Provided by: openvswitch-switch_2.5.9-0ubuntu0.16.04.3_amd64 
NAME
ovs-dpctl - administer Open vSwitch datapaths
SYNOPSIS
ovs-dpctl [options] command [switch] [args...]
DESCRIPTION
The ovs-dpctl program can create, modify, and delete Open vSwitch datapaths. A single
machine may host any number of datapaths.
This program works only with datapaths that are implemented outside of ovs-vswitchd
itself, such as the Linux and Windows kernel-based datapaths. To manage datapaths that
are integrated into ovs-vswitchd, such as the userspace (netdev) datapath, use
ovs-appctl(8) to invoke the dpctl/* commands, which are documented in ovs-vswitchd(8).
A newly created datapath is associated with only one network device, a virtual network
device sometimes called the datapath's ``local port''. A newly created datapath is not,
however, associated with any of the host's other network devices. To intercept and
process traffic on a given network device, use the add-if command to explicitly add that
network device to the datapath.
If ovs-vswitchd(8) is in use, use ovs-vsctl(8) instead of ovs-dpctl.
Most ovs-dpctl commands that work with datapaths take an argument that specifies the name
of the datapath. Datapath names take the form [type@]name, where name is the network
device associated with the datapath's local port. If type is given, it specifies the
datapath provider of name, otherwise the default provider system is assumed.
The following commands manage datapaths.
add-dp dp [netdev[,option]...]
Creates datapath dp, with a local port also named dp. This will fail if a network
device dp already exists.
If netdevs are specified, ovs-dpctl adds them to the new datapath, just as if
add-if was specified.
del-dp dp
Deletes datapath dp. If dp is associated with any network devices, they are
automatically removed.
add-if dp netdev[,option]...
Adds each netdev to the set of network devices datapath dp monitors, where dp is
the name of an existing datapath, and netdev is the name of one of the host's
network devices, e.g. eth0. Once a network device has been added to a datapath,
the datapath has complete ownership of the network device's traffic and the network
device appears silent to the rest of the system.
A netdev may be followed by a comma-separated list of options. The following
options are currently supported:
type=type
Specifies the type of port to add. The default type is system.
port_no=port
Requests a specific port number within the datapath. If this option is not
specified then one will be automatically assigned.
key=value
Adds an arbitrary key-value option to the port's configuration.
ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) documents the available port types and options.
set-if dp port[,option]...
Reconfigures each port in dp as specified. An option of the form key=value adds
the specified key-value option to the port or overrides an existing key's value.
An option of the form key=, that is, without a value, deletes the key-value named
key. The type and port number of a port cannot be changed, so type and port_no are
only allowed if they match the existing configuration.
del-if dp netdev...
Removes each netdev from the list of network devices datapath dp monitors.
dump-dps
Prints the name of each configured datapath on a separate line.
[-s | --statistics] show [dp...]
Prints a summary of configured datapaths, including their datapath numbers and a
list of ports connected to each datapath. (The local port is identified as port
0.) If -s or --statistics is specified, then packet and byte counters are also
printed for each port.
The datapath numbers consists of flow stats and mega flow mask stats.
The "lookups" row displays three stats related to flow lookup triggered by
processing incoming packets in the datapath. "hit" displays number of packets
matches existing flows. "missed" displays the number of packets not matching any
existing flow and require user space processing. "lost" displays number of packets
destined for user space process but subsequently dropped before reaching userspace.
The sum of "hit" and "miss" equals to the total number of packets datapath
processed.
The "flows" row displays the number of flows in datapath.
The "masks" row displays the mega flow mask stats. This row is omitted for datapath
not implementing mega flow. "hit" displays the total number of masks visited for
matching incoming packets. "total" displays number of masks in the datapath.
"hit/pkt" displays the average number of masks visited per packet; the ratio
between "hit" and total number of packets processed by the datapath".
If one or more datapaths are specified, information on only those datapaths are
displayed. Otherwise, ovs-dpctl displays information about all configured
datapaths.
DATAPATH FLOW TABLE DEBUGGING COMMANDS
The following commands are primarily useful for debugging Open vSwitch. The flow table
entries (both matches and actions) that they work with are not OpenFlow flow entries.
Instead, they are different and considerably simpler flows maintained by the Open vSwitch
kernel module. Use ovs-ofctl(8), instead, to work with OpenFlow flow entries.
The dp argument to each of these commands is optional when exactly one datapath exists, in
which case that datapath is the default. When multiple datapaths exist, then a datapath
name is required.
[-m | --more] dump-flows [dp] [filter=filter]
Prints to the console all flow entries in datapath dp's flow table. Without -m or
--more, output omits match fields that a flow wildcards entirely; with -m or
--more, output includes all wildcarded fields.
If filter=filter is specified, only displays the flows that match the filter.
filter is a flow in the form similiar to that accepted by ovs-ofctl(8)'s add-flow
command. (This is not an OpenFlow flow: besides other differences, it never
contains wildcards.) The filter is also useful to match wildcarded fields in the
datapath flow. As an example, filter='tcp,tp_src=100' will match the datapath flow
containing 'tcp(src=80/0xff00,dst=8080/0xff)'.
add-flow [dp] flow actions
[--clear] [--may-create] [-s | --statistics] mod-flow [dp] flow actions
Adds or modifies a flow in dp's flow table that, when a packet matching flow
arrives, causes actions to be executed.
