1ovsdb-server(1) Open vSwitch Manual ovsdb-server(1)
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6 ovsdb-server - Open vSwitch database server
7
9 ovsdb-server [database]... [--remote=remote]... [--run=command]
10
11 Daemon options:
12 [--pidfile[=pidfile]] [--overwrite-pidfile] [--detach]
13 [--no-chdir] [--no-self-confinement]
14
15 Service options:
16 [--service] [--service-monitor]
17
18 Logging options:
19 [-v[module[:destination[:level]]]]...
20 [--verbose[=module[:destination[:level]]]]...
21 [--log-file[=file]]
22
23 Active-backup options:
24 [--sync-from=server] [--sync-exclude-tables=db:table[,db:ta‐
25 ble]...] [--active]
26
27 Public key infrastructure options:
28 [--private-key=privkey.pem]
29 [--certificate=cert.pem]
30 [--ca-cert=cacert.pem]
31 [--bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem]
32 [--peer-ca-cert=peer-cacert.pem]
33
34 SSL connection options:
35 [--ssl-protocols=protocols]
36 [--ssl-ciphers=ciphers]
37
38 Runtime management options:
39 --unixctl=socket
40
41 Common options:
42 [-h | --help] [-V | --version]
43
44
46 The ovsdb-server program provides RPC interfaces to one or more Open
47 vSwitch databases (OVSDBs). It supports JSON-RPC client connections
48 over active or passive TCP/IP or Unix domain sockets. For an introduc‐
49 tion to OVSDB and its implementation in Open vSwitch, see ovsdb(7).
50
51 Each OVSDB file may be specified on the command line as database. If
52 none is specified, the default is /etc/openvswitch/conf.db. The data‐
53 base files must already have been created and initialized using, for
54 example, ovsdb-tool's create, create-cluster, or join-cluster command.
55
56 This OVSDB implementation supports standalone, active-backup, and clus‐
57 tered database service models, as well as database replication. See
58 the Service Models section of ovsdb(7) for more information.
59
60 For clustered databases, when the --detach option is used, ovsdb-server
61 detaches without waiting for the server to successfully join a cluster
62 (if the database file is freshly created with ovsdb-tool join-cluster)
63 or connect to a cluster that it has already joined. Use ovsdb-client
64 wait (see ovsdb-client(1)) to wait until the server has successfully
65 joined and connected to a cluster.
66
67 In addition to user-specified databases, ovsdb-server version 2.9 and
68 later also always hosts a built-in database named _Server. Please see
69 ovsdb-server(5) for documentation on this database's schema.
70
72 --remote=remote
73 Adds remote as a connection method used by ovsdb-server. The
74 remote may be an OVSDB active or passive connection method, e.g.
75 pssl:6640, as described in ovsdb(7). The following additional
76 form is also supported:
77
78 db:db,table,column
79 Reads additional connection methods from column in all of
80 the rows in table within db. As the contents of column
81 changes, ovsdb-server also adds and drops connection
82 methods accordingly.
83
84 If column's type is string or set of strings, then the
85 connection methods are taken directly from the column.
86 The connection methods in the column must have one of the
87 forms described above.
88
89 If column's type is UUID or set of UUIDs and references a
90 table, then each UUID is looked up in the referenced ta‐
91 ble to obtain a row. The following columns in the row,
92 if present and of the correct type, configure a connec‐
93 tion method. Any additional columns are ignored.
94
95 target (string)
96 Connection method, in one of the forms described
97 above. This column is mandatory: if it is missing
98 or empty then no connection method can be config‐
99 ured.
100
101 max_backoff (integer)
102 Maximum number of milliseconds to wait between
103 connection attempts.
104
105 inactivity_probe (integer)
106 Maximum number of milliseconds of idle time on
107 connection to client before sending an inactivity
108 probe message.
109
110 read_only (boolean)
111 If true, only read-only transactions are allowed
112 on this connection.
113
114 It is an error for column to have another type.
115
116 To connect or listen on multiple connection methods, use multi‐
117 ple --remote options.
