1ovn-controller(8)                 OVN Manual                 ovn-controller(8)
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3
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NAME

6       ovn-controller - Open Virtual Network local controller
7

SYNOPSIS

9       ovn-controller [options] [ovs-database]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       ovn-controller is the local controller daemon for OVN, the Open Virtual
13       Network. It connects up to the OVN Southbound database (see  ovn-sb(5))
14       over  the  OVSDB  protocol,  and down to the Open vSwitch database (see
15       ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5)) over the OVSDB protocol and to ovs-vswitchd(8)
16       via OpenFlow. Each hypervisor and software gateway in an OVN deployment
17       runs its own independent copy of ovn-controller; thus, ovn-controller’s
18       downward  connections  are machine-local and do not run over a physical
19       network.
20

ACL LOGGING

22       ACL log messages are logged through ovn-controller’s logging mechanism.
23       ACL  log entries have the module acl_log at log level info. Configuring
24       logging is described below in the Logging Options section.
25

OPTIONS

27   Daemon Options
28       --pidfile[=pidfile]
29              Causes a file (by default, program.pid) to be created indicating
30              the  PID  of the running process. If the pidfile argument is not
31              specified, or if it does not begin with /, then it is created in
32              .
33
34              If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
35
36       --overwrite-pidfile
37              By  default,  when --pidfile is specified and the specified pid‐
38              file already exists and is locked by a running process, the dae‐
39              mon refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pidfile to cause it to
40              instead overwrite the pidfile.
41
42              When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
43
44       --detach
45              Runs this program as a background process.  The  process  forks,
46              and  in  the  child it starts a new session, closes the standard
47              file descriptors (which has the side effect of disabling logging
48              to  the  console), and changes its current directory to the root
49              (unless --no-chdir is specified). After the child completes  its
50              initialization, the parent exits.
51
52       --monitor
53              Creates  an  additional  process  to monitor this program. If it
54              dies due to a signal that indicates a programming  error  (SIGA‐
55              BRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGILL, SIGPIPE, SIGSEGV, SIGXCPU,
56              or SIGXFSZ) then the monitor process starts a new copy of it. If
57              the daemon dies or exits for another reason, the monitor process
58              exits.
59
60              This option is normally used with --detach, but  it  also  func‐
61              tions without it.
62
63       --no-chdir
64              By  default,  when --detach is specified, the daemon changes its
65              current working directory to the root  directory  after  it  de‐
66              taches.  Otherwise, invoking the daemon from a carelessly chosen
67              directory would prevent the administrator  from  unmounting  the
68              file system that holds that directory.
69
70              Specifying  --no-chdir  suppresses this behavior, preventing the
71              daemon from changing its current working directory. This may  be
72              useful for collecting core files, since it is common behavior to
73              write core dumps into the current working directory and the root
74              directory is not a good directory to use.
75
76              This option has no effect when --detach is not specified.
77
78       --no-self-confinement
79              By  default  this daemon will try to self-confine itself to work
80              with files under  well-known  directories  determined  at  build
81              time.  It  is better to stick with this default behavior and not
82              to use this flag unless some other Access  Control  is  used  to
83              confine  daemon.  Note  that in contrast to other access control
84              implementations that are typically  enforced  from  kernel-space
85              (e.g.  DAC  or  MAC), self-confinement is imposed from the user-
86              space daemon itself and hence should not be considered as a full
87              confinement  strategy,  but instead should be viewed as an addi‐
88              tional layer of security.
89
90       --user=user:group
91              Causes this program to run as  a  different  user  specified  in
92              user:group,  thus  dropping  most  of the root privileges. Short
93              forms user and :group are also allowed,  with  current  user  or
94              group  assumed,  respectively.  Only daemons started by the root
