Provided by: ovn-common_20.03.2-0ubuntu0.20.04.6_amd64 
NAME
ovn-nbctl - Open Virtual Network northbound db management utility
SYNOPSIS
ovn-nbctl [options] command [arg...]
DESCRIPTION
This utility can be used to manage the OVN northbound database.
GENERAL COMMANDS
init Initializes the database, if it is empty. If the database has already been initialized, this
command has no effect.
show [switch | router]
Prints a brief overview of the database contents. If switch is provided, only records related to
that logical switch are shown. If router is provided, only records related to that logical router
are shown.
LOGICAL SWITCH COMMANDS
ls-add Creates a new, unnamed logical switch, which initially has no ports. The switch does not have a
name, other commands must refer to this switch by its UUID.
[--may-exist | --add-duplicate] ls-add switch
Creates a new logical switch named switch, which initially has no ports.
The OVN northbound database schema does not require logical switch names to be unique, but the
whole point to the names is to provide an easy way for humans to refer to the switches, making
duplicate names unhelpful. Thus, without any options, this command regards it as an error if
switch is a duplicate name. With --may-exist, adding a duplicate name succeeds but does not create
a new logical switch. With --add-duplicate, the command really creates a new logical switch with a
duplicate name. It is an error to specify both options. If there are multiple logical switches
with a duplicate name, configure the logical switches using the UUID instead of the switch name.
[--if-exists] ls-del switch
Deletes switch. It is an error if switch does not exist, unless --if-exists is specified.
ls-list
Lists all existing switches on standard output, one per line.
ACL COMMANDS
These commands operates on ACL objects for a given entity. The entity can be either a logical switch or a
port group. The entity can be specified as uuid or name. The --type option can be used to specify the
type of the entity, in case both a logical switch and a port groups exist with the same name specified
for entity. type must be either switch or port-group.
[--type={switch | port-group}] [--log] [--meter=meter] [--severity=severity] [--name=name]
[--may-exist] acl-add entity direction priority match verdict
Adds the specified ACL to entity. direction must be either from-lport or to-lport. priority
must be between 0 and 32767, inclusive. A full description of the fields are in ovn-nb(5).
If --may-exist is specified, adding a duplicated ACL succeeds but the ACL is not really
created. Without --may-exist, adding a duplicated ACL results in error.
The --log option enables packet logging for the ACL. The options --severity and --name
specify a severity and name, respectively, for log entries (and also enable logging). The
severity must be one of alert, warning, notice, info, or debug. If a severity is not
specified, the default is info. The --meter=meter option is used to rate-limit packet
logging. The meter argument names a meter configured by meter-add.
[--type={switch | port-group}] acl-del entity [direction [priority match]]
Deletes ACLs from entity. If only entity is supplied, all the ACLs from the entity are
deleted. If direction is also specified, then all the flows in that direction will be
deleted from the entity. If all the fields are given, then a single flow that matches all
the fields will be deleted.
[--type={switch | port-group}] acl-list entity
Lists the ACLs on entity.
LOGICAL SWITCH QOS RULE COMMANDS
[--may-exist] qos-add switch direction priority match [dscp=dscp] [rate=rate [burst=burst]]
Adds QoS marking and metering rules to switch. direction must be either from-lport or to-lport.
priority must be between 0 and 32767, inclusive.
If dscp=dscp is specified, then matching packets will have DSCP marking applied. dscp must be
between 0 and 63, inclusive. If rate=rate is specified then matching packets will have metering
applied at rate kbps. If metering is configured, then burst=burst specifies the burst rate limit
in kilobits. dscp and/or rate are required arguments.
If --may-exist is specified, adding a duplicated QoS rule succeeds but the QoS rule is not really
created. Without --may-exist, adding a duplicated QoS rule results in error.
qos-del switch [direction [priority match]]
Deletes QoS rules from switch. If only switch is supplied, all the QoS rules from the logical
switch are deleted. If direction is also specified, then all the flows in that direction will be
deleted from the logical switch. If all the fields are supplied, then a single flow that matches
the given fields will be deleted.
qos-list switch
Lists the QoS rules on switch.
METER COMMANDS
meter-add name action rate unit [burst]
Adds the specified meter. name must be a unique name to identify this meter. The action argument
specifies what should happen when this meter is exceeded. The only supported action is drop.
The unit specifies the unit for the rate argument; valid values are kbps and pktps for kilobits
per second and packets per second, respectively. The burst option configures the maximum burst
allowed for the band in kilobits or packets depending on whether the unit chosen was kbps or
pktps, respectively. If a burst is not supplied, the switch is free to select some reasonable
value depending on its configuration.
ovn-nbctl only supports adding a meter with a single band, but the other commands support meters
with multiple bands.
Names that start with "__" (two underscores) are reserved for internal use by OVN, so ovn-nbctl
does not allow adding them.
meter-del [name]
Deletes meters. By default, all meters are deleted. If name is supplied, only the meter with that
name will be deleted.
meter-list
Lists all meters.
LOGICAL SWITCH PORT COMMANDS
[--may-exist] lsp-add switch port
Creates on lswitch a new logical switch port named port.
It is an error if a logical port named port already exists, unless --may-exist is specified.
Regardless of --may-exist, it is an error if the existing port is in some logical switch other
than switch or if it has a parent port.
[--may-exist] lsp-add switch port parent tag_request
Creates on switch a logical switch port named port that is a child of parent that is identified
with VLAN ID tag_request, which must be between 0 and 4095, inclusive. If tag_request is 0,
ovn-northd generates a tag that is unique in the scope of parent. This is useful in cases such as
virtualized container environments where Open vSwitch does not have a direct connection to the
container’s port and it must be shared with the virtual machine’s port.
