vtep-ctl(8) Open vSwitch Manual vtep-ctl(8)
NAME
vtep-ctl - utility for querying and configuring a VTEP database
SYNOPSIS
vtep-ctl [options] -- [options] command [args] [-- [options] command
[args]]...
DESCRIPTION
The vtep-ctl program configures a VTEP database. See vtep(5) for com‐
prehensive documentation of the database schema.
vtep-ctl connects to an ovsdb-server process that maintains a VTEP con‐
figuration database. Using this connection, it queries and possibly
applies changes to the database, depending on the supplied commands.
vtep-ctl can perform any number of commands in a single run, imple‐
mented as a single atomic transaction against the database.
The vtep-ctl command line begins with global options (see OPTIONS below
for details). The global options are followed by one or more commands.
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 arguments. See
EXAMPLES below for syntax examples.
OPTIONS
The following options affect the behavior vtep-ctl 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 options
by --.
--db=server
Sets server as the database server that vtep-ctl contacts to
query or modify configuration. server may be an OVSDB active or
passive connection method, as described in ovsdb(7). The de‐
fault is unix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock.
--no-syslog
By default, vtep-ctl 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=vtep_ctl:syslog:warn.
--oneline
Modifies the output format so that the output for each command
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 vtep-ctl from actually modifying the database.
-t secs
--timeout=secs
By default, or with a secs of 0, vtep-ctl waits forever for a
response from the database. This option limits runtime to ap‐
proximately secs seconds. If the timeout expires, vtep-ctl will
exit with a SIGALRM signal. (A timeout would normally happen
only if the database cannot be contacted, or if the system is
overloaded.)
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 for‐
mat 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 se‐
quence 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 el‐
ement 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 ex‐
pressed in the format described in the OVSDB spec‐
ification; other cells are simply expressed as
text strings.
-d format
--data=format
Sets the formatting for cells within output tables unless the
table format is set to json, in which case json formatting is
always used when formatting cells. The following types of for‐
mat are available:
string (default)
The simple format described in the Database Values sec‐
tion of ovs-vsctl(8).
bare The simple format with punctuation stripped off: [] and
{} are omitted around sets, maps, and empty columns,
items within sets and maps are space-separated, and
strings are never quoted. This format may be easier for
scripts to parse.
json The RFC 4627 JSON format as described above.
--no-headings
This option suppresses the heading row that otherwise appears in
the first row of table output.
--pretty
By default, JSON in output is printed as compactly as possible.
This option causes JSON in output to be printed in a more read‐
able 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.
--max-column-width=n
For table output only, limits the width of any column in the
output to n columns. Longer cell data is truncated to fit, as
necessary. Columns are always wide enough to display the column
names, if the heading row is printed.
Public Key Infrastructure Options
-p privkey.pem
--private-key=privkey.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as
vtep-ctl's identity for outgoing SSL/TLS 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/TLS connections will use to verify it.
-C cacert.pem
--ca-cert=cacert.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate that vtep-ctl
should use to verify certificates presented to it by SSL/TLS
peers. (This may be the same certificate that SSL/TLS 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/TLS
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 vtep-ctl 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 recon‐
nect, and from then on all SSL/TLS connections must be authenti‐
cated by a certificate signed by the CA certificate thus ob‐
tained.
This option exposes the SSL/TLS connection to a man-in-the-mid‐
dle 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 cer‐
tificate as part of the SSL/TLS certificate chain. SSL/TLS pro‐
tocols do not require the server to send the CA certificate.
This option is mutually exclusive with -C and --ca-cert.
--peer-ca-cert=peer-cacert.pem
Specifies a PEM file that contains one or more additional cer‐
tificates to send to SSL/TLS peers. peer-cacert.pem should be
the CA certificate used to sign vtep-ctl's own certificate, that
is, the certificate specified on -c or --certificate. If
vtep-ctl's certificate is self-signed, then --certificate and
--peer-ca-cert should specify the same file.
This option is not useful in normal operation, because the
SSL/TLS peer must already have the CA certificate for the peer
to have any confidence in vtep-ctl's identity. However, this
offers a way for a new installation to bootstrap the CA certifi‐
cate on its first SSL/TLS connection.
-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 com‐
mand 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, vtep-ctl 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 be‐
low).
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-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 /usr/local/var/log/open‐
vswitch/vtep-ctl.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 how syslog messages should be sent to syslog dae‐
mon. Following forms are supported:
• libc, use libc syslog() function. Downside of using this
options is that libc adds fixed prefix to every message
before it is actually sent to the syslog daemon over
/dev/log UNIX domain socket.
