ovn-sbctl(8) OVN Manual ovn-sbctl(8)
NAME
ovn-sbctl - Open Virtual Network southbound db management utility
SYNOPSIS
ovn-sbctl [options] command [arg...]
DESCRIPTION
The ovn-sbctl program configures the OVN_Southbound database by provid‐
ing a high-level interface to its configuration database. See ovn-sb(5)
for comprehensive documentation of the database schema.
ovn-sbctl connects to an ovsdb-server process that maintains an
OVN_Southbound configuration database. Using this connection, it
queries and possibly applies changes to the database, depending on the
supplied commands.
ovn-sbctl can perform any number of commands in a single run, imple‐
mented as a single atomic transaction against the database.
The ovn-sbctl command line begins with global options (see OPTIONS be‐
low for details). The global options are followed by one or more com‐
mands. Each command should begin with -- by itself as a command-line
argument, to separate it from the following commands. (The -- before
the first command is optional.) The command itself starts with command-
specific options, if any, followed by the command name and any argu‐
ments.
DAEMON MODE
When it is invoked in the most ordinary way, ovn-sbctl connects to an
OVSDB server that hosts the southbound 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-sbctl 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-sbctl offers a "daemon
mode," in which the user first starts ovn-sbctl running in the back‐
ground and afterward uses the daemon to execute operations. Over sev‐
eral ovn-sbctl command invocations, this performs better overall be‐
cause 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-sbctl daemon. With this option,
ovn-sbctl prints the name of a control socket to stdout. The client
should save this name in environment variable OVN_SB_DAEMON. Under the
Bourne shell this might be done like this:
export OVN_SB_DAEMON=$(ovn-sbctl --pidfile --detach)
When OVN_SB_DAEMON is set, ovn-sbctl 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 $OVN_RUNDIR/ovn-sbctl.pid)
unset OVN_SB_DAEMON
When using daemon mode, an alternative to the OVN_SB_DAEMON environment
variable is to specify a path for the Unix socket. When starting the
ovn-sbctl daemon, specify the -u option with a full path to the loca‐
tion of the socket file. Here is an example:
ovn-sbctl --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-sbctl -u /tmp/mysock.ctl show
When running in daemon mode, ovn-sbctl uses the sbctl_probe_interval
value from the options column in the SB_Global table to configure the
inactivity probe interval (in milliseconds) for the database connec‐
tion. The default is 120000 ms (120 seconds). To override, set the
value with:
ovn-sbctl set SB_Global . options:sbctl_probe_interval=60000
Daemon Commands
Daemon mode is internally implemented using the same mechanism used by
ovn-appctl. One may also use ovn-appctl directly with the following
commands:
run [options] command [arg...] [-- [options] command [arg...]
...]
Instructs the daemon process to run one or more ovn-sbctl
commands described above and reply with the results of
running these commands. Accepts the --timeout, --dry-run,
--oneline, and the options described under Table Format‐‐
ting Options in addition to the command-specific options.
exit Causes ovn-sbctl to gracefully terminate.
OPTIONS
The options listed below affect the behavior of ovn-sbctl as a whole.
Some individual commands also accept their own options, which are given
just before the command name. If the first command on the command line
has options, then those options must be separated from the global op‐
tions by --.
ovn-sbctl also accepts options from the OVN_SBCTL_OPTIONS environment
variable, in the same format as on the command line. Options from the
command line override those in the environment.
--db database
The OVSDB database remote to contact. If the OVN_SB_DB
environment variable is set, its value is used as the de‐
fault. Otherwise, the default is unix:/ovnsb_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-sbctl will avoid servers other
than the cluster leader. This ensures that any data that
ovn-sbctl reads and reports is up-to-date. With
--no-leader-only, ovn-sbctl 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 mul‐
tiple remotes specified in the OVSDB connection string
specified by --db or the OVN_SB_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 fol‐
lowing 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 members of the clus‐
ter. With --no-shuffle-remotes, ovn-sbctl will use the
original order specified in the connection string to con‐
nect. This allows a user to specify the preferred order,
which is particularly useful for testing.
--no-syslog
By default, ovn-sbctl logs its arguments and the details of
any changes that it makes to the system log. This option
disables this logging.
This option is equivalent to --verbose=sbctl:syslog:warn.