118
119 --run=command]
120 Ordinarily ovsdb-server runs forever, or until it is told to
121 exit (see RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS below). With this option,
122 ovsdb-server instead starts a shell subprocess running command.
123 When the subprocess terminates, ovsdb-server also exits grace‐
124 fully. If the subprocess exits normally with exit code 0, then
125 ovsdb-server exits with exit code 0 also; otherwise, it exits
126 with exit code 1.
127
128 This option can be useful where a database server is needed only
129 to run a single command, e.g.: ovsdb-server
130 --remote=punix:socket --run='ovsdb-client dump unix:socket
131 Open_vSwitch'
132
133 This option is not supported on Windows platform.
134
135 Daemon Options
136 The following options are valid on POSIX based platforms.
137
138 --pidfile[=pidfile]
139 Causes a file (by default, ovsdb-server.pid) to be created indi‐
140 cating the PID of the running process. If the pidfile argument
141 is not specified, or if it does not begin with /, then it is
142 created in /var/run/openvswitch.
143
144 If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
145
146 --overwrite-pidfile
147 By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified pid‐
148 file already exists and is locked by a running process,
149 ovsdb-server refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pidfile to
150 cause it to instead overwrite the pidfile.
151
152 When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
153
154 --detach
155 Runs ovsdb-server as a background process. The process forks,
156 and in the child it starts a new session, closes the standard
157 file descriptors (which has the side effect of disabling logging
158 to the console), and changes its current directory to the root
159 (unless --no-chdir is specified). After the child completes its
160 initialization, the parent exits. ovsdb-server detaches only
161 after it starts listening on all configured remotes. At this
162 point, all standalone and active-backup databases are ready for
163 use. Clustered databases only become ready for use after they
164 finish joining their clusters (which could have already happened
165 in previous runs of ovsdb-server).
166
167 --monitor
168 Creates an additional process to monitor the ovsdb-server dae‐
169 mon. If the daemon dies due to a signal that indicates a pro‐
170 gramming error (SIGABRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGILL, SIG‐
171 PIPE, SIGSEGV, SIGXCPU, or SIGXFSZ) then the monitor process
172 starts a new copy of it. If the daemon dies or exits for
173 another reason, the monitor process exits.
174
175 This option is normally used with --detach, but it also func‐
176 tions without it.
177
178 --no-chdir
179 By default, when --detach is specified, ovsdb-server changes its
180 current working directory to the root directory after it
181 detaches. Otherwise, invoking ovsdb-server from a carelessly
182 chosen directory would prevent the administrator from unmounting
183 the file system that holds that directory.
184
185 Specifying --no-chdir suppresses this behavior, preventing
186 ovsdb-server from changing its current working directory. This
187 may be useful for collecting core files, since it is common
188 behavior to write core dumps into the current working directory
189 and the root directory is not a good directory to use.
190
191 This option has no effect when --detach is not specified.
192
193 --no-self-confinement
194 By default daemon will try to self-confine itself to work with
195 files under well-know, at build-time whitelisted directories.
196 It is better to stick with this default behavior and not to use
197 this flag unless some other Access Control is used to confine
198 daemon. Note that in contrast to other access control implemen‐
199 tations that are typically enforced from kernel-space (e.g. DAC
200 or MAC), self-confinement is imposed from the user-space daemon
201 itself and hence should not be considered as a full confinement
202 strategy, but instead should be viewed as an additional layer of
203 security.
204
205 --user Causes ovsdb-server to run as a different user specified in
206 "user:group", thus dropping most of the root privileges. Short
207 forms "user" and ":group" are also allowed, with current user or
208 group are assumed respectively. Only daemons started by the root
209 user accepts this argument.
210
211 On Linux, daemons will be granted CAP_IPC_LOCK and
212 CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICES before dropping root privileges. Daemons
213 that interact with a datapath, such as ovs-vswitchd, will be
214 granted three additional capabilities, namely CAP_NET_ADMIN,
215 CAP_NET_BROADCAST and CAP_NET_RAW. The capability change will
216 apply even if the new user is root.
