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ovsdb-server

Open vSwitch database server

ovsdb-server [database]... [--remote=remote]... [--run=command]

[--pidfile[=pidfile]] [--overwrite-pidfile] [--detach] [--no-chdir]
[-v[module[:facility[:level]]]]...
[--verbose[=module[:facility[:level]]]]...
[--log-file[=file]]
[--private-key=privkey.pem]
[--certificate=cert.pem]
[--ca-cert=cacert.pem]
[--bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem]
--unixctl=socket
[-h | --help] [-V | --version]

The ovsdb-server program provides RPC interfaces to one or more Open vSwitch databases (OVSDBs). It supports JSON-RPC client connections over active or passive TCP/IP or Unix domain sockets.

Each OVSDB file may be specified on the command line as database. If none is specified, the default is /etc/openvswitch/conf.db. The database files must already have been created and initialized using, for example, ovsdb-tool create.

Adds remote as a connection method used by ovsdb-server. remote must take one of the following forms:
Listen on the given SSL port for a connection. By default, connections are not bound to a particular local IP address, but specifying ip limits connections to those from the given ip. The --private-key, --certificate, and --ca-cert options are mandatory when this form is used.
Listen on the given TCP port for a connection. By default, connections are not bound to a particular local IP address, but ip may be specified to listen only for connections to the given ip.
Listen on the Unix domain server socket named file for a connection.
The specified SSL port on the host at the given ip, which must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name). The --private-key, --certificate, and --ca-cert options are mandatory when this form is used.
Connect to the given TCP port on ip.
Connect to the Unix domain server socket named file.
Reads additional connection methods from column in all of the rows in table within db. As the contents of column changes, ovsdb-server also adds and drops connection methods accordingly.
If column's type is string or set of strings, then the connection methods are taken directly from the column. The connection methods in the column must have one of the forms described above.
If column's type is UUID or set of UUIDs and references a table, then each UUID is looked up in the referenced table to obtain a row. The following columns in the row, if present and of the correct type, configure a connection method. Any additional columns are ignored.
Connection method, in one of the forms described above. This column is mandatory: if it is missing or empty then no connection method can be configured.
Maximum number of milliseconds to wait between connection attempts.
Maximum number of milliseconds of idle time on connection to client before sending an inactivity probe message.
It is an error for column to have another type.
Ordinarily ovsdb-server runs forever, or until it is told to exit (see RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS below). With this option, ovsdb-server instead starts a shell subprocess running command. When the subprocess terminates, ovsdb-server also exits gracefully. If the subprocess exits normally with exit code 0, then ovsdb-server exits with exit code 0 also; otherwise, it exits with exit code 1.
This option can be useful where a database server is needed only to run a single command, e.g.: ovsdb-server --remote=punix:socket --run='ovsdb-client dump unix:socket Open_vSwitch'

Causes a file (by default, ovsdb-server.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 /var/run/openvswitch.
If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified pidfile already exists and is locked by a running process, ovsdb-server refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pidfile to cause it to instead overwrite the pidfile.
When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
Causes ovsdb-server to detach itself from the foreground session and run as a background process. ovsdb-server detaches only after it starts listening on all configured remotes.
Creates an additional process to monitor the ovsdb-server daemon. If the daemon dies due to a signal that indicates a programming error (e.g. SIGSEGV, SIGABRT), then the monitor process starts a new copy of it. If the daemon die or exits for another reason, the monitor process exits.
This option is normally used with --detach, but it also functions without it.
By default, when --detach is specified, ovsdb-server changes its current working directory to the root directory after it detaches. Otherwise, invoking ovsdb-server 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 ovsdb-server 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.


Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for every module and facility 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.
  • 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.

Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to --verbose=dbg.


Sets the log pattern for facility to pattern. Refer to ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is used as the exact name for the log file. The default log file name used if file is omitted is /var/log/openvswitch/ovsdb-server.log.

The options described below for configuring the SSL public key infrastructure accept a special syntax for obtaining their configuration from the database. If any of these options is given db:db,table,column as its argument, then the actual file name is read from the specified column in table within the db database. The column must have type string or set of strings. The first nonempty string in the table is taken as the file name. (This means that ordinarily there should be at most one row in table.)


Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as ovsdb-server's identity for outgoing SSL connections.

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.

Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate that ovsdb-server should use to verify certificates presented to it 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.)

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.
When cacert.pem exists, this option has the same effect as -C or --ca-cert. If it does not exist, then ovsdb-server 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, but ovsdb-client(8) can be configured to do so with the --peer-ca-cert option.
This option is mutually exclusive with -C and --ca-cert.

Sets the name of the control socket on which ovsdb-server listens for runtime management commands (see RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS, below). If socket does not begin with /, it is interpreted as relative to /var/run/openvswitch. If --unixctl is not used at all, the default socket is /var/run/openvswitch/ovsdb-server.pid.ctl, where pid is ovsdb-server's process ID. Specifying none for socket disables the control socket feature.

Prints a brief help message to the console.

Prints version information to the console.

ovs-appctl(8) can send commands to a running ovsdb-server process. The currently supported commands are described below.

These commands are specific to ovsdb-server.

Causes ovsdb-server to gracefully terminate.
Compacts each database db in-place. If no db is specified, compacts every database in-place. Databases are also automatically compacted occasionally.
Makes ovsdb-server drop all of the JSON-RPC connections to database clients and reconnect.
This command might be useful for debugging issues with database clients.
Adds a remote, as if --remote=remote had been specified on the ovsdb-server command line. (If remote is already a remote, this command succeeds without changing the configuration.)
Removes the specified remote from the configuration, failing with an error if remote is not configured as a remote. This command only works with remotes that were named on --remote or ovsdb-server/add-remote, that is, it will not remove remotes added indirectly because they were read from the database by configuring a db:db,table,column remote. (You can remove a database source with ovsdb-server/remove-remote db:db,table,column, but not individual remotes found indirectly through the database.)
Outputs a list of the currently configured remotes named on --remote or ovsdb-server/add-remote, that is, it does not list remotes added indirectly because they were read from the database by configuring a db:db,table,column remote.
Adds the database to the running ovsdb-server. The database file must already have been created and initialized using, for example, ovsdb-tool create.
Removes database from the running ovsdb-server. database must be a database name as listed by ovsdb-server/list-dbs.
If a remote has been configured that points to the specified database (e.g. --remote=db:database,... on the command line), then it will be disabled until another database with the same name is added again (with ovsdb-server/add-db).
Any public key infrastructure options specified through this database (e.g. --private-key=db:database,... on the command line) will be disabled until another database with the same name is added again (with ovsdb-server/add-db).
Outputs a list of the currently configured databases added either through the command line or through the ovsdb-server/add-db command.

These commands manage ovsdb-server's logging settings.

Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for every module and facility 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.
  • 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 ovsdb-server was invoked with the --log-file option.
For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as a word but has no effect.

Sets the log pattern for facility to pattern. Refer to ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
Lists the supported logging modules and their current levels.
Causes ovsdb-server to close and reopen its log file. (This is useful after rotating log files, to cause a new log file to be used.)
This has no effect unless ovsdb-server was invoked with the --log-file option.

By default, ovsdb-server limits the rate at which certain messages can be logged. When a message would appear more frequently than the limit, it is suppressed. This saves disk space, makes logs easier to read, and speeds up execution, but occasionally troubleshooting requires more detail. Therefore, vlog/disable-rate-limit allows rate limits to be disabled at the level of an individual log module. Specify one or more module names, as displayed by the vlog/list command. Specifying either no module names at all or the keyword any disables rate limits for every log module.
The vlog/enable-rate-limit command, whose syntax is the same as vlog/disable-rate-limit, can be used to re-enable a rate limit that was previously disabled.

These commands report memory usage.

Displays some basic statistics about ovsdb-server's memory usage. ovsdb-server also logs this information soon after startup and periodically as its memory consumption grows.

These commands manage ovsdb-server's ``coverage counters,'' which count the number of times particular events occur during a daemon's runtime. In addition to these commands, ovsdb-server automatically logs coverage counter values, at INFO level, when it detects that the daemon's main loop takes unusually long to run.

Coverage counters are useful mainly for performance analysis and debugging.

Displays the values of all of the coverage counters.

ovsdb-tool(1).