Utility for querying and configuring a vtep database
vtep-ctl [options] -- [options] command [args] [-- [options] command [args]]...
The vtep-ctl program configures a VTEP database. See vtep(5) for comprehensive documentation of the database schema.
vtep-ctl connects to an ovsdb-server process that maintains a VTEP configuration 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, implemented 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.
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 --.
Sets server as the database server that vtep-ctl contacts to query or modify configuration. The default is unix:/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock. server must take one of the following forms:
The specified SSL port on the host at the given ip, which must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name) in IPv4 or IPv6 address format. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: ssl:[::1]:6632. The --private-key, --certificate, and --ca-cert options are mandatory when this form is used.
Connect to the given TCP port on ip, where ip can be IPv4 or IPv6 address. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: tcp:[::1]:6632.
On POSIX, connect to the Unix domain server socket named file.
On Windows, connect to a localhost TCP port whose value is written in file.
Listen on the given SSL port for a connection. By default, connections are not bound to a particular local IP address and it listens only on IPv4 (but not IPv6) addresses, but specifying ip limits connections to those from the given ip, either IPv4 or IPv6 address. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: pssl:6632:[::1]. The --private-key, --certificate, and --ca-cert options are mandatory when this form is used.
Listen on the given TCP port for a connection. By default, connections are not bound to a particular local IP address and it listens only on IPv4 (but not IPv6) addresses, but ip may be specified to listen only for connections to the given ip, either IPv4 or IPv6 address. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: ptcp:6632:[::1].
On POSIX, listen on the Unix domain server socket named file for a connection.
On Windows, listen on a kernel chosen TCP port on the localhost. The kernel chosen TCP port value is written in file.
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.
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.
Prevents vtep-ctl from actually modifying the database.
By default, or with a secs of 0, vtep-ctl waits forever for a response from the database. This option limits runtime to approximately 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.)
These options control the format of output from the list and find commands.
Sets the type of table formatting. The following types of format are available:
2-D text tables with aligned columns. A list with one column per line and rows separated by a blank line.
HTML tables.
Comma-separated values as defined in RFC 4180.
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:
The table's caption. This member is omitted if the table has no caption.
An array with one element per table column. Each array element is a string giving the corresponding column's heading.
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 described in the OVSDB specification; other cells are simply expressed as text strings.
Sets the formatting for cells within output tables. The following types of format are available:
The simple format described in the Database Values
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 json output format always outputs cells in JSON format, ignoring this option.
This option suppresses the heading row that otherwise appears in the first row of table output.
By default, JSON in output is printed as compactly as possible. 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.
Equivalent to --format=list --data=bare --no-headings.
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as \*(PN's identity for outgoing SSL connections.
Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate that certifies the private key specified on -p or --private-key to be trustworthy. The certificate must be signed by the certificate authority (CA) that the peer in SSL connections will use to verify it.
Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate that \*(PN should use to verify certificates presented to it 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.)
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.
When cacert.pem exists, this option has the same effect as -C or --ca-cert. If it does not exist, then \*(PN 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 immediately drop the connection and reconnect, and from then on all SSL connections must be authenticated by a certificate 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 certificate.
This option is mutually exclusive with -C and --ca-cert.
Specifies a PEM file that contains one or more additional certificates to send to SSL peers. peer-cacert.pem should be the CA certificate used to sign \*(PN's own certificate, that is, the certificate specified on -c or --certificate. If \*(PN'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 peer must already have the CA certificate for the peer to have any confidence in \*(PN's identity. However, this offers a way for a new installation to bootstrap the CA certificate on its first SSL connection.
Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for every module and facility to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list of words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from each category below:
A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list command on ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to the specified module.
syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change to only to the system log, to the console, or to a file, respectively.
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.
Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to --verbose=dbg.
Sets the log pattern for facility to pattern. Refer to ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
--log-file[=file]
Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is used as the exact name for the log file. The default log file name used if file is omitted is /var/log/openvswitch/\*(PN.log.
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.
Prints a brief help message to the console.
Prints version information to the console.
The commands implemented by vtep-ctl are described in the sections below.
These commands examine and manipulate physical switches.
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.
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.
Lists all existing physical switches on standard output, one per line.
Tests whether pswitch exists. If so, vtep-ctl exits successfully with exit code 0. If not, vtep-ctl exits unsuccessfully with exit code 2.
These commands examine and manipulate VTEP physical ports.
Lists all of the ports within pswitch on standard output, one per line.
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.
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.