It is an error if a logical port named port already exists, unless --may-exist is specified.
Regardless of --may-exist, it is an error if the existing port is not in switch or if it does not
have the specified parent and tag_request.
[--if-exists] lsp-del port
Deletes port. It is an error if port does not exist, unless --if-exists is specified.
lsp-list switch
Lists all the logical switch ports within switch on standard output, one per line.
lsp-get-parent port
If set, get the parent port of port. If not set, print nothing.
lsp-get-tag port
If set, get the tag for port traffic. If not set, print nothing.
lsp-set-addresses port [address]...
Sets the addresses associated with port to address. Each address should be one of the following:
an Ethernet address, optionally followed by a space and one or more IP addresses
OVN delivers packets for the Ethernet address to this port.
unknown
OVN delivers unicast Ethernet packets whose destination MAC address is not in any logical
port’s addresses column to ports with address unknown.
dynamic
Use this keyword to make ovn-northd generate a globally unique MAC address and choose an
unused IPv4 address with the logical port’s subnet and store them in the port’s
dynamic_addresses column.
router Accepted only when the type of the logical switch port is router. This indicates that the
Ethernet, IPv4, and IPv6 addresses for this logical switch port should be obtained from the
connected logical router port, as specified by router-port in lsp-set-options.
Multiple addresses may be set. If no address argument is given, port will have no addresses
associated with it.
lsp-get-addresses port
Lists all the addresses associated with port on standard output, one per line.
lsp-set-port-security port [addrs]...
Sets the port security addresses associated with port to addrs. Multiple sets of addresses may be
set by using multiple addrs arguments. If no addrs argument is given, port will not have port
security enabled.
Port security limits the addresses from which a logical port may send packets and to which it may
receive packets. See the ovn-nb(5) documentation for the port_security column in the
Logical_Switch_Port table for details.
lsp-get-port-security port
Lists all the port security addresses associated with port on standard output, one per line.
lsp-get-up port
Prints the state of port, either up or down.
lsp-set-enabled port state
Set the administrative state of port, either enabled or disabled. When a port is disabled, no
traffic is allowed into or out of the port.
lsp-get-enabled port
Prints the administrative state of port, either enabled or disabled.
lsp-set-type port type
Set the type for the logical port. The type must be one of the following:
(empty string)
A VM (or VIF) interface.
router A connection to a logical router.
localnet
A connection to a locally accessible network from each ovn-controller instance. A logical
switch can only have a single localnet port attached. This is used to model direct
connectivity to an existing network.
localport
A connection to a local VIF. Traffic that arrives on a localport is never forwarded over a
tunnel to another chassis. These ports are present on every chassis and have the same
address in all of them. This is used to model connectivity to local services that run on
every hypervisor.
l2gateway
A connection to a physical network.
vtep A port to a logical switch on a VTEP gateway.
lsp-get-type port
Get the type for the logical port.
lsp-set-options port [key=value]...
Set type-specific key-value options for the logical port.
lsp-get-options port
Get the type-specific options for the logical port.
lsp-set-dhcpv4-options port dhcp_options
Set the DHCPv4 options for the logical port. The dhcp_options is a UUID referring to a set of DHCP
options in the DHCP_Options table.
lsp-get-dhcpv4-options port
Get the configured DHCPv4 options for the logical port.
lsp-set-dhcpv6-options port dhcp_options
Set the DHCPv6 options for the logical port. The dhcp_options is a UUID referring to a set of DHCP
options in the DHCP_Options table.
lsp-get-dhcpv6-options port
Get the configured DHCPv6 options for the logical port.
lsp-get-ls port
Get the logical switch which the port belongs to.
FORWARDING GROUP COMMANDS
[--liveness]fwd-group-add group switch vip vmac ports
Creates a new forwarding group named group as the name with the provided vip and vmac. vip should
be a virtual IP address and vmac should be a virtual MAC address to access the forwarding group.
ports are the logical switch port names that are put in the forwarding group. Example for ports is
lsp1 lsp2 ... Traffic destined to virtual IP of the forwarding group will be load balanced to all
the child ports.
When --liveness is specified then child ports are expected to be bound to external devices like
routers. BFD should be configured between hypervisors and the external devices. The child port
selection will become dependent on BFD status with its external device.
[--if-exists] fwd-group-del group
Deletes group. It is an error if group does not exist, unless --if-exists is specified.
fwd-group-list [switch]
Lists all existing forwarding groups, If switch is specified then only the forwarding groups
configured for switch will be listed.
LOGICAL ROUTER COMMANDS
lr-add Creates a new, unnamed logical router, which initially has no ports. The router does not have a
name, other commands must refer to this router by its UUID.
[--may-exist | --add-duplicate] lr-add router
Creates a new logical router named router, which initially has no ports.
The OVN northbound database schema does not require logical router names to be unique, but the
whole point to the names is to provide an easy way for humans to refer to the routers, making
duplicate names unhelpful. Thus, without any options, this command regards it as an error if
router is a duplicate name. With --may-exist, adding a duplicate name succeeds but does not create
a new logical router. With --add-duplicate, the command really creates a new logical router with a
duplicate name. It is an error to specify both options. If there are multiple logical routers with
a duplicate name, configure the logical routers using the UUID instead of the router name.
[--if-exists] lr-del router
Deletes router. It is an error if router does not exist, unless --if-exists is specified.
lr-list
Lists all existing routers on standard output, one per line.