217
218 On Windows, this option is not currently supported. For security
219 reasons, specifying this option will cause the daemon process
220 not to start.
221
222 Service Options
223 The following options are valid only on Windows platform.
224
225 --service
226 Causes ovsdb-server to run as a service in the background. The
227 service should already have been created through external tools
228 like SC.exe.
229
230 --service-monitor
231 Causes the ovsdb-server service to be automatically restarted by
232 the Windows services manager if the service dies or exits for
233 unexpected reasons.
234
235 When --service is not specified, this option has no effect.
236
237 Logging Options
238 -v[spec]
239 --verbose=[spec]
240 Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for
241 every module and destination to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list
242 of words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from
243 each category below:
244
245 · A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list com‐
246 mand on ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to the
247 specified module.
248
249 · syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change
250 to only to the system log, to the console, or to a file,
251 respectively. (If --detach is specified, ovsdb-server
252 closes its standard file descriptors, so logging to the
253 console will have no effect.)
254
255 On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is
256 only useful along with the --syslog-target option (the
257 word has no effect otherwise).
258
259 · off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log
260 level. Messages of the given severity or higher will be
261 logged, and messages of lower severity will be filtered
262 out. off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8)
263 for a definition of each log level.
264
265 Case is not significant within spec.
266
267 Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file
268 will not take place unless --log-file is also specified (see
269 below).
270
271 For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as
272 a word but has no effect.
273
274 -v
275 --verbose
276 Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to --ver‐
277 bose=dbg.
278
279 -vPATTERN:destination:pattern
280 --verbose=PATTERN:destination:pattern
281 Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to
282 ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
283
284 -vFACILITY:facility
285 --verbose=FACILITY:facility
286 Sets the RFC5424 facility of the log message. facility can be
287 one of kern, user, mail, daemon, auth, syslog, lpr, news, uucp,
288 clock, ftp, ntp, audit, alert, clock2, local0, local1, local2,
289 local3, local4, local5, local6 or local7. If this option is not
290 specified, daemon is used as the default for the local system
291 syslog and local0 is used while sending a message to the target
292 provided via the --syslog-target option.
293
294 --log-file[=file]
295 Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is
296 used as the exact name for the log file. The default log file
297 name used if file is omitted is /var/log/open‐
298 vswitch/ovsdb-server.log.
299
300 --syslog-target=host:port
301 Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the
302 system syslog. The host must be a numerical IP address, not a
303 hostname.
304
305 --syslog-method=method
306 Specify method how syslog messages should be sent to syslog dae‐
307 mon. Following forms are supported:
308
309 · libc, use libc syslog() function. This is the default
310 behavior. Downside of using this options is that libc
311 adds fixed prefix to every message before it is actually
312 sent to the syslog daemon over /dev/log UNIX domain
313 socket.
314
315 · unix:file, use UNIX domain socket directly. It is possi‐
316 ble to specify arbitrary message format with this option.
317 However, rsyslogd 8.9 and older versions use hard coded
318 parser function anyway that limits UNIX domain socket
319 use. If you want to use arbitrary message format with
320 older rsyslogd versions, then use UDP socket to localhost
321 IP address instead.
322
323 · udp:ip:port, use UDP socket. With this method it is pos‐
324 sible to use arbitrary message format also with older
325 rsyslogd. When sending syslog messages over UDP socket
326 extra precaution needs to be taken into account, for
327 example, syslog daemon needs to be configured to listen
328 on the specified UDP port, accidental iptables rules
329 could be interfering with local syslog traffic and there
330 are some security considerations that apply to UDP sock‐
331 ets, but do not apply to UNIX domain sockets.
332
333 Active-Backup Options
334 These options support the ovsdb-server active-backup service model and
335 database replication. These options apply only to databases in the
336 format used for standalone and active-backup databases, which is the
337 database format created by ovsdb-tool create. By default, when it
338 serves a database in this format, ovsdb-server runs as a standalone
339 server. These options can configure it for active-backup use:
340
341 · Use --sync-from=server to start the server in the backup role,
342 replicating data from server. When ovsdb-server is running as a
343 backup server, it rejects all transactions that can modify the
344 database content, including lock commands. The same form can be
345 used to configure the local database as a replica of server.