--oneline
Modifies the output format so that the output for each com‐
mand is printed on a single line. New-line characters that
would otherwise separate lines are printed as \n, and any
instances of \ that would otherwise appear in the output
are doubled. Prints a blank line for each command that has
no output. This option does not affect the formatting of
output from the list or find commands; see Table Formatting
Options below.
--dry-run
Prevents ovn-sbctl from actually modifying the database.
-t secs
--timeout=secs
By default, or with a secs of 0, ovn-sbctl waits forever
for a response from the database. This option limits run‐
time to approximately secs seconds. If the timeout expires,
ovn-sbctl will exit with a SIGALRM signal. (A timeout would
normally happen only if the database cannot be contacted,
or if the system is overloaded.)
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 pid‐
file already exists and is locked by a running process, the dae‐
mon 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 (SIGA‐‐
BRT, 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 func‐
tions without it.
--no-chdir
By default, when --detach is specified, the daemon changes its
current working directory to the root directory after it de‐
taches. 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 determined 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 addi‐
tional 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.
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 speci‐
fied module.
• syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change to
only to the system log, to the console, or to a file, re‐
spectively. (If --detach is specified, the daemon closes
its standard file descriptors, so logging to the console
will have no effect.)
• 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 --ver‐‐
bose=dbg.
-vPATTERN:destination:pattern
--verbose=PATTERN:destination:pattern
Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to ovs-ap‐‐
pctl(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 lo‐‐
cal0 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 /usr/local/var/log/ovn/program.log.
--syslog-target=host:port
Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the sys‐
tem syslog. The host must be a numerical IP address, not a host‐
name.
--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 mes‐
sage 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 pos‐
sible 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 ad‐
dress 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 ex‐
tra precaution needs to be taken into account, for example,
syslog daemon needs to be configured to listen on the spec‐
ified UDP port, accidental iptables rules could be inter‐
fering with local syslog traffic and there are some secu‐
rity 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 vari‐
able; if it is unset, the default is libc.
Table Formatting Options
These options control the format of output from the list and find com‐
mands.
-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 de‐
scribed 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 format‐
ting 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-sepa‐
rated, 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 ap‐
pears in the first row of table output.
--pretty
By default, JSON in output is printed as compactly as pos‐
sible. 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/TLS 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/TLS connections.
-c cert.pem
--certificate=cert.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate that certi‐
fies the private key specified on -p or --private-key to be
trustworthy. The certificate must be signed by the certifi‐
cate authority (CA) that the peer in SSL/TLS connections
will use to verify it.
-C cacert.pem
--ca-cert=cacert.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate for ver‐
ifying certificates presented to this program by SSL/TLS
peers. (This may be the same certificate that SSL/TLS peers
use to verify the certificate specified on -c or --certifi‐‐
cate, 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/TLS
peers. This introduces a security risk, because it means
that certificates cannot be verified to be those of known
trusted hosts.
--ssl-server-name=servername
Specifies the server name to use for TLS Server Name Indi‐
cation (SNI). By default, the hostname from the connection
string is used for SNI. This option allows overriding the
SNI hostname, which is useful when connecting through prox‐
ies or service meshes where the connection endpoint differs
from the intended server name.
--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 exe‐
cutable will attempt to obtain the CA certificate from
the SSL/TLS peer on its first SSL/TLS 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/TLS connections must be authenticated by
a certificate signed by the CA certificate thus obtained.
This option exposes the SSL/TLS 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/TLS peer sends its
CA certificate as part of the SSL/TLS certificate chain.
SSL/TLS protocols do 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.
COMMANDS
The following sections describe the commands that ovn-sbctl supports.
OVN_Southbound Commands
These commands work with an OVN_Southbound database as a whole.
init Initializes the database, if it is empty. If the database
has already been initialized, this command has no effect.
[--filter=filter-rule[,filter-rule]...] show
Prints a brief overview of the database contents. If
--filter is specified, output is filtered according to
the rules. Each filter-rule has the form table-name(fil
ter[|filter]...). If table-name is omitted, filtering is
applied to the Chassis table by default. A row is shown
only if its printed representation (including all refer‐
enced rows) contains at least one of the specified filter
substrings.
Chassis Commands
These commands manipulate OVN_Southbound chassis.