95              user accepts this argument.
96
97              On   Linux,   daemons   will   be   granted   CAP_IPC_LOCK   and
98              CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICES  before  dropping root privileges. Daemons
99              that interact with a datapath, such  as  ovs-vswitchd,  will  be
100              granted  three  additional  capabilities,  namely CAP_NET_ADMIN,
101              CAP_NET_BROADCAST and CAP_NET_RAW. The  capability  change  will
102              apply even if the new user is root.
103
104              On Windows, this option is not currently supported. For security
105              reasons, specifying this option will cause  the  daemon  process
106              not to start.
107
108   Logging Options
109       -v[spec]
110       --verbose=[spec]
111            Sets  logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for ev‐
112            ery module and destination to dbg. Otherwise, spec is  a  list  of
113            words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from each
114            category below:
115
116            •      A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list  command
117                   on ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to the speci‐
118                   fied module.
119
120syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change  to
121                   only  to  the system log, to the console, or to a file, re‐
122                   spectively. (If --detach is specified,  the  daemon  closes
123                   its  standard  file  descriptors, so logging to the console
124                   will have no effect.)
125
126                   On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a  word  and  is
127                   only useful along with the --syslog-target option (the word
128                   has no effect otherwise).
129
130off, emer, err, warn, info, or  dbg,  to  control  the  log
131                   level.  Messages  of  the  given severity or higher will be
132                   logged, and messages of lower  severity  will  be  filtered
133                   out.  off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8) for a
134                   definition of each log level.
135
136            Case is not significant within spec.
137
138            Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file  will
139            not take place unless --log-file is also specified (see below).
140
141            For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as a
142            word but has no effect.
143
144       -v
145       --verbose
146            Sets the maximum logging verbosity  level,  equivalent  to  --ver‐
147            bose=dbg.
148
149       -vPATTERN:destination:pattern
150       --verbose=PATTERN:destination:pattern
151            Sets  the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to ovs-ap‐
152            pctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
153
154       -vFACILITY:facility
155       --verbose=FACILITY:facility
156            Sets the RFC5424 facility of the log message. facility can be  one
157            of kern, user, mail, daemon, auth, syslog, lpr, news, uucp, clock,
158            ftp, ntp, audit, alert, clock2, local0,  local1,  local2,  local3,
159            local4, local5, local6 or local7. If this option is not specified,
160            daemon is used as the default for the local system syslog and  lo‐
161            cal0  is  used  while sending a message to the target provided via
162            the --syslog-target option.
163
164       --log-file[=file]
165            Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it  is  used
166            as the exact name for the log file. The default log file name used
167            if file is omitted is /var/log/ovn/program.log.
168
169       --syslog-target=host:port
170            Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the  sys‐
171            tem  syslog.  The host must be a numerical IP address, not a host‐
172            name.
173
174       --syslog-method=method
175            Specify method as how syslog messages should  be  sent  to  syslog
176            daemon. The following forms are supported:
177
178libc,  to use the libc syslog() function. Downside of using
179                   this options is that libc adds fixed prefix to  every  mes‐
180                   sage  before  it is actually sent to the syslog daemon over
181                   /dev/log UNIX domain socket.
182
183unix:file, to use a UNIX domain socket directly. It is pos‐
184                   sible to specify arbitrary message format with this option.
185                   However, rsyslogd 8.9 and older  versions  use  hard  coded
186                   parser  function anyway that limits UNIX domain socket use.
187                   If you want to use  arbitrary  message  format  with  older
188                   rsyslogd  versions, then use UDP socket to localhost IP ad‐
189                   dress instead.
190
