ovn-ic-nbctl(8) OVN Manual ovn-ic-nbctl(8)
NAME
ovn-ic-nbctl - Open Virtual Network interconnection northbound db man‐
agement utility
SYNOPSIS
ovn-ic-nbctl [options] command [arg...]
DESCRIPTION
This utility can be used to manage the OVN interconnection 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 Prints a brief overview of the database contents.
TRANSIT SWITCH COMMANDS
[--may-exist] ts-add switch
Creates a new transit switch named switch.
Transit switch names must be unique. Adding a duplicated name
results in error. With --may-exist, adding a duplicate name suc‐
ceeds but does not create a new transit switch.
[--if-exists] ts-del switch
Deletes switch. It is an error if switch does not exist, unless
--if-exists is specified.
ts-list
Lists all existing switches on standard output, one per line.
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-ic-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-ic-nb(5) or see the ta‐
ble 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. t or transit is sufficient to identify the Transit_Switch 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.
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 --inactiv‐‐
ity-probe=msecs to override the default idle connection inactiv‐
ity 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.
OPTIONS
--db database
The OVSDB database remote to contact. If the OVN_IC_NB_DB envi‐
ronment variable is set, its value is used as the default. Oth‐
erwise, the default is unix:/ovn_ic_nb_db.sock, but this default
is unlikely to be useful outside of single-machine OVN test en‐
vironments.
--leader-only
--no-leader-only
By default, or with --leader-only, when the database server is a
clustered database, ovn-ic-nbctl will avoid servers other than the
cluster leader. This ensures that any data that ovn-ic-nbctl reads
and reports is up-to-date. With --no-leader-only, ovn-ic-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.
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.)
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 --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 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 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 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 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 exe‐
cutable 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 immedi‐
ately drop the connection and reconnect, and from then on
all SSL connections must be authenticated by a certifi‐
cate 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 cer‐
tificate.
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.
OVN 22.12.3 ovn-ic-nbctl ovn-ic-nbctl(8)