[--may-exist] chassis-add chassis encap-type encap-ip
Creates a new chassis named chassis. encap-type is a
comma-separated list of tunnel types. The chassis will
have one encap entry for each specified tunnel type with
encap-ip as the destination IP for each.
Without --may-exist, attempting to create a chassis that
exists is an error. With --may-exist, this command does
nothing if chassis already exists.
[--if-exists] chassis-del chassis
Deletes chassis, its encaps and the associated Chas‐
sis_Private record (if it exists).
Without --if-exists, attempting to delete a chassis that
does not exist is an error. With --if-exists, attempting
to delete a chassis that does not exist has no effect.
Port Binding Commands
These commands manipulate OVN_Southbound port bindings.
[--may-exist] lsp-bind logical-port chassis
Binds the logical port named logical-port to chassis.
Without --may-exist, attempting to bind a logical port
that has already been bound is an error. With --may-ex‐‐
ist, this command does nothing if logical-port has al‐
ready been bound to the specified chassis. It is still an
error if the port is bound to a different chassis.
[--if-exists] lsp-unbind logical-port
Removes the binding of logical-port.
Without --if-exists, attempting to unbind a logical port
that is not bound is an error. With --if-exists, attempt‐
ing to unbind a logical port that is not bound has no ef‐
fect.
Logical Flow Commands
[--uuid] [--ovs[=remote]] [--stats] [--vflows] lflow-list [logical-
datapath] [lflow...]
List logical flows. If logical-datapath is specified, only list
flows for that logical datapath. The logical-datapath may be
given as a UUID or as a datapath name (reporting an error if
multiple datapaths have the same name).
If at least one lflow is given, only matching logical flows, if
any, are listed. Each lflow may be specified as a UUID or the
first few characters of a UUID, optionally prefixed by 0x. (Be‐
cause ovn-controller sets OpenFlow flow cookies to the first 32
bits of the corresponding logical flow’s UUID, this makes it
easy to look up the logical flow that generated a particular
OpenFlow flow.)
If --uuid is specified, the output includes the first 32 bits of
each logical flow’s UUID. This makes it easier to find the Open‐
Flow flows that correspond to a given logical flow.
If --ovs is included, ovn-sbctl attempts to obtain and display
the OpenFlow flows that correspond to each OVN logical flow. To
do so, ovn-sbctl connects to remote (by default,
unix:/br-int.mgmt) over OpenFlow and retrieves the flows. If re
mote is specified, it must be an active OpenFlow connection
method described in ovsdb(7). Please see the discussion of the
similar --ovs option in ovn-trace(8) for more information about
the OpenFlow flow output.
By default, OpenFlow flow output includes only match and ac‐
tions. Add --stats to include all OpenFlow information, such as
packet and byte counters, duration, and timeouts.
If --vflows is included, other southbound database records di‐
rectly used for generating OpenFlow flows are also listed. This
includes: port-bindings, mac-bindings, multicast-groups, chassis
and load-balancers. The --ovs and --stats options can also be
used in conjunction with --vflows.
dump-flows
Alias for lflow-list and accepts all the same options.
count-flows [logical-datapath]
Prints the number of logical flows per table and per datapath.
IP Multicast Commands
ip-multicast-flush [switch]
Flushes the learned IP multicast groups for the logical switch
identified by switch, which may be given as a UUID or as a data‐
path name. If switch is not specified, flushes learned multicast
groups for all logical switches.
This works by incrementing the seq_no column of the IP_Multicast
record for the datapath. ovn-controller monitors this value and
flushes its locally learned multicast groups when it detects a
change.
Remote Connectivity Commands
These commands manipulate the connections column in the SB_Global table
and rows in the Connection table. When ovsdb-server is configured to
use the connections column for OVSDB connections, this allows the ad‐
ministrator to use ovn-sbctl to configure database connections.
get-connection
Prints the configured connection(s).
del-connection
Deletes the configured connection(s).
[--inactivity-probe=msecs] set-connection target...
Sets the configured connection target or targets. Use
--inactivity-probe=msecs to override the default idle
connection inactivity probe time. Use 0 to disable inac‐
tivity probes.