191udp:ip:port, to use a UDP socket. With this  method  it  is
192                   possible  to  use  arbitrary message format also with older
193                   rsyslogd. When sending syslog messages over UDP socket  ex‐
194                   tra precaution needs to be taken into account, for example,
195                   syslog daemon needs to be configured to listen on the spec‐
196                   ified  UDP  port, accidental iptables rules could be inter‐
197                   fering with local syslog traffic and there are  some  secu‐
198                   rity  considerations  that apply to UDP sockets, but do not
199                   apply to UNIX domain sockets.
200
201null, to discard all messages logged to syslog.
202
203            The default is taken from the OVS_SYSLOG_METHOD environment  vari‐
204            able; if it is unset, the default is libc.
205
206   PKI Options
207       PKI  configuration  is required in order to use SSL for the connections
208       to the Northbound and Southbound databases.
209
210              -p privkey.pem
211              --private-key=privkey.pem
212                   Specifies a PEM file containing the  private  key  used  as
213                   identity for outgoing SSL connections.
214
215              -c cert.pem
216              --certificate=cert.pem
217                   Specifies  a  PEM file containing a certificate that certi‐
218                   fies the private key specified on -p or --private-key to be
219                   trustworthy. The certificate must be signed by the certifi‐
220                   cate authority (CA) that the peer in SSL  connections  will
221                   use to verify it.
222
223              -C cacert.pem
224              --ca-cert=cacert.pem
225                   Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate for ver‐
226                   ifying certificates presented to this program by SSL peers.
227                   (This  may  be  the  same certificate that SSL peers use to
228                   verify the certificate specified on -c or --certificate, or
229                   it  may  be a different one, depending on the PKI design in
230                   use.)
231
232              -C none
233              --ca-cert=none
234                   Disables verification  of  certificates  presented  by  SSL
235                   peers.  This  introduces  a security risk, because it means
236                   that certificates cannot be verified to be those  of  known
237                   trusted hosts.
238
239              --bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem
240                     When  cacert.pem  exists, this option has the same effect
241                     as -C or --ca-cert. If it does not exist, then  the  exe‐
242                     cutable  will  attempt  to obtain the CA certificate from
243                     the SSL peer on its first SSL connection and save  it  to
244                     the  named PEM file. If it is successful, it will immedi‐
245                     ately drop the connection and reconnect, and from then on
246                     all  SSL  connections must be authenticated by a certifi‐
247                     cate signed by the CA certificate thus obtained.
248
249                     This option exposes the SSL connection to  a  man-in-the-
250                     middle  attack  obtaining the initial CA certificate, but
251                     it may be useful for bootstrapping.
252
253                     This option is only useful if the SSL peer sends  its  CA
254                     certificate as part of the SSL certificate chain. The SSL
255                     protocol does not require the server to send the CA  cer‐
256                     tificate.
257
258                     This option is mutually exclusive with -C and --ca-cert.
259
260              --peer-ca-cert=peer-cacert.pem
261                     Specifies a PEM file that contains one or more additional
262                     certificates to send to SSL peers. peer-cacert.pem should
263                     be the CA certificate used to sign the program’s own cer‐
264                     tificate, that is, the certificate  specified  on  -c  or
265                     --certificate.  If  the  program’s  certificate  is self-
266                     signed,  then  --certificate  and  --peer-ca-cert  should
267                     specify the same file.
268
269                     This  option  is  not useful in normal operation, because
270                     the SSL peer must already have the CA certificate for the
271                     peer  to  have  any confidence in the program’s identity.
272                     However, this offers a way  for  a  new  installation  to
273                     bootstrap the CA certificate on its first SSL connection.
274
275   Other Options
276       -h
277       --help
278            Prints a brief help message to the console.
279
280       -V
281       --version
282            Prints version information to the console.
283