LOGICAL ROUTER PORT COMMANDS
[--may-exist] lrp-add router port mac network... [peer=peer]
Creates on router a new logical router port named port with Ethernet address mac and one or more
IP address/netmask for each network.
The optional argument peer identifies a logical router port that connects to this one. The
following example adds a router port with an IPv4 and IPv6 address with peer lr1:
lrp-add lr0 lrp0 00:11:22:33:44:55 192.168.0.1/24 2001:db8::1/64 peer=lr1
It is an error if a logical router port named port already exists, unless --may-exist is
specified. Regardless of --may-exist, it is an error if the existing router port is in some
logical router other than router.
[--if-exists] lrp-del port
Deletes port. It is an error if port does not exist, unless --if-exists is specified.
lrp-list router
Lists all the logical router ports within router on standard output, one per line.
lrp-set-enabled port state
Set the administrative state of port, either enabled or disabled. When a port is disabled, no
traffic is allowed into or out of the port.
lrp-get-enabled port
Prints the administrative state of port, either enabled or disabled.
lrp-set-gateway-chassis port chassis [priority]
Set gateway chassis for port. chassis is the name of the chassis. This creates a gateway chassis
entry in Gateway_Chassis table. It won’t check if chassis really exists in OVN_Southbound
database. Priority will be set to 0 if priority is not provided by user. priority must be between
0 and 32767, inclusive.
lrp-del-gateway-chassis port chassis
Deletes gateway chassis from port. It is an error if gateway chassis with chassis for port does
not exist.
lrp-get-gateway-chassis port
Lists all the gateway chassis with priority within port on standard output, one per line, ordered
based on priority.
LOGICAL ROUTER STATIC ROUTE COMMANDS
[--may-exist] [--policy=POLICY] [--ecmp] lr-route-add router prefix nexthop [port]
Adds the specified route to router. prefix describes an IPv4 or IPv6 prefix for this route, such
as 192.168.100.0/24. nexthop specifies the gateway to use for this route, which should be the IP
address of one of router logical router ports or the IP address of a logical port. If port is
specified, packets that match this route will be sent out that port. When port is omitted, OVN
infers the output port based on nexthop.
--policy describes the policy used to make routing decisions. This should be one of "dst-ip" or
"src-ip". If not specified, the default is "dst-ip".
It is an error if a route with prefix and POLICY already exists, unless --may-exist or --ecmp is
specified. If --may-exist is specified but not --ecmp, the existed route will be updated with the
new nexthop and port. If --ecmp is specified, a new route will be added, regardless of the existed
route, which is useful when adding ECMP routes, i.e. routes with same POLICY and prefix but
different nexthop and port.
[--if-exists] [--policy=POLICY] lr-route-del router [prefix [nexthop [port]]]
Deletes routes from router. If only router is supplied, all the routes from the logical router are
deleted. If POLICY, prefix, nexthop and/or port are also specified, then all the routes that match
the conditions will be deleted from the logical router.
It is an error if there is no matching route entry, unless --if-exists is specified.
lr-route-list router
Lists the routes on router.
NAT COMMANDS
[--may-exist] [--stateless]lr-nat-add router type external_ip logical_ip [logical_port external_mac]
Adds the specified NAT to router. The type must be one of snat, dnat, or dnat_and_snat. The
external_ip is an IPv4 address. The logical_ip is an IPv4 network (e.g 192.168.1.0/24) or an IPv4
address. The logical_port and external_mac are only accepted when router is a distributed router
(rather than a gateway router) and type is dnat_and_snat. The logical_port is the name of an
existing logical switch port where the logical_ip resides. The external_mac is an Ethernet
address. The --stateless
When --stateless is specified then it implies that we will be not use connection tracker, i.e
internal ip and external ip are 1:1 mapped. This implies that --stateless is applicable only to
dnat_and_snat type NAT rules. An external ip with --stateless NAT cannot be shared with any other
NAT rule.
When type is dnat, the externally visible IP address external_ip is DNATted to the IP address
logical_ip in the logical space.
When type is snat, IP packets with their source IP address that either matches the IP address in
logical_ip or is in the network provided by logical_ip is SNATed into the IP address in
external_ip.
When type is dnat_and_snat, the externally visible IP address external_ip is DNATted to the IP
address logical_ip in the logical space. In addition, IP packets with the source IP address that
matches logical_ip is SNATed into the IP address in external_ip.
When the logical_port and external_mac are specified, the NAT rule will be programmed on the
chassis where the logical_port resides. This includes ARP replies for the external_ip, which
return the value of external_mac. All packets transmitted with source IP address equal to
external_ip will be sent using the external_mac.
It is an error if a NAT already exists with the same values of router, type, external_ip, and
logical_ip, unless --may-exist is specified. When --may-exist, logical_port, and external_mac are
all specified, the existing values of logical_port and external_mac are overwritten.
[--if-exists] lr-nat-del router [type [ip]]
Deletes NATs from router. If only router is supplied, all the NATs from the logical router are
deleted. If type is also specified, then all the NATs that match the type will be deleted from the
logical router. If all the fields are given, then a single NAT rule that matches all the fields
will be deleted. When type is snat, the ip should be logical_ip. When type is dnat or
dnat_and_snat, the ip shoud be external_ip.
It is an error if ip is specified and there is no matching NAT entry, unless --if-exists is
specified.
lr-nat-list router
Lists the NATs on router.
LOAD BALANCER COMMANDS
[--may-exist | --add-duplicate] lb-add lb vip ips [protocol]
Creates a new load balancer named lb with the provided vip and ips or adds the vip to an existing
lb. vip should be a virtual IP address (or an IP address and a port number with : as a separator).
