The commands implemented by vtep-ctl are described in the
sections below.
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
successfully 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
whatever 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
successfully 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 unknown unicast traffic,
packets can be sent to all members of a logical switch
referenced by a physical switch. There are different
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
successfully 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
logical 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 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-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 virtualization 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 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.
del-ucast-remote lswitch mac
Remove the remote unicast Ethernet address mac map from
lswitch. The remote mappings are used by the network
virtualization platform 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 platform 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 identifies a particular record within a table. The record
parameter may be the UUID for a record, and many tables offer
additional ways to identify records. Some commands also take
column parameters that identify a particular field within the
records in a table.
The following tables are currently defined:
Global Top-level configuration for a hardware VTEP. This table
contains exactly one record, identified by specifying . as
the record name.
Manager
Configuration for an OVSDB connection. Records may be
identified by target (e.g. tcp:1.2.3.4).
Physical_Switch
A physical switch that implements a VTEP. Records may be
identified 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
tunnels.
Mcast_Macs_Remote
Mapping of remotely programmed multicast MAC addresses to
tunnels.
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 physical 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 interchangeably. Unique abbreviations of
table and column names are acceptable, 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
currently defined basic types, and their representations, are:
integer
A decimal integer in the range -2**63 to 2**63-1,
inclusive.
real A floating-point number.
Boolean
True or false, written true or false, respectively.
string An arbitrary Unicode string, except that null bytes are
not allowed. Quotes are optional for most strings that
begin with an English letter or underscore and consist
only of letters, underscores, hyphens, and periods.
However, true and false and strings that match the syntax
of UUIDs (see below) must be enclosed in double quotes to
distinguish them from other basic types. When double
quotes are used, the syntax is that of strings in JSON,
e.g. backslashes may be used to escape special characters.
The empty string must be represented as a pair of double
quotes ("").
UUID Either a universally unique identifier in the style of RFC
4122, e.g. f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6, or an
@name defined by a get or create command within the same
vtep-ctl invocation.
Multiple values in a single column may be separated by spaces or
a single comma. When multiple values are present, duplicates are
not allowed, and order is not important. Conversely, some
database columns can have an empty set of values, represented as
[], and square brackets may optionally enclose other non-empty
sets or single values as well. 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 elements are
needed, they can be specified in seperate 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 optionally enclose non-empty
maps as well (but use quotes to prevent the shell from expanding
other-config={0=x,1=y} into other-config=0=x other-config=1=y,
which may not have the desired effect).
Database Command Syntax
[--if-exists] [--columns=column[,column]...] list table
[record]...
Lists the data in each specified record. If no records
are specified, lists all the records in table.
If --columns is specified, only the requested columns are
listed, in the specified order. Otherwise, all columns
are listed, in alphabetical order by column name.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if any specified
record does not exist. With --if-exists, the command
ignores any record that does not exist, without producing
any output.
[--columns=column[,column]...] find table [column[:key]=value]...
Lists the data in each record in table whose column equals
value or, if key is specified, whose column contains a key
with the specified value. The following operators may be
used where = is written in the syntax summary:
= != < > <= >=
Selects records in which column[:key] equals, does
not equal, is less than, is greater than, is less
than or equal to, or is greater than or equal to
value, respectively.
Consider column[:key] and value as sets of
elements. Identical sets are considered equal.
Otherwise, if the sets have different numbers of
elements, then the set with more elements is
considered to be larger. Otherwise, consider a
element from each set pairwise, in increasing order
within each set. The first pair that differs
determines the result. (For a column that contains
key-value pairs, first all the keys are compared,
and values are considered only if the two sets
contain identical keys.)
{=} {!=}
Test for set equality or inequality, respectively.
{<=} Selects records in which column[:key] is a subset
of value. For example, flood-vlans{<=}1,2 selects
records in which the flood-vlans column is the
empty set or contains 1 or 2 or both.
{<} Selects records in which column[:key] is a proper
subset of value. For example, flood-vlans{<}1,2
selects records in which the flood-vlans column is
the empty set or contains 1 or 2 but not both.
{>=} {>}
Same as {<=} and {<}, respectively, except that the
relationship is reversed. For example, flood-
vlans{>=}1,2 selects records in which the flood-
vlans column contains both 1 and 2.
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-config:mtu{!=}1500 matches records that
have a mtu key whose value is not 1500 and those that lack
an mtu key.
Don't forget to escape < or > from interpretation by the
shell.
If --columns is specified, only the requested columns are
listed, in the specified order. Otherwise all columns are
listed, in alphabetical order by column name.
The UUIDs shown for rows created in the same 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 contexts where a UUID is expected.
Both --id and the column arguments are optional, but
usually at least one or the other should be specified. If
both are omitted, then get has no effect except to verify
that record exists in table.
--id and --if-exists cannot be used together.
[--if-exists] set table record column[:key]=value...
Sets the value of each specified column in the given
record in table to value. For map columns, a key may
optionally be specified, in which case the value
associated with key in that column is changed (or added,
if none exists), instead of the entire map.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
record does not exist.
[--if-exists] add table record column [key=]value...
Adds the specified value or key-value pair to column in
record in table. If column is a map, then key is
required, otherwise it is prohibited. If key already
exists in a map column, then the current value is not
replaced (use the set command to replace an existing
value).
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
record does not exist.
[--if-exists] remove table record column value...
[--if-exists] remove table record column key...
[--if-exists] 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 second and third forms apply to map
columns: if only a key is specified, then any key-value
pair with the given key is removed, regardless of its
value; if a value is given then a pair is removed only if
both key and value match.
It is not an error if the column does not contain the
specified key or value or pair.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
record does not exist.
[--if-exists] clear table record column...
Sets each column in record in table to the empty set or
empty map, as appropriate. This command applies only to
columns that are allowed to be empty.
Without --if-exists, it is an error if record does not
exist. With --if-exists, this command does nothing if
record does not exist.
[--id=@name] create table column[:key]=value...
Creates a new record in table and sets the initial values
of each column. Columns not explicitly set will receive
their default values. Outputs the UUID of the new row.
If @name is specified, then the UUID for the new row may
be referred to by that name elsewhere in the same vtep-ctl
invocation in contexts where a UUID is expected. Such
references may precede or follow the create command.
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 database
activity. Thus, a create command must generally be
accompanied by additional commands within the same
ovs-vsctl invocation to add a chain of references
to the newly created record from the top-level
Open_vSwitch record. The EXAMPLES section gives
some examples that show how to do this.
[--if-exists] destroy table record...
Deletes each specified record from table. Unless
--if-exists is specified, each records must exist.
--all destroy table
Deletes all records from the table.
Caution (ovs-vsctl as 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
table. This means that deleting the last reference
to a record is sufficient for deleting the record
itself. For records in these tables, destroy is
silently ignored. See the EXAMPLES section below
for more information.
wait-until table record [column[:key]=value]...
Waits until table contains a record named record whose
column equals value or, if key is specified, whose column
contains a key with the specified value. 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 prevent vtep-ctl from terminating after waiting only at
most 5 seconds.
comment [arg]...
This command has no effect on behavior, but any database
log record created by the command will include the command
and its arguments.