CONFIGURATION

285       ovn-controller retrieves most of its configuration information from the
286       local Open vSwitch’s ovsdb-server instance.  The  default  location  is
287       db.sock in the local Open vSwitch’s "run" directory. It may be overrid‐
288       den by specifying the ovs-database argument as an OVSDB active or  pas‐
289       sive connection method, as described in ovsdb(7).
290
291       ovn-controller  assumes it gets configuration information from the fol‐
292       lowing keys in the Open_vSwitch table of the local OVS instance:
293
294              external_ids:system-id
295                     The chassis name to use in the  Chassis  table.  Changing
296                     the  system-id while ovn-controller is running is not di‐
297                     rectly supported. Users have two  options:  either  first
298                     gracefully  stop  ovn-controller  or  manually delete the
299                     stale Chassis and Chassis_Private records after  changing
300                     the system-id.
301
302              external_ids:hostname
303                     The hostname to use in the Chassis table.
304
305              external_ids:ovn-bridge
306                     The  integration  bridge  to  which logical ports are at‐
307                     tached. The default is br-int. If this  bridge  does  not
308                     exist  when ovn-controller starts, it will be created au‐
309                     tomatically with the default configuration  suggested  in
310                     ovn-architecture(7).
311
312              external_ids:ovn-bridge-datapath-type
313                     This configuration is optional. If set, then the datapath
314                     type of the integration bridge will be set to the config‐
315                     ured  value.  If  this  option  is not set, then ovn-con‐
316                     troller will not modify the existing datapath-type of the
317                     integration bridge.
318
319              external_ids:ovn-remote
320                     The  OVN  database that this system should connect to for
321                     its configuration, in one of the  same  forms  documented
322                     above for the ovs-database.
323
324              external_ids:ovn-monitor-all
325                     A boolean value that tells if ovn-controller should moni‐
326                     tor all records of tables  in  ovs-database.  If  set  to
327                     false,  it will conditionally monitor the records that is
328                     needed in the current chassis.
329
330                     It is more optimal to set it to true in  use  cases  when
331                     the  chassis  would  anyway  need  to monitor most of the
332                     records in ovs-database, which would save the overhead of
333                     conditions  processing, especially for server side. Typi‐
334                     cally, set it to true for environments that all workloads
335                     need to be reachable from each other.
336
337                     Default value is false.
338
339              external_ids:ovn-remote-probe-interval
340                     The  inactivity  probe  interval of the connection to the
341                     OVN database, in milliseconds. If the value is  zero,  it
342                     disables the connection keepalive feature.
343
344                     If  the  value  is  nonzero,  then it will be forced to a
345                     value of at least 1000 ms.
346
347              external_ids:ovn-openflow-probe-interval
348                     The inactivity probe interval of the OpenFlow  connection
349                     to the OpenvSwitch integration bridge, in seconds. If the
350                     value is zero, it disables the connection keepalive  fea‐
351                     ture.
352
353                     If  the  value  is  nonzero,  then it will be forced to a
354                     value of at least 5s.
355
356              external_ids:ovn-encap-type
357                     The encapsulation type that a chassis should use to  con‐
358                     nect  to  this  node. Multiple encapsulation types may be
359                     specified with a comma-separated list. Each listed encap‐
360                     sulation type will be paired with ovn-encap-ip.
361
362                     Supported  tunnel  types  for  connecting hypervisors are
363                     geneve and stt. Gateways may use geneve, vxlan, or stt.
364
365                     Due to the limited amount of metadata in vxlan, the capa‐
366                     bilities  and  performance  of connected gateways will be
367                     reduced versus other tunnel formats.
368
369              external_ids:ovn-encap-ip
370                     The IP address that a chassis should use  to  connect  to
371                     this  node  using encapsulation types specified by exter‐
372                     nal_ids:ovn-encap-type.
373
374              external_ids:ovn-bridge-mappings