• unix:file, use UNIX domain socket directly. It is possi‐
ble 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, use UDP socket. With this method it is pos‐
sible 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 ex‐
ample, syslog daemon needs to be configured to listen on
the specified UDP port, accidental iptables rules could
be interfering with local syslog traffic and there are
some security considerations that apply to UDP sockets,
but do not apply to UNIX domain sockets.
• null, discards all messages logged to syslog.
The default is taken from the OVS_SYSLOG_METHOD environment
variable; if it is unset, the default is libc.
-h
--help Prints a brief help message to the console.
-V
--version
Prints version information to the console.
COMMANDS
The commands implemented by vtep-ctl are described in the sections be‐
low.
Physical Switch Commands
These commands examine and manipulate physical switches.
[--may-exist] add-ps pswitch
Creates a new physical switch named pswitch. Initially the
switch will have no ports.
Without --may-exist, attempting to create a switch that exists
is an error. With --may-exist, this command does nothing if
pswitch already exists.
[--if-exists] del-ps pswitch
Deletes pswitch and all of its ports.
Without --if-exists, attempting to delete a switch that does not
exist is an error. With --if-exists, attempting to delete a
switch that does not exist has no effect.
list-ps
Lists all existing physical switches on standard output, one per
line.
ps-exists pswitch
Tests whether pswitch exists. If so, vtep-ctl exits success‐
fully with exit code 0. If not, vtep-ctl exits unsuccessfully
with exit code 2.
Port Commands
These commands examine and manipulate VTEP physical ports.
list-ports pswitch
Lists all of the ports within pswitch on standard output, one
per line.
[--may-exist] add-port pswitch port
Creates on pswitch a new port named port from the network device
of the same name.
Without --may-exist, attempting to create a port that exists is
an error. With --may-exist, this command does nothing if port
already exists on pswitch.
[--if-exists] del-port [pswitch] port
Deletes port. If pswitch is omitted, port is removed from what‐
ever switch contains it; if pswitch is specified, it must be the
switch that contains port.
Without --if-exists, attempting to delete a port that does not
exist is an error. With --if-exists, attempting to delete a
port that does not exist has no effect.
Logical Switch Commands
These commands examine and manipulate logical switches.
[--may-exist] add-ls lswitch
Creates a new logical switch named lswitch. Initially the
switch will have no locator bindings.
Without --may-exist, attempting to create a switch that exists
is an error. With --may-exist, this command does nothing if
lswitch already exists.
[--if-exists] del-ls lswitch
Deletes lswitch.
Without --if-exists, attempting to delete a switch that does not
exist is an error. With --if-exists, attempting to delete a
switch that does not exist has no effect.
list-ls
Lists all existing logical switches on standard output, one per
line.
ls-exists lswitch
Tests whether lswitch exists. If so, vtep-ctl exits success‐
fully with exit code 0. If not, vtep-ctl exits unsuccessfully
with exit code 2.
bind-ls pswitch port vlan lswitch
Bind logical switch lswitch to the port/vlan combination on the
physical switch pswitch.
unbind-ls pswitch port vlan
Remove the logical switch binding from the port/vlan combination
on the physical switch pswitch.
list-bindings pswitch port
List the logical switch bindings for port on the physical switch
pswitch.
set-replication-mode lswitch replication-mode
Set logical switch lswitch replication mode to replication-mode;
the only valid values for replication mode are "service_node"
and "source_node". For handling L2 broadcast, multicast and un‐
known unicast traffic, packets can be sent to all members of a
logical switch referenced by a physical switch. There are dif‐
ferent modes to replicate the packets. The default mode of
replication is to send the traffic to a service node, which can
be a hypervisor, server or appliance, and let the service node
handle replication to other transport nodes (hypervisors or
other VTEP physical switches). This mode is called service node
replication. An alternate mode of replication, called source
node replication involves the source node sending to all other
transport nodes. Hypervisors are always responsible for doing
their own replication for locally attached VMs in both modes.
Service node mode is the default, if the replication mode is not
explicitly set. Service node replication mode is considered a
basic requirement because it only requires sending the packet to
a single transport node.
get-replication-mode lswitch
Get logical switch lswitch replication mode. The only valid
values for replication mode are "service_node" and
"source_node". An empty reply for replication mode implies a
default of "service_node".
Logical Router Commands
These commands examine and manipulate logical routers.
[--may-exist] add-lr lrouter
Creates a new logical router named lrouter.