346
347 · Use --sync-from=server --active to start the server in the
348 active role, but prepared to switch to the backup role in which
349 it would replicate data from server. When ovsdb-server runs in
350 active mode, it allows all transactions, including those that
351 modify the database.
352
353 At runtime, management commands can change a server's role and other‐
354 wise manage active-backup features. See Active-Backup Commands, below,
355 for more information.
356
357 --sync-from=server
358 Sets up ovsdb-server to synchronize its databases with the data‐
359 bases in server, which must be an active connection method in
360 one of the forms documented in ovsdb-client(1). Every transac‐
361 tion committed by server will be replicated to ovsdb-server.
362 This option makes ovsdb-server start as a backup server; add
363 --active to make it start as an active server.
364
365 --sync-exclude-tables=db:table[,db:table]...
366 Causes the specified tables to be excluded from replication.
367
368 --active
369 By default, --sync-from makes ovsdb-server start up as a backup
370 for server. With --active, however, ovsdb-server starts as an
371 active server. Use this option to allow the syncing options to
372 be specified using command line options, yet start the server,
373 as the default, active server. To switch the running server to
374 backup mode, use ovs-appctl(1) to execute the ovsdb-server/con‐
375 nect-active-ovsdb-server command.
376
377 Public Key Infrastructure Options
378 The options described below for configuring the SSL public key infra‐
379 structure accept a special syntax for obtaining their configuration
380 from the database. If any of these options is given db:db,table,column
381 as its argument, then the actual file name is read from the specified
382 column in table within the db database. The column must have type
383 string or set of strings. The first nonempty string in the table is
384 taken as the file name. (This means that ordinarily there should be at
385 most one row in table.)
386
387 -p privkey.pem
388 --private-key=privkey.pem
389 Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as
390 ovsdb-server's identity for outgoing SSL connections.
391
392 -c cert.pem
393 --certificate=cert.pem
394 Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate that certifies the
395 private key specified on -p or --private-key to be trustworthy.
396 The certificate must be signed by the certificate authority (CA)
397 that the peer in SSL connections will use to verify it.
398
399 -C cacert.pem
400 --ca-cert=cacert.pem
401 Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate that
402 ovsdb-server should use to verify certificates presented to it
403 by SSL peers. (This may be the same certificate that SSL peers
404 use to verify the certificate specified on -c or --certificate,
405 or it may be a different one, depending on the PKI design in
406 use.)
407
408 -C none
409 --ca-cert=none
410 Disables verification of certificates presented by SSL peers.
411 This introduces a security risk, because it means that certifi‐
412 cates cannot be verified to be those of known trusted hosts.
413
414 --bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem
415 When cacert.pem exists, this option has the same effect as -C or
416 --ca-cert. If it does not exist, then ovsdb-server will attempt
417 to obtain the CA certificate from the SSL peer on its first SSL
418 connection and save it to the named PEM file. If it is success‐
419 ful, it will immediately drop the connection and reconnect, and
420 from then on all SSL connections must be authenticated by a cer‐
421 tificate signed by the CA certificate thus obtained.
422
423 This option exposes the SSL connection to a man-in-the-middle
424 attack obtaining the initial CA certificate, but it may be use‐
425 ful for bootstrapping.
426
427 This option is only useful if the SSL peer sends its CA certifi‐
428 cate as part of the SSL certificate chain. The SSL protocol
429 does not require the server to send the CA certificate.
430
431 This option is mutually exclusive with -C and --ca-cert.
432
433 --peer-ca-cert=peer-cacert.pem
434 Specifies a PEM file that contains one or more additional cer‐
435 tificates to send to SSL peers. peer-cacert.pem should be the
436 CA certificate used to sign ovsdb-server's own certificate, that
437 is, the certificate specified on -c or --certificate. If
438 ovsdb-server's certificate is self-signed, then --certificate
439 and --peer-ca-cert should specify the same file.