Examples for vip are 192.168.1.4, fd0f::1, and 192.168.1.5:8080. ips should be comma separated IP
endpoints (or comma separated IP addresses and port numbers with : as a separator). ips must be
the same address family as vip. Examples for ips are 10.0.0.1,10.0.0.2or
[fdef::1]:8800,[fdef::2]:8800.
The optional argument protocol must be either tcp or udp. This argument is useful when a port
number is provided as part of the vip. If the protocol is unspecified and a port number is
provided as part of the vip, OVN assumes the protocol to be tcp.
It is an error if the vip already exists in the load balancer named lb, unless --may-exist is
specified. With --add-duplicate, the command really creates a new load balancer with a duplicate
name.
The following example adds a load balancer.
lb-add lb0 30.0.0.10:80 192.168.10.10:80,192.168.10.20:80,192.168.10.30:80 udp
[--if-exists] lb-del lb [vip]
Deletes lb or the vip from lb. If vip is supplied, only the vip will be deleted from the lb. If
only the lb is supplied, the lb will be deleted. It is an error if vip does not already exist in
lb, unless --if-exists is specified.
lb-list [lb]
Lists the LBs. If lb is also specified, then only the specified lb will be listed.
[--may-exist] ls-lb-add switch lb
Adds the specified lb to switch. It is an error if a load balancer named lb already exists in the
switch, unless --may-exist is specified.
[--if-exists] ls-lb-del switch [lb]
Removes lb from switch. If only switch is supplied, all the LBs from the logical switch are
removed. If lb is also specified, then only the lb will be removed from the logical switch. It is
an error if lb does not exist in the switch, unless --if-exists is specified.
ls-lb-list switch
Lists the LBs for the given switch.
[--may-exist] lr-lb-add router lb
Adds the specified lb to router. It is an error if a load balancer named lb already exists in the
router, unless --may-exist is specified.
[--if-exists] lr-lb-del router [lb]
Removes lb from router. If only router is supplied, all the LBs from the logical router are
removed. If lb is also specified, then only the lb will be removed from the logical router. It is
an error if lb does not exist in the router, unless --if-exists is specified.
lr-lb-list router
Lists the LBs for the given router.
DHCP OPTIONS COMMANDS
dhcp-options-create cidr [key=value]
Creates a new DHCP Options entry in the DHCP_Options table with the specified cidr and optional
external-ids.
dhcp-options-list
Lists the DHCP Options entries.
dhcp-options-del dhcp-option
Deletes the DHCP Options entry referred by dhcp-option UUID.
dhcp-options-set-options dhcp-option [key=value]...
Set the DHCP Options for the dhcp-option UUID.
dhcp-options-get-options dhcp-option
Lists the DHCP Options for the dhcp-option UUID.
PORT GROUP COMMANDS
pg-add group [port]...
Creates a new port group in the Port_Group table named group with optional ports added to the
group.
pg-set-ports group port...
Sets ports on the port group named group. It is an error if group does not exist.
pg-del group
Deletes port group group. It is an error if group does not exist.
HA CHASSIS GROUP COMMANDS
ha-chassis-group-add group
Creates a new HA chassis group in the HA_Chassis_Group table named group.
ha-chassis-group-del group
Deletes the HA chassis group group. It is an error if group does not exist.
ha-chassis-group-list
Lists the HA chassis group group along with the HA chassis if any associated with it.
ha-chassis-group-add-chassis group chassis priority
Adds a new HA chassis chassis to the HA Chassis group group with the specified priority. If the
chassis already exists, then the priority is updated. The chassis should be the name of the
chassis in the OVN_Southbound.
ha-chassis-group-remove-chassis group chassis
Removes the HA chassis chassis from the HA chassis group group. It is an error if chassis does not
exist.
DATABASE COMMANDS
These commands query and modify the contents of ovsdb tables. They are a slight abstraction of the ovsdb
interface and as such they operate at a lower level than other ovn-nbctl commands.
Identifying Tables, Records, and Columns
Each of these commands has a table parameter to identify a table within the database. Many of them also
take a record parameter that identifies a particular record within a table. The record parameter may be
the UUID for a record, which may be abbreviated to its first 4 (or more) hex digits, as long as that is
unique. Many tables offer additional ways to identify records. Some commands also take column parameters
that identify a particular field within the records in a table.
For a list of tables and their columns, see ovn-nb(5) or see the table listing from the --help option.
Record names must be specified in full and with correct capitalization, except that UUIDs may be
abbreviated to their first 4 (or more) hex digits, as long as that is unique within the table. Names of
tables and columns are not case-sensitive, and - and _ are treated interchangeably. Unique abbreviations
of table and column names are acceptable, e.g. d or dhcp is sufficient to identify the DHCP_Options
table.
Database Values
Each column in the database accepts a fixed type of data. The currently defined basic types, and their
representations, are:
integer
A decimal integer in the range -2**63 to 2**63-1, inclusive.
real A floating-point number.
Boolean
True or false, written true or false, respectively.
string An arbitrary Unicode string, except that null bytes are not allowed. Quotes are optional
for most strings that begin with an English letter or underscore and consist only of
letters, underscores, hyphens, and periods. However, true and false and strings that match
the syntax of UUIDs (see below) must be enclosed in double quotes to distinguish them from
other basic types. When double quotes are used, the syntax is that of strings in JSON, e.g.
backslashes may be used to escape special characters. The empty string must be represented
as a pair of double quotes ("").
UUID Either a universally unique identifier in the style of RFC 4122, e.g.
f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6, or an @name defined by a get or create command within
the same ovs-vsctl invocation.