375                     A list of key-value pairs that  map  a  physical  network
376                     name  to a local ovs bridge that provides connectivity to
377                     that network. An example value mapping two physical  net‐
378                     work   names   to   two   ovs  bridges  would  be:  phys‐
379                     net1:br-eth0,physnet2:br-eth1.
380
381              external_ids:ovn-encap-csum
382                     ovn-encap-csum indicates that encapsulation checksums can
383                     be  transmitted and received with reasonable performance.
384                     It is a hint to senders transmitting data to this chassis
385                     that  they  should use checksums to protect OVN metadata.
386                     Set to true to enable or false to disable.  Depending  on
387                     the  capabilities of the network interface card, enabling
388                     encapsulation checksum may  incur  performance  loss.  In
389                     such cases, encapsulation checksums can be disabled.
390
391              external_ids:ovn-encap-tos
392                     ovn-encap-tos  indicates  the  value to be applied to OVN
393                     tunnel  interface’s  option:tos  as  specified   in   the
394                     Open_vSwitch  database  Interface  table. Please refer to
395                     Open VSwitch Manual for details.
396
397              external_ids:ovn-cms-options
398                     A list of options that will be consumed by the CMS Plugin
399                     and which specific to this particular chassis. An example
400                     would be: cms_option1,cms_option2:foo.
401
402              external_ids:ovn-transport-zones
403                     The transport  zone(s)  that  this  chassis  belongs  to.
404                     Transport  zones  is  a way to group different chassis so
405                     that tunnels are only formed between members of the  same
406                     group(s).  Multiple transport zones may be specified with
407                     a comma-separated list. For example: tz1,tz2,tz3.
408
409                     If not set, the Chassis will be considered part of a  de‐
410                     fault transport zone.
411
412              external_ids:ovn-chassis-mac-mappings
413                     A list of key-value pairs that map a chassis specific mac
414                     to a physical network name. An example value mapping  two
415                     chassis  macs  to  two  physical  network names would be:
416                     physnet1:aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff,physnet2:a1:b2:c3:d4:e5:f6.
417                     These  are  the  macs  that ovn-controller will replace a
418                     router port mac with, if packet is going from a  distrib‐
419                     uted router port on vlan type logical switch.
420
421              external_ids:ovn-is-interconn
422                     The  boolean  flag indicates if the chassis is used as an
423                     interconnection gateway.
424
425              external_ids:ovn-match-northd-version
426                     The boolean flag indicates  if  ovn-controller  needs  to
427                     check ovn-northd version. If this flag is set to true and
428                     the ovn-northd’s  version  (reported  in  the  Southbound
429                     database)  doesn’t match with the ovn-controller’s inter‐
430                     nal version, then it will stop processing the  southbound
431                     and  local  Open  vSwitch  database  changes. The default
432                     value is considered false if this option is not defined.
433
434              external_ids:ovn-ofctrl-wait-before-clear
435                     The time, in milliseconds, to wait before clearing  flows
436                     in  OVS  after  OpenFlow  connection/reconnection  during
437                     ovn-controller initialization. The purpose of  this  wait
438                     is  to  give  time  for ovn-controller to compute the new
439                     flows before clearing existing ones, to avoid data  plane
440                     down  time during ovn-controller restart/upgrade at large
441                     scale environments where recomputing the flows takes more
442                     than  a  few  seconds or even longer. It is difficult for
443                     ovn-controller to determine when the new flows  computing
444                     is  completed, because of the dynamics in the cloud envi‐
445                     ronments, which is why this configuration is provided for
446                     users to adjust based on the scale of the environment. By
447                     default, it is 0, which  means  clearing  existing  flows
448                     without waiting. Not setting the value, or setting it too
449                     small, may result in data  plane  down  time  during  up‐
450                     grade/restart, while setting it too big may result in un‐