440
441 This option is not useful in normal operation, because the SSL
442 peer must already have the CA certificate for the peer to have
443 any confidence in ovsdb-server's identity. However, this offers
444 a way for a new installation to bootstrap the CA certificate on
445 its first SSL connection.
446
447 SSL Connection Options
448 --ssl-protocols=protocols
449 Specifies, in a comma- or space-delimited list, the SSL proto‐
450 cols ovsdb-server will enable for SSL connections. Supported
451 protocols include TLSv1, TLSv1.1, and TLSv1.2. Regardless of
452 order, the highest protocol supported by both sides will be cho‐
453 sen when making the connection. The default when this option is
454 omitted is TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2.
455
456 --ssl-ciphers=ciphers
457 Specifies, in OpenSSL cipher string format, the ciphers
458 ovsdb-server will support for SSL connections. The default when
459 this option is omitted is HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5.
460
461 Other Options
462 --unixctl=socket
463 Sets the name of the control socket on which ovsdb-server lis‐
464 tens for runtime management commands (see RUNTIME MANAGEMENT
465 COMMANDS, below). If socket does not begin with /, it is inter‐
466 preted as relative to /var/run/openvswitch. If --unixctl is not
467 used at all, the default socket is /var/run/open‐
468 vswitch/ovsdb-server.pid.ctl, where pid is ovsdb-server's
469 process ID.
470
471 On Windows a local named pipe is used to listen for runtime man‐
472 agement commands. A file is created in the absolute path as
473 pointed by socket or if --unixctl is not used at all, a file is
474 created as ovsdb-server.ctl in the configured OVS_RUNDIR direc‐
475 tory. The file exists just to mimic the behavior of a Unix
476 domain socket.
477
478 Specifying none for socket disables the control socket feature.
479
480 -h
481 --help Prints a brief help message to the console.
482
483 -V
484 --version
485 Prints version information to the console.
486
488 ovs-appctl(8) can send commands to a running ovsdb-server process. The
489 currently supported commands are described below.
490
491 ovsdb-server Commands
492 These commands are specific to ovsdb-server.
493
494 exit Causes ovsdb-server to gracefully terminate.
495
496 ovsdb-server/compact [db]
497 Compacts database db in-place. If db is not specified, compacts
498 every database in-place. A database is also compacted automati‐
499 cally when a transaction is logged if it is over 2 times as
500 large as its previous compacted size (and at least 10 MB), but
501 not before 100 commits have been added or 10 minutes have
502 elapsed since the last compaction. It will also be compacted
503 automatically after 24 hours since the last compaction if 100
504 commits were added regardless of its size.
505
506 ovsdb-server/reconnect
507 Makes ovsdb-server drop all of the JSON-RPC connections to data‐
508 base clients and reconnect.
509
510 This command might be useful for debugging issues with database
511 clients.
512
513 ovsdb-server/add-remote remote
514 Adds a remote, as if --remote=remote had been specified on the
515 ovsdb-server command line. (If remote is already a remote, this
516 command succeeds without changing the configuration.)
517
518 ovsdb-server/remove-remote remote
519 Removes the specified remote from the configuration, failing
520 with an error if remote is not configured as a remote. This
521 command only works with remotes that were named on --remote or
522 ovsdb-server/add-remote, that is, it will not remove remotes
523 added indirectly because they were read from the database by
524 configuring a db:db,table,column remote. (You can remove a
525 database source with ovsdb-server/remove-remote db:db,table,col‐
526 umn, but not individual remotes found indirectly through the
527 database.)
528
529 ovsdb-server/list-remotes
530 Outputs a list of the currently configured remotes named on
531 --remote or ovsdb-server/add-remote, that is, it does not list
532 remotes added indirectly because they were read from the data‐
533 base by configuring a db:db,table,column remote.
534
535 ovsdb-server/add-db database
536 Adds the database to the running ovsdb-server. The database
537 file must already have been created and initialized using, for
538 example, ovsdb-tool create.
539
540 ovsdb-server/remove-db database
541 Removes database from the running ovsdb-server. database must
542 be a database name as listed by ovsdb-server/list-dbs.