Multiple values in a single column may be separated by spaces or a single comma. When multiple values are
present, duplicates are not allowed, and order is not important. Conversely, some database columns can
have an empty set of values, represented as [], and square brackets may optionally enclose other non-
empty sets or single values as well.
A few database columns are ``maps’’ of key-value pairs, where the key and the value are each some fixed
database type. These are specified in the form key=value, where key and value follow the syntax for the
column’s key type and value type, respectively. When multiple pairs are present (separated by spaces or a
comma), duplicate keys are not allowed, and again the order is not important. Duplicate values are
allowed. An empty map is represented as {}. Curly braces may optionally enclose non-empty maps as well
(but use quotes to prevent the shell from expanding other-config={0=x,1=y} into other-config=0=x
other-config=1=y, which may not have the desired effect).
Database Command Syntax
[--if-exists] [--columns=column[,column]...] list table [record]...
Lists the data in each specified record. If no records are specified, lists all the records
in table.
If --columns is specified, only the requested columns are listed, in the specified order.
Otherwise, all columns are listed, in alphabetical order by column name.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if any specified record does not exist. With
--if-exists, the command ignores any record that does not exist, without producing any
output.
[--columns=column[,column]...] find table [column[:key]=value]...
Lists the data in each record in table whose column equals value or, if key is specified,
whose column contains a key with the specified value. The following operators may be used
where = is written in the syntax summary:
= != < > <= >=
Selects records in which column[:key] equals, does not equal, is less than, is
greater than, is less than or equal to, or is greater than or equal to value,
respectively.
Consider column[:key] and value as sets of elements. Identical sets are considered
equal. Otherwise, if the sets have different numbers of elements, then the set with
more elements is considered to be larger. Otherwise, consider a element from each
set pairwise, in increasing order within each set. The first pair that differs
determines the result. (For a column that contains key-value pairs, first all the
keys are compared, and values are considered only if the two sets contain identical
keys.)
{=} {!=}
Test for set equality or inequality, respectively.
{<=} Selects records in which column[:key] is a subset of value. For example,
flood-vlans{<=}1,2 selects records in which the flood-vlans column is the empty set
or contains 1 or 2 or both.
{<} Selects records in which column[:key] is a proper subset of value. For example,
flood-vlans{<}1,2 selects records in which the flood-vlans column is the empty set
or contains 1 or 2 but not both.
{>=} {>}
Same as {<=} and {<}, respectively, except that the relationship is reversed. For
example, flood-vlans{>=}1,2 selects records in which the flood-vlans column contains
both 1 and 2.
For arithmetic operators (= != < > <= >=), when key is specified but a particular record’s
column does not contain key, the record is always omitted from the results. Thus, the
condition other-config:mtu!=1500 matches records that have a mtu key whose value is not
1500, but not those that lack an mtu key.
For the set operators, when key is specified but a particular record’s column does not
contain key, the comparison is done against an empty set. Thus, the condition
other-config:mtu{!=}1500 matches records that have a mtu key whose value is not 1500 and
those that lack an mtu key.
Don’t forget to escape < or > from interpretation by the shell.
If --columns is specified, only the requested columns are listed, in the specified order.
Otherwise all columns are listed, in alphabetical order by column name.
The UUIDs shown for rows created in the same ovs-vsctl invocation will be wrong.
[--if-exists] [--id=@name] get table record [column[:key]]...
Prints the value of each specified column in the given record in table. For map columns, a
key may optionally be specified, in which case the value associated with key in the column
is printed, instead of the entire map.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not exist or key is specified, if key
does not exist in record. With --if-exists, a missing record yields no output and a missing
key prints a blank line.
If @name is specified, then the UUID for record may be referred to by that name later in
the same ovs-vsctl invocation in contexts where a UUID is expected.
Both --id and the column arguments are optional, but usually at least one or the other
should be specified. If both are omitted, then get has no effect except to verify that
record exists in table.
--id and --if-exists cannot be used together.
[--if-exists] set table record column[:key]=value...
Sets the value of each specified column in the given record in table to value. For map
columns, a key may optionally be specified, in which case the value associated with key in
that column is changed (or added, if none exists), instead of the entire map.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not exist. With --if-exists, this
command does nothing if record does not exist.
[--if-exists] add table record column [key=]value...
Adds the specified value or key-value pair to column in record in table. If column is a
map, then key is required, otherwise it is prohibited. If key already exists in a map
column, then the current value is not replaced (use the set command to replace an existing
value).
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not exist. With --if-exists, this
command does nothing if record does not exist.
[--if-exists] remove table record column value...
[--if-exists] remove table record column key...
[--if-exists] remove table record column key=value... Removes the specified values or key-
value pairs from column in record in table. The first form applies to columns that are not
maps: each specified value is removed from the column. The second and third forms apply to
map columns: if only a key is specified, then any key-value pair with the given key is
removed, regardless of its value; if a value is given then a pair is removed only if both
key and value match.
It is not an error if the column does not contain the specified key or value or pair.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not exist. With --if-exists, this
command does nothing if record does not exist.
[--if-exists] clear table record column...
Sets each column in record in table to the empty set or empty map, as appropriate. This
command applies only to columns that are allowed to be empty.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not exist. With --if-exists, this
command does nothing if record does not exist.
[--id=@name] create table column[:key]=value...
Creates a new record in table and sets the initial values of each column. Columns not
explicitly set will receive their default values. Outputs the UUID of the new row.