Each target may be preceded by zero or more of the fol‐
lowing modifiers, which apply to all subsequent targets
until changed:
read-only
Sets the read_only column for subsequent connec‐
tions to true, restricting them to read-only
transactions.
read-write
Sets the read_only column for subsequent connec‐
tions to false, allowing them to modify the data‐
base. This is the default.
role=name
Sets the role column for subsequent connections to
name. The default is the empty string.
SSL/TLS Configuration Commands
When ovsdb-server is configured to connect using SSL/TLS, the following
parameters are required:
private-key
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used for
SSL/TLS connections.
certificate
Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate, signed by
the certificate authority (CA) used by the connection
peers, that certifies the private key, identifying a
trustworthy peer.
ca-cert
Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate used
to verify that the connection peers are trustworthy.
These SSL/TLS settings apply to all SSL/TLS connections made by the
southbound database server.
get-ssl
Prints the SSL/TLS configuration.
del-ssl
Deletes the current SSL/TLS configuration.
[--bootstrap] set-ssl private-key certificate ca-cert [ssl-pro
tocol-list [ssl-cipher-list [ssl-ciphersuites]]]
Sets the SSL/TLS configuration.
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-sbctl 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-sb(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 interchange‐
ably. 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, inclu‐
sive.
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. How‐
ever, 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 charac‐
ters. 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 sin‐
gle comma. When multiple values are present, duplicates are not al‐
lowed, 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 col‐
umn’s key type and value type, respectively. When multiple pairs are
present (separated by spaces or a comma), duplicate keys are not al‐
lowed, and again the order is not important. Duplicate values are al‐
lowed. 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-con‐‐
fig=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 ig‐
nores any record that does not exist, without producing
any output.
[--columns=column[,column]...] find table [col
umn[:key]=value]...
Lists the data in each record in table whose column
equals value or, if key is specified, whose column con‐
tains a key with the specified value. The following oper‐
ators may be used where = is written in the syntax sum‐
mary:
= != gt;>gt; = >gt;>gt;=
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 ele‐
ments. Identical sets are considered equal. Other‐
wise, if the sets have different numbers of ele‐
ments, then the set with more elements is consid‐
ered 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 iden‐
tical 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.
{>gt;>gt;=} {>gt;>gt;}
Same as {=} and {}, respectively, except that
the relationship is reversed. For example,
flood-vlans{>gt;>gt;=}1,2 selects records in which the
flood-vlans column contains both 1 and 2.
The following operators are available only in Open
vSwitch 2.16 and later:
{in} Selects records in which every element in col
umn[:key] is also in value. (This is the same as
{=}.)
{not-in}
Selects records in which every element in col
umn[:key] is not in value.
For arithmetic operators (= != gt;>gt; = >gt;>gt;=), when key is
specified but a particular record’s column does not con‐
tain 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 par‐
ticular record’s column does not contain key, the compar‐
ison 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 gt;>gt; 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 out‐
put 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 in‐
vocation in contexts where a UUID is expected.
Both --id and the column arguments are optional, but usu‐
ally 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 op‐
tionally be specified, in which case the value associated
with key in that column is changed (or added, if none ex‐
ists), 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 re‐
quired, 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 col
umn 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|uuid)] 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.
If a valid uuid is specified, then it is used as the UUID
of the new row.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
Records in the Open vSwitch database are signifi‐
cant only when they can be reached directly or in‐
directly 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-ex‐‐
ists 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 ta‐
ble. 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. This command
supports the same operators and semantics described for
the find command above.
If no column[:key]=value arguments are given, this com‐
mand 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 begin‐
ning of a set of ovs-vsctl commands. For example,
wait-until bridge br0 -- get bridge br0 data‐‐
path_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 com‐
mand and its arguments.
ENVIRONMENT
OVN_SB_DAEMON
If set, this should name the Unix domain socket for an ovn-sbctl
server process. See Daemon Mode, above, for more information.
OVN_SBCTL_OPTIONS
If set, a set of options for ovn-sbctl to apply automatically,
in the same form as on the command line.
OVN_SB_DB
If set, the default database to contact when the --db option is
not used.
EXIT STATUS
0 Successful program execution.
1 Usage, syntax, or network error.
SEE ALSO
ovn-sb(5), ovn-appctl(8).
OVN 26.09.90 ovn-sbctl ovn-sbctl(8)