543
544 If a remote has been configured that points to the specified
545 database (e.g. --remote=db:database,... on the command line),
546 then it will be disabled until another database with the same
547 name is added again (with ovsdb-server/add-db).
548
549 Any public key infrastructure options specified through this
550 database (e.g. --private-key=db:database,... on the command
551 line) will be disabled until another database with the same name
552 is added again (with ovsdb-server/add-db).
553
554 ovsdb-server/list-dbs
555 Outputs a list of the currently configured databases added
556 either through the command line or through the
557 ovsdb-server/add-db command.
558
559 Active-Backup Commands
560 These commands query and update the role of ovsdb-server within an
561 active-backup pair of servers. See Active-Backup Options, above, and
562 Active-Backup Database Service Model in ovsdb(7) for more information.
563
564 ovsdb-server/set-active-ovsdb-server server
565 Sets the active server from which ovsdb-server connects through
566 ovsdb-server/connect-active-ovsdb-server. This overrides the
567 --sync-from command-line option.
568
569 ovsdb-server/get-active-ovsdb-server
570 Gets the active server from which ovsdb-server is currently syn‐
571 chronizing its databases.
572
573 ovsdb-server/connect-active-ovsdb-server
574 Switches the server to a backup role. The server starts syn‐
575 chronizing its databases with the active server specified by
576 ovsdb-server/set-active-ovsdb-server (or the --sync-from com‐
577 mand-line option) and closes all existing client connections,
578 which requires clients to reconnect.
579
580 ovsdb-server/disconnect-active-ovsdb-server
581 Switches the server to an active role. The server stops syn‐
582 chronizing its databases with an active server and closes all
583 existing client connections, which requires clients to recon‐
584 nect.
585
586 ovsdb-server/set-sync-exclude-tables db:table[,db:table]...
587 Sets the table within db that will be excluded from synchroniza‐
588 tion. This overrides the --sync-exclude-tables command-line
589 option.
590
591 ovsdb-server/get-sync-exclude-tables
592 Gets the tables that are currently excluded from synchroniza‐
593 tion.
594
595 ovsdb-server/sync-status
596 Prints a summary of replication run time information. The state
597 information is always provided, indicating whether the server is
598 running in the active or the backup mode. When running in
599 backup mode, replication connection status, which can be either
600 connecting, replicating or error, are shown. When the connec‐
601 tion is in replicating state, further output shows the list of
602 databases currently replicating, and the tables that are
603 excluded.
604
605 Cluster Commands
606 These commands support the ovsdb-server clustered service model. They
607 apply only to databases in the format used for clustered databases,
608 which is the database format created by ovsdb-tool create-cluster and
609 ovsdb-tool join-cluster.
610
611 cluster/cid db
612 Prints the cluster ID for db, which is a UUID that identifies
613 the cluster. If db is a database newly created by ovsdb-tool
614 cluster-join that has not yet successfully joined its cluster,
615 and --cid was not specified on the cluster-join command line,
616 then this command will report an error because the cluster ID is
617 not yet known.
618
619 cluster/sid db
620 Prints the server ID for db, which is a UUID that identifies
621 this server within the cluster.
622
623 cluster/status db
624 Prints this server's status within the cluster and the status of
625 its connections to other servers in the cluster.
626
627 cluster/leave db
628 This command starts the server gracefully removing itself from
629 its cluster. At least one server must remain, and the cluster
630 must be healthy, that is, over half of the cluster's servers
631 must be up.
632
633 When the server successfully leaves the cluster, it stops serv‐
634 ing db, as if ovsdb-server/remove-db db had been executed.
635
636 Use ovsdb-client wait (see ovsdb-client(1)) to wait until the
637 server has left the cluster.
638
639 cluster/kick db server
640 Start graceful removal of server from db's cluster, like clus‐
641 ter/leave (without --force) except that it can remove any
642 server, not just this one.
643
644 server may be a server ID, as printed by cluster/sid, or the
645 server's local network address as passed to ovsdb-tool's cre‐
646 ate-cluster or join-cluster command. Use cluster/status to see
647 a list of cluster members.