451                     necessary extra control plane  latency  of  applying  new
452                     changes  of  CMS during upgrade/restart. In most cases, a
453                     slightly bigger value is not harmful, because  the  extra
454                     control  plane latency happens only once during the Open‐
455                     Flow connection. To get a reasonable range of  the  value
456                     setting, it is recommended to run the below commands on a
457                     node in the target environment and then set this configu‐
458                     ration  to twice the value of Maximum shown in the output
459                     of the second command.
460
461ovn-appctl -t ovn-controller inc-engine/recompute
462
463ovn-appctl   -t   ovn-controller    stopwatch/show
464                            flow-generation
465
466              external_ids:ovn-enable-lflow-cache
467                     The  boolean  flag indicates if ovn-controller should en‐
468                     able/disable the logical flow  in-memory  cache  it  uses
469                     when processing Southbound database logical flow changes.
470                     By default caching is enabled.
471
472              external_ids:ovn-limit-lflow-cache
473                     When used, this configuration value determines the  maxi‐
474                     mum  number  of logical flow cache entries ovn-controller
475                     may create when the logical flow cache is enabled. By de‐
476                     fault the size of the cache is unlimited.
477
478              external_ids:ovn-memlimit-lflow-cache-kb
479                     When  used, this configuration value determines the maxi‐
480                     mum size of the logical flow cache (in KB) ovn-controller
481                     may create when the logical flow cache is enabled. By de‐
482                     fault the size of the cache is unlimited.
483
484              external_ids:ovn-trim-limit-lflow-cache
485                     When used, this configuration value sets the minimum num‐
486                     ber  of  entries  in the logical flow cache starting with
487                     which automatic memory trimming is performed. By  default
488                     this is set to 10000 entries.
489
490              external_ids:ovn-trim-wmark-perc-lflow-cache
491                     When  used,  this configuration value sets the percentage
492                     from the high watermark number of entries in the  logical
493                     flow  cache under which automatic memory trimming is per‐
494                     formed. E.g., if the trim watermark percentage is set  to
495                     50%, automatic memory trimming happens only when the num‐
496                     ber of entries in the logical flow cache gets reduced  to
497                     less  than  half  of the last measured high watermark. By
498                     default this is set to 50.
499
500              external_ids:ovn-trim-timeout-ms
501                     When used, this configuration value specifies  the  time,
502                     in milliseconds, since the last logical flow cache opera‐
503                     tion after which ovn-controller performs memory  trimming
504                     regardless of how many entries there are in the cache. By
505                     default this is set to 30000 (30 seconds).
506
507              external_ids:ovn-set-local-ip
508                     The boolean flag indicates if ovn-controller when  create
509                     tunnel  ports should set local_ip parameter. Can be hepl‐
510                     ful to pin source outer IP for the tunnel  when  multiple
511                     interfaces are used on the host for overlay traffic.
512
513       ovn-controller  reads  the following values from the Open_vSwitch data‐
514       base of the local OVS instance:
515
516              datapath-type from Bridge table
517                     This value is read from local OVS integration bridge  row
518                     of  Bridge  table and populated in other_config:datapath-
519                     type of the Chassis table in the OVN_Southbound database.
520
521              iface-types from Open_vSwitch table
522                     This value is populated  in  external_ids:iface-types  of
523                     the Chassis table in the OVN_Southbound database.
524
525              private_key,  certificate,  ca_cert,  and bootstrap_ca_cert from
526              SSL table
527                     These values provide the SSL configuration used for  con‐
528                     necting to the OVN southbound database server when an SSL
529                     connection type is  configured  via  external_ids:ovn-re‐
530                     mote.  Note  that this SSL configuration can also be pro‐
531                     vided via command-line options, the configuration in  the
532                     database takes precedence if both are present.
533

