Provided by: ovn-common_20.03.2-0ubuntu0.20.04.5_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.