If @name is specified, then the UUID for the new row may be referred to by that name
elsewhere in the same \*(PN invocation in contexts where a UUID is expected. Such
references may precede or follow the create command.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
Records in the Open vSwitch database are significant only when they can be reached
directly or indirectly from the Open_vSwitch table. Except for records in the QoS or
Queue tables, records that are not reachable from the Open_vSwitch table are
automatically deleted from the database. This deletion happens immediately, without
waiting for additional ovs-vsctl commands or other database activity. Thus, a create
command must generally be accompanied by additional commands within the same
ovs-vsctl invocation to add a chain of references to the newly created record from
the top-level Open_vSwitch record. The EXAMPLES section gives some examples that
show how to do this.
[--if-exists] destroy table record...
Deletes each specified record from table. Unless --if-exists is specified, each records
must exist.
--all destroy table
Deletes all records from the table.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
The destroy command is only useful for records in the QoS or Queue tables. Records
in other tables are automatically deleted from the database when they become
unreachable from the Open_vSwitch table. This means that deleting the last reference
to a record is sufficient for deleting the record itself. For records in these
tables, destroy is silently ignored. See the EXAMPLES section below for more
information.
wait-until table record [column[:key]=value]...
Waits until table contains a record named record whose column equals value or, if key is
specified, whose column contains a key with the specified value. Any of the operators !=,
<, >, <=, or >= may be substituted for = to test for inequality, less than, greater than,
less than or equal to, or greater than or equal to, respectively. (Don’t forget to escape <
or > from interpretation by the shell.)
If no column[:key]=value arguments are given, this command waits only until record exists.
If more than one such argument is given, the command waits until all of them are satisfied.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
Usually wait-until should be placed at the beginning of a set of ovs-vsctl commands.
For example, wait-until bridge br0 -- get bridge br0 datapath_id waits until a
bridge named br0 is created, then prints its datapath_id column, whereas get bridge
br0 datapath_id -- wait-until bridge br0 will abort if no bridge named br0 exists
when ovs-vsctl initially connects to the database.
Consider specifying --timeout=0 along with --wait-until, to prevent ovs-vsctl from
terminating after waiting only at most 5 seconds.
comment [arg]...
This command has no effect on behavior, but any database log record created by the command
will include the command and its arguments.
SYNCHRONIZATION COMMANDS
sync Ordinarily, --wait=sb or --wait=hv only waits for changes by the current ovn-nbctl invocation to
take effect. This means that, if none of the commands supplied to ovn-nbctl change the database,
then the command does not wait at all. With the sync command, however, ovn-nbctl waits even for
earlier changes to the database to propagate down to the southbound database or all of the OVN
chassis, according to the argument to --wait.
REMOTE CONNECTIVITY COMMANDS
get-connection
Prints the configured connection(s).
del-connection
Deletes the configured connection(s).
[--inactivity-probe=msecs] set-connection target...
Sets the configured manager target or targets. Use --inactivity-probe=msecs to override the
default idle connection inactivity probe time. Use 0 to disable inactivity probes.
SSL CONFIGURATION COMMANDS
get-ssl
Prints the SSL configuration.
del-ssl
Deletes the current SSL configuration.
[--bootstrap] set-ssl private-key certificate ca-cert [ssl-protocol-list [ssl-cipher-list]]
Sets the SSL configuration.
DAEMON MODE
When it is invoked in the most ordinary way, ovn-nbctl connects to an OVSDB server that hosts the
northbound database, retrieves a partial copy of the database that is complete enough to do its work,
sends a transaction request to the server, and receives and processes the server’s reply. In common
interactive use, this is fine, but if the database is large, the step in which ovn-nbctl retrieves a
partial copy of the database can take a long time, which yields poor performance overall.
To improve performance in such a case, ovn-nbctl offers a "daemon mode," in which the user first starts
ovn-nbctl running in the background and afterward uses the daemon to execute operations. Over several
ovn-nbctl command invocations, this performs better overall because it retrieves a copy of the database
only once at the beginning, not once per program run.
Use the --detach option to start an ovn-nbctl daemon. With this option, ovn-nbctl prints the name of a
control socket to stdout. The client should save this name in environment variable OVN_NB_DAEMON. Under
the Bourne shell this might be done like this:
export OVN_NB_DAEMON=$(ovn-nbctl --pidfile --detach)
When OVN_NB_DAEMON is set, ovn-nbctl automatically and transparently uses the daemon to execute its
commands.
When the daemon is no longer needed, kill it and unset the environment variable, e.g.:
kill $(cat /var/run/ovn-nbctl.pid)
unset OVN_NB_DAEMON
When using daemon mode, an alternative to the OVN_NB_DAEMON environment variable is to specify a path for
the Unix socket. When starting the ovn-nbctl daemon, specify the -u option with a full path to the
location of the socket file. Here is an exmple:
ovn-nbctl --detach -u /tmp/mysock.ctl
Then to connect to the running daemon, use the -u option with the full path to the socket created when
the daemon was started:
ovn-nbctl -u /tmp/mysock.ctl show
Daemon mode is experimental.
Daemon Commands
Daemon mode is internally implemented using the same mechanism used by ovs-appctl. One may also use
ovs-appctl directly with the following commands:
run [options] command [arg...] [-- [options] command [arg...] ...]
Instructs the daemon process to run one or more ovn-nbctl commands described above and
reply with the results of running these commands. Accepts the --no-wait, --wait, --timeout,
--dry-run, --oneline, and the options described under Table Formatting Options in addition
to the the command-specific options.
exit Causes ovn-nbctl to gracefully terminate.
OPTIONS
--no-wait | --wait=none
--wait=sb
--wait=hv
These options control whether and how ovn-nbctl waits for the OVN system to become up-to-date with
changes made in an ovn-nbctl invocation.