OPEN VSWITCH DATABASE USAGE

535       ovn-controller  uses  a number of external_ids keys in the Open vSwitch
536       database to keep track of ports and interfaces. For  proper  operation,
537       users should not change or clear these keys:
538
539              external_ids:ovn-chassis-id in the Port table
540                     The  presence of this key identifies a tunnel port within
541                     the integration bridge as one created  by  ovn-controller
542                     to reach a remote chassis. Its value is the chassis ID of
543                     the remote chassis.
544
545              external_ids:ct-zone-* in the Bridge table
546                     Logical ports and gateway routers are assigned a  connec‐
547                     tion  tracking  zone  by ovn-controller for stateful ser‐
548                     vices. To keep state across restarts  of  ovn-controller,
549                     these  keys are stored in the integration bridge’s Bridge
550                     table. The name contains a prefix of ct-zone- followed by
551                     the  name  of  the  logical port or gateway router’s zone
552                     key. The value for this key identifies the zone used  for
553                     this port.
554
555              external_ids:ovn-localnet-port in the Port table
556                     The  presence  of this key identifies a patch port as one
557                     created by  ovn-controller  to  connect  the  integration
558                     bridge and another bridge to implement a localnet logical
559                     port. Its value is the name of the logical port with type
560                     set  to  localnet  that  the  port implements. See exter‐
561                     nal_ids:ovn-bridge-mappings, above, for more information.
562
563                     Each localnet logical port is implemented as  a  pair  of
564                     patch ports, one in the integration bridge, one in a dif‐
565                     ferent  bridge,  with  the  same  external_ids:ovn-local‐
566                     net-port value.
567
568              external_ids:ovn-l2gateway-port in the Port table
569                     The  presence  of this key identifies a patch port as one
570                     created by  ovn-controller  to  connect  the  integration
571                     bridge  and another bridge to implement a l2gateway logi‐
572                     cal port. Its value is the name of the logical port  with
573                     type  set  to l2gateway that the port implements. See ex‐
574                     ternal_ids:ovn-bridge-mappings, above, for more  informa‐
575                     tion.
576
577                     Each  l2gateway  logical port is implemented as a pair of
578                     patch ports, one in the integration bridge, one in a dif‐
579                     ferent  bridge,  with  the  same external_ids:ovn-l2gate‐
580                     way-port value.
581
582              external-ids:ovn-l3gateway-port in the Port table
583                     This key identifies  a  patch  port  as  one  created  by
584                     ovn-controller to implement a l3gateway logical port. Its
585                     value is the name of the logical port with  type  set  to
586                     l3gateway.  This patch port is similar to the OVN logical
587                     patch port, except that l3gateway port can only be  bound
588                     to a paticular chassis.
589
590              external-ids:ovn-logical-patch-port in the Port table
591                     This  key  identifies  a  patch  port  as  one created by
592                     ovn-controller to implement an  OVN  logical  patch  port
593                     within  the  integration bridge. Its value is the name of
594                     the OVN logical patch port that it implements.
595
596              external-ids:ovn-startup-ts in the Bridge table
597                     This key represents the timestamp  (in  milliseconds)  at
598                     which ovn-controller process was started.
599
600              external-ids:ovn-nb-cfg in the Bridge table
601                     This   key   represents   the   last   known   OVN_South‐
602                     bound.SB_Global.nb_cfg value for  which  all  flows  have
603                     been successfully installed in OVS.
604
605              external-ids:ovn-nb-cfg-ts in the Bridge table
606                     This  key  represents  the timestamp (in milliseconds) of
607                     the last known OVN_Southbound.SB_Global.nb_cfg value  for
608                     which all flows have been successfully installed in OVS.
609
610              external_ids:ovn-installed  and external_ids:ovn-installed-ts in
611              the Interface table
612                     This key is set after all openflow operations correspond‐
613                     ing  to  the  OVS  interface  have been processed by ovs-
614                     vswitchd. At the same time a timestamp,  in  milliseconds
615                     since   the  epoch,  is  stored  in  external_ids:ovn-in‐
616                     stalled-ts.
617