The add-flow command succeeds only if flow does not already exist in dp.
Contrariwise, mod-flow without --may-create only modifies the actions for an
existing flow. With --may-create, mod-flow will add a new flow or modify an
existing one.
If -s or --statistics is specified, then mod-flow prints the modified flow's
statistics. A flow's statistics are the number of packets and bytes that have
passed through the flow, the elapsed time since the flow last processed a packet
(if ever), and (for TCP flows) the union of the TCP flags processed through the
flow.
With --clear, mod-flow zeros out the flow's statistics. The statistics printed if
-s or --statistics is also specified are those from just before clearing the
statistics.
[-s | --statistics] del-flow [dp] flow
Deletes the flow from dp's flow table that matches flow. If -s or --statistics is
specified, then del-flow prints the deleted flow's statistics.
get-flow [dp] ufid:ufid
Fetches the flow from dp's flow table with unique identifier ufid. ufid must be
specified as a string of 32 hexadecimal characters.
del-flows [dp]
Deletes all flow entries from datapath dp's flow table.
CONNECTION TRACKING TABLE DEBUGGING COMMANDS
The following commands are primarily useful for debugging the connection tracking entries
in the datapath.
The dp argument to each of these commands is optional when exactly one datapath exists, in
which case that datapath is the default. When multiple datapaths exist, then a datapath
name is required.
N.B.(Linux specific): the system datapaths (i.e. the Linux kernel module Open vSwitch
datapaths) share a single connection tracking table (which is also used by other kernel
subsystems, such as iptables, nftables and the regular host stack). Therefore, the
following commands do not apply specifically to one datapath.
[-m | --more] [-s | --statistics] dump-conntrack [dp] [zone=zone]
Prints to the console all the connection entries in the tracker used by dp. If
zone=zone is specified, only shows the connections in zone. With --more, some
implementation specific details are included. With --statistics timeouts and
timestamps are added to the output.
flush-conntrack [dp] [zone=zone]
Flushes all the connection entries in the tracker used by dp. If zone=zone is
specified, only flushes the connections in zone.
OPTIONS
-s
--statistics
Causes the show command to print packet and byte counters for each port within the
datapaths that it shows.
-m
--more Increases the verbosity of dump-flows output.
-t
--timeout=secs
Limits ovs-dpctl runtime to approximately secs seconds. If the timeout expires,
ovs-dpctl will exit with a SIGALRM signal.
-v[spec]
--verbose=[spec]
Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for every module and
destination to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list of words separated by spaces or
commas or colons, up to one from each category below:
• A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list command on ovs-appctl(8),
limits the log level change to the specified module.
• syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change to only to the
system log, to the console, or to a file, respectively. (If --detach is
specified, ovs-dpctl closes its standard file descriptors, so logging to the
console will have no effect.)
On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is only useful along
with the --syslog-target option (the word has no effect otherwise).
• off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log level. Messages of
the given severity or higher will be logged, and messages of lower severity
will be filtered out. off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8) for
a definition of each log level.
Case is not significant within spec.
Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file will not take place
unless --log-file is also specified (see below).
For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as a word but has no
effect.
-v
--verbose
Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to --verbose=dbg.
-vPATTERN:destination:pattern
--verbose=PATTERN:destination:pattern
Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to ovs-appctl(8) for a
description of the valid syntax for pattern.
-vFACILITY:facility
--verbose=FACILITY:facility
Sets the RFC5424 facility of the log message. facility can be one of kern, user,
mail, daemon, auth, syslog, lpr, news, uucp, clock, ftp, ntp, audit, alert, clock2,
local0, local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6 or local7. If this option is
not specified, daemon is used as the default for the local system syslog and local0
is used while sending a message to the target provided via the --syslog-target
option.
--log-file[=file]
Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is used as the exact name
for the log file. The default log file name used if file is omitted is
/var/log/openvswitch/ovs-dpctl.log.
--syslog-target=host:port
Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the system syslog. The
host must be a numerical IP address, not a hostname.
--syslog-method=method
Specify method how syslog messages should be sent to syslog daemon. Following
forms are supported:
• libc, use libc syslog() function. This is the default behavior. Downside
of using this options is that libc adds fixed prefix to every message before
it is actually sent to the syslog daemon over /dev/log UNIX domain socket.
• unix:file, use UNIX domain socket directly. It is possible to specify
arbitrary message format with this option. However, rsyslogd 8.9 and older
versions use hard coded parser function anyway that limits UNIX domain
socket use. If you want to use arbitrary message format with older rsyslogd
versions, then use UDP socket to localhost IP address instead.
• udp:ip:port, use UDP socket. With this method it is possible to use
arbitrary message format also with older rsyslogd. When sending syslog
messages over UDP socket extra precaution needs to be taken into account,
for example, syslog daemon needs to be configured to listen on the specified
UDP port, accidental iptables rules could be interfering with local syslog
traffic and there are some security considerations that apply to UDP
sockets, but do not apply to UNIX domain sockets.
-h
--help Prints a brief help message to the console.
-V
--version
Prints version information to the console.
SEE ALSO
ovs-appctl(8), ovs-vswitchd(8)