.
1654
1656 0 Successful program execution.
1657 1 Usage, syntax, or network error.
1659
1661 ovn-nb(5), ovn-appctl(8).
1662OVN 21.09.0 ovn-nbctl ovn-nbctl(8)