OVN SOUTHBOUND DATABASE USAGE

619       ovn-controller reads from much of the OVN_Southbound database to  guide
620       its operation. ovn-controller also writes to the following tables:
621
622              Chassis
623                     Upon  startup, ovn-controller creates a row in this table
624                     to represent its own chassis. Upon graceful  termination,
625                     e.g.  with  ovs-appctl  -t  ovn-controller  exit (but not
626                     SIGTERM), ovn-controller removes its row.
627
628              Encap  Upon startup, ovn-controller creates a  row  or  rows  in
629                     this  table  that  represent the tunnel encapsulations by
630                     which its chassis can be reached, and points its  Chassis
631                     row  to  them.  Upon graceful termination, ovn-controller
632                     removes these rows.
633
634              Port_Binding
635                     At runtime, ovn-controller sets the  chassis  columns  of
636                     ports  that  are  resident on its chassis to point to its
637                     Chassis row, and, conversely, clears the  chassis  column
638                     of  ports that point to its Chassis row but are no longer
639                     resident on its chassis. The chassis column  has  a  weak
640                     reference  type,  so when ovn-controller gracefully exits
641                     and removes its Chassis row, the database server automat‐
642                     ically clears any remaining references to that row.
643
644              MAC_Binding
645                     At  runtime, ovn-controller updates the MAC_Binding table
646                     as instructed by  put_arp  and  put_nd  logical  actions.
647                     These  changes  persist  beyond  the lifetime of ovn-con‐
648                     troller.
649

RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS

651       ovs-appctl can send commands to a running ovn-controller  process.  The
652       currently supported commands are described below.
653
654              exit   Causes ovn-controller to gracefully terminate.
655
656              ct-zone-list
657                     Lists each local logical port and its connection tracking
658                     zone.
659
660              meter-table-list
661                     Lists each meter table entry and its local meter id.
662
663              group-table-list
664                     Lists each group table entry and its local group id.
665
666              inject-pkt microflow
667                     Injects microflow into the  connected  Open  vSwitch  in‐
668                     stance.  microflow  must  contain an ingress logical port
669                     (inport argument) that is present on the Open vSwitch in‐
670                     stance.
671
672                     The  microflow  argument  describes the packet whose for‐
673                     warding is to be simulated, in the syntax of an OVN logi‐
674                     cal  expression,  as  described  in ovn-sb(5), to express
675                     constraints. The parser  understands  prerequisites;  for
676                     example, if the expression refers to ip4.src, there is no
677                     need to explicitly state ip4 or eth.type == 0x800.
678
679              connection-status
680                     Show OVN SBDB connection status for the chassis.
681
682              recompute
683                     Trigger a full compute iteration in ovn-controller  based
684                     on  the contents of the Southbound database and local OVS
685                     database.
686
687                     This command is intended to use only in the  event  of  a
688                     bug  in  the  incremental  processing  engine in ovn-con‐
689                     troller to avoid inconsistent states. It should therefore
690                     be used with care as full recomputes are cpu intensive.
691
692              sb-cluster-state-reset
693                     Reset  southbound  database cluster status when databases
694                     are destroyed and rebuilt.
695
696                     If all databases in a clustered southbound  database  are
697                     removed from disk, then the stored index of all databases
698                     will be reset to zero. This will cause ovn-controller  to
699                     be  unable  to  read or write to the southbound database,
700                     because it will always detect the data as stale. In  such
701                     a  case, run this command so that ovn-controller will re‐
702                     set its local index so that  it  can  interact  with  the
703                     southbound database again.
704
705              debug/delay-nb-cfg-report seconds
706                     This command is used to delay ovn-controller updating the
707                     nb_cfg back to OVN_Southbound database.  This  is  useful
708                     when  ovn-nbctl  --wait=hv  is used to measure end-to-end
709                     latency in a large scale  environment.  See  ovn-nbctl(8)
710                     for more details.
711
712              lflow-cache/flush
713                     Flushes the ovn-controller logical flow cache.
714
715              lflow-cache/show-stats
716                     Displays logical flow cache statistics: enabled/disabled,
717                     per cache type entry counts.
718
719              inc-engine/show-stats
720                     Display ovn-controller engine counters. For  each  engine
721                     node the following counters have been added:
722
723recompute
724
725compute
726
727abort
728
729              inc-engine/clear-stats
730                     Reset ovn-controller engine counters.
731
732
733
734OVN 22.06.1                     ovn-controller               ovn-controller(8)
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