648
649 VLOG COMMANDS
650 These commands manage ovsdb-server's logging settings.
651
652 vlog/set [spec]
653 Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for
654 every module and destination to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list
655 of words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from
656 each category below:
657
658 · A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list com‐
659 mand on ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to the
660 specified module.
661
662 · syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change
663 to only to the system log, to the console, or to a file,
664 respectively.
665
666 On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is
667 only useful along with the --syslog-target option (the
668 word has no effect otherwise).
669
670 · off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log
671 level. Messages of the given severity or higher will be
672 logged, and messages of lower severity will be filtered
673 out. off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8)
674 for a definition of each log level.
675
676 Case is not significant within spec.
677
678 Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file
679 will not take place unless ovsdb-server was invoked with the
680 --log-file option.
681
682 For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as
683 a word but has no effect.
684
685 vlog/set PATTERN:destination:pattern
686 Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to
687 ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
688
689 vlog/list
690 Lists the supported logging modules and their current levels.
691
692 vlog/list-pattern
693 Lists logging patterns used for each destination.
694
695 vlog/close
696 Causes ovsdb-server to close its log file, if it is open. (Use
697 vlog/reopen to reopen it later.)
698
699 vlog/reopen
700 Causes ovsdb-server to close its log file, if it is open, and
701 then reopen it. (This is useful after rotating log files, to
702 cause a new log file to be used.)
703
704 This has no effect unless ovsdb-server was invoked with the
705 --log-file option.
706
707 vlog/disable-rate-limit [module]...
708 vlog/enable-rate-limit [module]...
709 By default, ovsdb-server limits the rate at which certain mes‐
710 sages can be logged. When a message would appear more fre‐
711 quently than the limit, it is suppressed. This saves disk
712 space, makes logs easier to read, and speeds up execution, but
713 occasionally troubleshooting requires more detail. Therefore,
714 vlog/disable-rate-limit allows rate limits to be disabled at the
715 level of an individual log module. Specify one or more module
716 names, as displayed by the vlog/list command. Specifying either
717 no module names at all or the keyword any disables rate limits
718 for every log module.
719
720 The vlog/enable-rate-limit command, whose syntax is the same as
721 vlog/disable-rate-limit, can be used to re-enable a rate limit
722 that was previously disabled.
723
724 MEMORY COMMANDS
725 These commands report memory usage.
726
727 memory/show
728 Displays some basic statistics about ovsdb-server's memory
729 usage. ovsdb-server also logs this information soon after
730 startup and periodically as its memory consumption grows.
731
732 COVERAGE COMMANDS
733 These commands manage ovsdb-server's ``coverage counters,'' which count
734 the number of times particular events occur during a daemon's runtime.
735 In addition to these commands, ovsdb-server automatically logs coverage
736 counter values, at INFO level, when it detects that the daemon's main
737 loop takes unusually long to run.
738
739 Coverage counters are useful mainly for performance analysis and debug‐
740 ging.
741
742 coverage/show
743 Displays the averaged per-second rates for the last few seconds,
744 the last minute and the last hour, and the total counts of all
745 of the coverage counters.
746
748 In Open vSwitch before version 2.4, when ovsdb-server sent JSON-RPC
749 error responses to some requests, it incorrectly formulated them with
750 the result and error swapped, so that the response appeared to indicate
751 success (with a nonsensical result) rather than an error. The requests
752 that suffered from this problem were:
753
754 transact
755 get_schema
756 Only if the request names a nonexistent database.
757
758 monitor
759 lock
760 unlock In all error cases.
761
762 Of these cases, the only error that a well-written application is
763 likely to encounter in practice is monitor of tables or columns that do
764 not exist, in an situation where the application has been upgraded but
765 the old database schema is still temporarily in use. To handle this
766 situation gracefully, we recommend that clients should treat a monitor
767 response with a result that contains an error key-value pair as an
768 error (assuming that the database being monitored does not contain a
769 table named error).
770
772 ovsdb(7), ovsdb-tool(1), ovsdb-server(5), ovsdb-server(7).
773
774
775
776Open vSwitch 2.10.0 ovsdb-server(1)