Scroll to navigation

ovn-nbctl(8) Open vSwitch Manual ovn-nbctl(8)

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.

LOGICAL SWITCH ACL COMMANDS

[--log] acl-add switch direction priority match action
Adds the specified ACL to switch. direction must be either from-lport or to-lport. priority must be between 1 and 65534, inclusive. If --log is specified, packet logging is enabled for the ACL. A full description of the fields are in ovn-nb(5).
acl-del switch [direction [priority match]]
Deletes ACLs from switch. If only switch is supplied, all the ACLs 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 given, then a single flow that matches all the fields will be deleted.
acl-list switch
Lists the ACLs on switch.

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. 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 either an Ethernet address or an Ethernet address followed by IP addresses (separated by space and quoted to form a single command-line argument). The special form unknown is also valid. Multiple Ethernet addresses or Ethernet+IPs combinations 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. No special types have been implemented yet.
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.

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.

LOGICAL ROUTER STATIC ROUTE COMMANDS

[--may-exist] 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.
It is an error if a route with prefix already exists, unless --may-exist is specified.
[--if-exists] lr-route-del router [prefix]
Deletes routes from router. If only router is supplied, all the routes from the logical router are deleted. If prefix is also specified, then all the routes that match the prefix will be deleted from the logical router.
It is an error if prefix is specified and there is no matching route entry, unless --if-exists is specified.
lr-route-list router
Lists the routes on 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.

DATABASE COMMANDS

These commands query and modify the contents of ovsdb tables. They are a slight abstraction of the ovsdb interface and as suchthey 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, and 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.

The following tables are currently defined:

Logical_Switch
An L2 logical switch. Records may be identified by name.
Logical_Switch_Port
A port within an L2 logical switch. Records may be identified by name.
ACL
An ACL rule for a logical switch that points to it through its acls column.
Logical_Router
An L3 logical router. Records may be identified by name.
Logical_Router_Port
A port within an L3 logical router. Records may be identified by name.
Logical_Router_Static_Route
A static route belonging to an L3 logical router.
Address_Set
An address set that can be used in ACLs.
Load_Balancer
A load balancer for a logical switch that points to it through its load_balancer column.
NAT
A NAT rule for a Gateway router.
DHCP_Options
DHCP options.
NB_Global
North bound global configurations.

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 ovn-nbctl 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 ovn-nbctl 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 ovn-nbctl 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] remov 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 exmaple)
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 exmaple)
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 exmaple)
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 ovn-nbctl 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.

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.
--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:/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock, but this default is unlikely to be useful outside of single-machine OVN test environments.

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/openvswitch/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. This is the default behavior. Downside of using this options is that libc adds fixed prefix to every message before it is actually sent to the syslog daemon over /dev/log UNIX domain socket.
  • unix:file, 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.

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.

Other Options

-h

--help
Prints a brief help message to the console.
-V

--version
Prints version information to the console.
ovn-nbctl Open vSwitch 2.6.2