By default, or if --no-wait or --wait=none, ovn-nbctl exits immediately after confirming that
changes have been committed to the northbound database, without waiting.
With --wait=sb, before ovn-nbctl exits, it waits for ovn-northd to bring the southbound database up-
to-date with the northbound database updates.
With --wait=hv, before ovn-nbctl exits, it additionally waits for all OVN chassis (hypervisors and
gateways) to become up-to-date with the northbound database updates. (This can become an indefinite
wait if any chassis is malfunctioning.)
Ordinarily, --wait=sb or --wait=hv only waits for changes by the current ovn-nbctl invocation to
take effect. This means that, if none of the commands supplied to ovn-nbctl change the database,
then the command does not wait at all. Use the sync command to override this behavior.
User can set one or more OVN_NBCTL_OPTIONS options in environment variable. Under the Bourne shell
this might be done like this:
OVN_NBCTL_OPTIONS="--db=unix:nb1.ovsdb --no-leader-only"
When OVN_NBCTL_OPTIONS is set, ovn-nbctl automatically and transparently uses the environment
variable to execute its commands. However user can still over-ride environment options by passing
different in cli.
When the environment variable is no longer needed, unset it, e.g.:
unset OVN_NBCTL_OPTIONS
--db database
The OVSDB database remote to contact. If the OVN_NB_DB environment variable is set, its value is
used as the default. Otherwise, the default is unix:/ovnnb_db.sock, but this default is unlikely to
be useful outside of single-machine OVN test environments.
--leader-only
--no-leader-only
By default, or with --leader-only, when the database server is a clustered database, ovn-nbctl will
avoid servers other than the cluster leader. This ensures that any data that ovn-nbctl reads and
reports is up-to-date. With --no-leader-only, ovn-nbctl will use any server in the cluster, which
means that for read-only transactions it can report and act on stale data (transactions that modify
the database are always serialized even with --no-leader-only). Refer to Understanding Cluster
Consistency in ovsdb(7) for more information.
--shuffle-remotes
--no-shuffle-remotes
By default, or with --shuffle-remotes, when there are multiple remotes specified in the OVSDB
connection string specified by --db or the OVN_NB_DB environment variable, the order of the remotes
will be shuffled before the client tries to connect. The remotes will be shuffled only once to a new
order before the first connection attempt. The following retries, if any, will follow the same new
order. The default behavior is to make sure clients of a clustered database can distribute evenly to
all memembers of the cluster. With --no-shuffle-remotes, ovn-nbctl will use the original order
specified in the connection string to connect. This allows user to specify the preferred order,
which is particularly useful for testing.
Daemon Options
--pidfile[=pidfile]
Causes a file (by default, program.pid) to be created indicating the PID of the running process.
If the pidfile argument is not specified, or if it does not begin with /, then it is created in .
If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
--overwrite-pidfile
By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified pidfile already exists and is locked by
a running process, the daemon refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pidfile to cause it to instead
overwrite the pidfile.
When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
--detach
Runs this program as a background process. The process forks, and in the child it starts a new
session, closes the standard file descriptors (which has the side effect of disabling logging to
the console), and changes its current directory to the root (unless --no-chdir is specified).
After the child completes its initialization, the parent exits.
--monitor
Creates an additional process to monitor this program. If it dies due to a signal that indicates a
programming error (SIGABRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGILL, SIGPIPE, SIGSEGV, SIGXCPU, or
SIGXFSZ) then the monitor process starts a new copy of it. If the daemon dies or exits for another
reason, the monitor process exits.
This option is normally used with --detach, but it also functions without it.
--no-chdir
By default, when --detach is specified, the daemon changes its current working directory to the
root directory after it detaches. Otherwise, invoking the daemon from a carelessly chosen
directory would prevent the administrator from unmounting the file system that holds that
directory.
Specifying --no-chdir suppresses this behavior, preventing the daemon from changing its current
working directory. This may be useful for collecting core files, since it is common behavior to
write core dumps into the current working directory and the root directory is not a good directory
to use.
This option has no effect when --detach is not specified.
--no-self-confinement
By default this daemon will try to self-confine itself to work with files under well-known
directories whitelisted at build time. It is better to stick with this default behavior and not to
use this flag unless some other Access Control is used to confine daemon. Note that in contrast to
other access control implementations that are typically enforced from kernel-space (e.g. DAC or
MAC), self-confinement is imposed from the user-space daemon itself and hence should not be
considered as a full confinement strategy, but instead should be viewed as an additional layer of
security.
--user=user:group
Causes this program to run as a different user specified in user:group, thus dropping most of the
root privileges. Short forms user and :group are also allowed, with current user or group assumed,
respectively. Only daemons started by the root user accepts this argument.
On Linux, daemons will be granted CAP_IPC_LOCK and CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICES before dropping root
privileges. Daemons that interact with a datapath, such as ovs-vswitchd, will be granted three
additional capabilities, namely CAP_NET_ADMIN, CAP_NET_BROADCAST and CAP_NET_RAW. The capability
change will apply even if the new user is root.
On Windows, this option is not currently supported. For security reasons, specifying this option
will cause the daemon process not to start.
LOGGING OPTIONS
-v[spec]
--verbose=[spec]
Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for every module and destination to dbg.
Otherwise, spec is a list of words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from each
category below:
• A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list command on ovs-appctl(8), limits the log
level change to the specified module.
• syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change to only to the system log, to the
console, or to a file, respectively. (If --detach is specified, the daemon closes its
standard file descriptors, so logging to the console will have no effect.)
On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is only useful along with the
--syslog-target option (the word has no effect otherwise).