Without --may-exist, attempting to create a router that exists
is an error. With --may-exist, this command does nothing if
lrouter already exists.
[--if-exists] del-lr lrouter
Deletes lrouter.
Without --if-exists, attempting to delete a router that does not
exist is an error. With --if-exists, attempting to delete a
router that does not exist has no effect.
list-lr
Lists all existing logical routers on standard output, one per
line.
lr-exists lrouter
Tests whether lrouter exists. If so, vtep-ctl exits success‐
fully with exit code 0. If not, vtep-ctl exits unsuccessfully
with exit code 2.
Local MAC Binding Commands
These commands examine and manipulate local MAC bindings for the logi‐
cal switch. The local maps are written by the VTEP to refer to MACs it
has learned on its physical ports.
add-ucast-local lswitch mac [encap] ip
Map the unicast Ethernet address mac to the physical location ip
using encapsulation encap on lswitch. If encap is not speci‐
fied, the default is "vxlan_over_ipv4". The local mappings are
used by the VTEP to refer to MACs learned on its physical ports.
del-ucast-local lswitch mac
Remove the local unicast Ethernet address mac map from lswitch.
The local mappings are used by the VTEP to refer to MACs learned
on its physical ports.
add-mcast-local lswitch mac [encap] ip
Add physical location ip using encapsulation encap to the local
mac binding table for multicast Ethernet address mac on lswitch.
If encap is not specified, the default is "vxlan_over_ipv4".
The local mappings are used by the VTEP to refer to MACs learned
on its physical ports.
del-mcast-local lswitch mac [encap] ip
Remove physical location ip using encapsulation encap from the
local mac binding table for multicast Ethernet address mac on
lswitch. If encap is not specified, the default is
"vxlan_over_ipv4". The local mappings are used by the VTEP to
refer to MACs learned on its physical ports.
clear-local-macs lswitch
Clear the local MAC bindings for lswitch.
list-local-macs lswitch
List the local MAC bindings for lswitch, one per line.
Remote MAC Binding Commands
These commands examine and manipulate local and remote MAC bindings for
the logical switch. The remote maps are written by the network virtu‐
alization controller to refer to MACs that it has learned.
add-ucast-remote lswitch mac [encap] ip
Map the unicast Ethernet address mac to the physical location ip
using encapsulation encap on lswitch. If encap is not speci‐
fied, the default is "vxlan_over_ipv4". The remote mappings are
used by the network virtualization platform to refer to MACs
that it has learned.
del-ucast-remote lswitch mac
Remove the remote unicast Ethernet address mac map from lswitch.
The remote mappings are used by the network virtualization plat‐
form to refer to MACs that it has learned.
add-mcast-remote lswitch mac [encap] ip
Add physical location ip using encapsulation encap to the remote
mac binding table for multicast Ethernet address mac on lswitch.
If encap is not specified, the default is "vxlan_over_ipv4".
The remote mappings are used by the network virtualization plat‐
form to refer to MACs that it has learned.
del-mcast-remote lswitch mac [encap] ip
Remove physical location ip using encapsulation encap from the
remote mac binding table for multicast Ethernet address mac on
lswitch. If encap is not specified, the default is
"vxlan_over_ipv4". The remote mappings are used by the network
virtualization platform to refer to MACs that it has learned.
clear-remote-macs lswitch
Clear the remote MAC bindings for lswitch.
list-remote-macs lswitch
List the remote MAC bindings for lswitch, one per line.
Manager Connectivity
These commands manipulate the managers column in the Global table and
rows in the Managers table. When ovsdb-server is configured to use the
managers column for OVSDB connections (as described in the startup
scripts provided with Open vSwitch), this allows the administrator to
use vtep-ctl to configure database connections.
get-manager
Prints the configured manager(s).
del-manager
Deletes the configured manager(s).
set-manager target...
Sets the configured manager target or targets. Each target may
be an OVSDB active or passive connection method, e.g. pssl:6640,
as described in ovsdb(7).
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 vtep-ctl 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 identi‐
fies a particular record within a table. The record parameter may be
the UUID for a record, and many tables offer additional ways to iden‐
tify records. Some commands also take column parameters that identify
a particular field within the records in a table.
The following tables are currently defined:
Global Top-level configuration for a hardware VTEP. This table con‐
tains exactly one record, identified by specifying . as the
record name.
Manager
Configuration for an OVSDB connection. Records may be identi‐
fied by target (e.g. tcp:1.2.3.4).
Physical_Switch
A physical switch that implements a VTEP. Records may be iden‐
tified by physical switch name.
Physical_Port
A port within a physical switch.
Logical_Binding_Stats
Reports statistics for the logical switch with which a VLAN on a
physical port is associated.
Logical_Switch
A logical Ethernet switch. Records may be identified by logical
switch name.
Ucast_Macs_Local
Mapping of locally discovered unicast MAC addresses to tunnels.
Ucast_Macs_Remote
Mapping of remotely programmed unicast MAC addresses to tunnels.
Mcast_Macs_Local
Mapping of locally discovered multicast MAC addresses to tun‐
nels.
Mcast_Macs_Remote
Mapping of remotely programmed multicast MAC addresses to tun‐
nels.
Physical_Locator_Set
A set of one or more physical locators.
Physical_Locator
Identifies an endpoint to which logical switch traffic may be
encapsulated and forwarded. Records may be identified by physi‐
cal locator name.
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 inter‐
changeably. Unique abbreviations of table and column names are accept‐
able, e.g. man or m is sufficient to identify the Manager table.
Database Values
Each column in the database accepts a fixed type of data. The cur‐
rently 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 al‐
lowed. Quotes are optional for most strings that begin with an
English letter or underscore and consist only of letters, under‐
scores, hyphens, and periods. However, true and false and
strings that match the syntax of UUIDs (see below) must be en‐
closed 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 vtep-ctl 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.
For a column accepting a set of integers, database commands accept a
range. A range is represented by two integers separated by -. A range
is inclusive. A range has a maximum size of 4096 elements. If more ele‐
ments are needed, they can be specified in separate ranges.
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 option‐
ally 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, respec‐
tively.
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. Other‐
wise, consider a element from each set pairwise, in in‐
creasing order within each set. The first pair that dif‐
fers 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 con‐
tains 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 con‐
tains 1 or 2 but not both.
{>=} {>}
Same as {<=} and {<}, respectively, except that the rela‐
tionship is reversed. For example, flood-vlans{>=}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 column[:key] is
also in value. (This is the same as {<=}.)
{not-in}
Selects records in which every element in column[:key] is
not in value.
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-con‐
fig: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 vtep-ctl 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 vtep-ctl invocation in con‐
texts 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 omit‐
ted, 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 speci‐
fied, 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 re‐
place an existing value).
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not exist.
With --if-exists, this command does nothing if record does not
exist.
[--if-exists] remove table record column value...
[--if-exists] remove table record column key...
[--if-exists] remove table record column key=value...
Removes the specified values or key-value pairs from column in
record in table. The first form applies to columns that are not
maps: each specified value is removed from the column. The sec‐
ond and third forms apply to map columns: if only a key is spec‐
ified, then any key-value pair with the given key is removed,
regardless of its value; if a value is given then a pair is re‐
moved 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 de‐
fault values. Outputs the UUID of the new row.
If @name is specified, then the UUID for the new row may be re‐
ferred to by that name elsewhere in the same vtep-ctl invocation
in contexts where a UUID is expected. Such references may pre‐
cede 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 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 data‐
base activity. Thus, a create command must generally be
accompanied by additional commands within the same
ovs-vsctl invocation to add a chain of references to the
newly created record from the top-level Open_vSwitch
record. The EXAMPLES section gives some examples that
show how to do this.
[--if-exists] destroy table record...
Deletes each specified record from table. Unless --if-exists is
specified, each records must exist.
--all destroy table
Deletes all records from the table.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
The destroy command is only useful for records in the QoS
or Queue tables. Records in other tables are automati‐
cally deleted from the database when they become unreach‐
able from the Open_vSwitch table. This means that delet‐
ing 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 command waits
only until record exists. If more than one such argument is
given, the command waits until all of them are satisfied.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as example)
Usually wait-until should be placed at the beginning of a
set of ovs-vsctl commands. For example, wait-until
bridge br0 -- get bridge br0 datapath_id waits until a
bridge named br0 is created, then prints its datapath_id
column, whereas get bridge br0 datapath_id -- wait-until
bridge br0 will abort if no bridge named br0 exists when
ovs-vsctl initially connects to the database.
Consider specifying --timeout=0 along with --wait-until, to pre‐
vent vtep-ctl from terminating after waiting only at most 5 sec‐
onds.
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.
EXIT STATUS
0 Successful program execution.
1 Usage, syntax, or configuration file error.
2 The switch argument to ps-exists specified the name of a physi‐
cal switch that does not exist.
SEE ALSO
ovsdb-server(1), vtep(5).
Open vSwitch March 2013 vtep-ctl(8)