• off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log level. Messages of the given severity
or higher will be logged, and messages of lower severity will be filtered out. off filters
out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8) for a definition of each log level.
Case is not significant within spec.
Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file will not take place unless --log-file
is also specified (see below).
For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as a word but has no effect.
-v
--verbose
Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to --verbose=dbg.
-vPATTERN:destination:pattern
--verbose=PATTERN:destination:pattern
Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the
valid syntax for pattern.
-vFACILITY:facility
--verbose=FACILITY:facility
Sets the RFC5424 facility of the log message. facility can be one of kern, user, mail, daemon, auth,
syslog, lpr, news, uucp, clock, ftp, ntp, audit, alert, clock2, local0, local1, local2, local3,
local4, local5, local6 or local7. If this option is not specified, daemon is used as the default for
the local system syslog and local0 is used while sending a message to the target provided via the
--syslog-target option.
--log-file[=file]
Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is used as the exact name for the log file.
The default log file name used if file is omitted is /var/log/ovn/program.log.
--syslog-target=host:port
Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the system syslog. The host must be a
numerical IP address, not a hostname.
--syslog-method=method
Specify method as how syslog messages should be sent to syslog daemon. The following forms are
supported:
• libc, to use the libc syslog() function. Downside of using this options is that libc adds
fixed prefix to every message before it is actually sent to the syslog daemon over /dev/log
UNIX domain socket.
• unix:file, to use a UNIX domain socket directly. It is possible to specify arbitrary message
format with this option. However, rsyslogd 8.9 and older versions use hard coded parser
function anyway that limits UNIX domain socket use. If you want to use arbitrary message
format with older rsyslogd versions, then use UDP socket to localhost IP address instead.
• udp:ip:port, to use a UDP socket. With this method it is possible to use arbitrary message
format also with older rsyslogd. When sending syslog messages over UDP socket extra
precaution needs to be taken into account, for example, syslog daemon needs to be configured
to listen on the specified UDP port, accidental iptables rules could be interfering with
local syslog traffic and there are some security considerations that apply to UDP sockets,
but do not apply to UNIX domain sockets.
• null, to discard all messages logged to syslog.
The default is taken from the OVS_SYSLOG_METHOD environment variable; if it is unset, the default is
libc.
TABLE FORMATTING OPTIONS
These options control the format of output from the list and find commands.
-f format
--format=format
Sets the type of table formatting. The following types of format are available:
table 2-D text tables with aligned columns.
list (default)
A list with one column per line and rows separated by a blank line.
html HTML tables.
csv Comma-separated values as defined in RFC 4180.
json JSON format as defined in RFC 4627. The output is a sequence of JSON objects, each of
which corresponds to one table. Each JSON object has the following members with the
noted values:
caption
The table’s caption. This member is omitted if the table has no caption.
headings
An array with one element per table column. Each array element is a string
giving the corresponding column’s heading.
data An array with one element per table row. Each element is also an array with one
element per table column. The elements of this second-level array are the cells
that constitute the table. Cells that represent OVSDB data or data types are
expressed in the format described in the OVSDB specification; other cells are
simply expressed as text strings.
-d format
--data=format
Sets the formatting for cells within output tables unless the table format is set to json, in
which case json formatting is always used when formatting cells. The following types of
format are available:
string (default)
The simple format described in the Database Values section of ovs-vsctl(8).
bare The simple format with punctuation stripped off: [] and {} are omitted around sets,
maps, and empty columns, items within sets and maps are space-separated, and strings
are never quoted. This format may be easier for scripts to parse.
json The RFC 4627 JSON format as described above.
--no-headings
This option suppresses the heading row that otherwise appears in the first row of table
output.
--pretty
By default, JSON in output is printed as compactly as possible. This option causes JSON in
output to be printed in a more readable fashion. Members of objects and elements of arrays
are printed one per line, with indentation.
This option does not affect JSON in tables, which is always printed compactly.
--bare
Equivalent to --format=list --data=bare --no-headings.
PKI Options
PKI configuration is required to use SSL for the connection to the database.
-p privkey.pem
--private-key=privkey.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as identity for outgoing SSL
connections.
-c cert.pem
--certificate=cert.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate that certifies the private key specified on -p
or --private-key to be trustworthy. The certificate must be signed by the certificate
authority (CA) that the peer in SSL connections will use to verify it.
-C cacert.pem
--ca-cert=cacert.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate for verifying certificates presented to
this program by SSL peers. (This may be the same certificate that SSL peers use to verify the
certificate specified on -c or --certificate, or it may be a different one, depending on the
PKI design in use.)
-C none
--ca-cert=none
Disables verification of certificates presented by SSL peers. This introduces a security
risk, because it means that certificates cannot be verified to be those of known trusted
hosts.
--bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem
When cacert.pem exists, this option has the same effect as -C or --ca-cert. If it does not
exist, then the executable will attempt to obtain the CA certificate from the SSL peer on
its first SSL connection and save it to the named PEM file. If it is successful, it will
immediately drop the connection and reconnect, and from then on all SSL connections must be
authenticated by a certificate signed by the CA certificate thus obtained.
This option exposes the SSL connection to a man-in-the-middle attack obtaining the initial
CA certificate, but it may be useful for bootstrapping.
This option is only useful if the SSL peer sends its CA certificate as part of the SSL
certificate chain. The SSL protocol does not require the server to send the CA certificate.
This option is mutually exclusive with -C and --ca-cert.
Other Options
-h
--help
Prints a brief help message to the console.
-V
--version
Prints version information to the console.
Open vSwitch 20.03.2 ovn-nbctl ovn-nbctl(8)