These commands examine and manipulate logical switches.
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.
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.
Lists all existing logical switches on standard output, one per line.
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 logical switch lswitch to the port/vlan combination on the physical switch pswitch.
Remove the logical switch binding from the port/vlan combination on the physical switch pswitch.
List the logical switch bindings for port on the physical switch pswitch.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 the local MAC bindings for lswitch.
List the local MAC bindings for lswitch, one per line.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 the remote MAC bindings for lswitch.
List the remote MAC bindings for lswitch, one per line.
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 INSTALL.Linux and in the startup scripts provided with Open vSwitch), this allows the administrator to use vtep-ctl to configure database connections.
Prints the configured manager(s).
Deletes the configured manager(s).
Sets the configured manager target or targets. Each target may use any of the following forms:
The specified SSL port on the host at the given ip, which must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name) in IPv4 or IPv6 address format. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: ssl:[::1]:6632. The --private-key, --certificate, and --ca-cert options are mandatory when this form is used.
Connect to the given TCP port on ip, where ip can be IPv4 or IPv6 address. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: tcp:[::1]:6632.
On POSIX, connect to the Unix domain server socket named file.
On Windows, connect to a localhost TCP port whose value is written in file.
Listen on the given SSL port for a connection. By default, connections are not bound to a particular local IP address and it listens only on IPv4 (but not IPv6) addresses, but specifying ip limits connections to those from the given ip, either IPv4 or IPv6 address. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: pssl:6632:[::1]. The --private-key, --certificate, and --ca-cert options are mandatory when this form is used.
Listen on the given TCP port for a connection. By default, connections are not bound to a particular local IP address and it listens only on IPv4 (but not IPv6) addresses, but ip may be specified to listen only for connections to the given ip, either IPv4 or IPv6 address. If ip is an IPv6 address, then wrap ip with square brackets, e.g.: ptcp:6632:[::1].
On POSIX, listen on the Unix domain server socket named file for a connection.
On Windows, listen on a kernel chosen TCP port on the localhost. The kernel chosen TCP port value is written in file.
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.
\$1
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:
Top-level configuration for a hardware VTEP. This table contains exactly one record, identified by specifying . as the record name.
Configuration for an OVSDB connection. Records may be identified by target (e.g. tcp:1.2.3.4).
A physical switch that implements a VTEP. Records may be identified by physical switch name.
A port within a physical switch.
Reports statistics for the logical switch with which a VLAN on a physical port is associated.
A logical Ethernet switch. Records may be identified by logical switch name.
Mapping of locally discovered unicast MAC addresses to tunnels.
Mapping of remotely programmed unicast MAC addresses to tunnels.
Mapping of locally discovered multicast MAC addresses to tunnels.
Mapping of remotely programmed multicast MAC addresses to tunnels.
A set of one or more physical locators.
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. Names of tables and columns are not case-sensitive, and -- and _ are treated interchangeably. Unique abbreviations are acceptable, e.g. man or m is sufficient to identify the Manager table.
Each column in the database accepts a fixed type of data. The currently defined basic types, and their representations, are:
A decimal integer in the range -2**63 to 2**63-1, inclusive.
A floating-point number.
True or false, written true or false, respectively.
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 ("").
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.
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).
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.
Lists the data in each record in table whose column equals value or, if key is specified, whose column contains a key with the specified value. The following operators may be used where = is written in the syntax summary:
Selects records in which column[:key] equals, does not equal, is less than, is greater than, is less than or equal to, or is greater than or equal to value, respectively.
Consider column[:key] and value as sets of elements. Identical sets are considered equal. Otherwise, if the sets have different numbers of elements, then the set with more elements is considered to be larger. Otherwise, consider a element from each set pairwise, in increasing order within each set. The first pair that differs determines the result. (For a column that contains key-value pairs, first all the keys are compared, and values are considered only if the two sets contain identical keys.)
Test for set equality or inequality, respectively.
Selects records in which column[:key] is a subset of value. For example, flood-vlans{<=}1,2 selects records in which the flood-vlans column is the empty set or contains 1 or 2 or both.
Selects records in which column[:key] is a proper subset of value. For example, flood-vlans{<}1,2 selects records in which the flood-vlans column is the empty set or contains 1 or 2 but not both.
Same as {<=} and {<}, respectively, except that the relationship is reversed. For example, flood-vlans{>=}1,2 selects records in which the flood-vlans column contains both 1 and 2.
For arithmetic operators (= != < > <= >=), when key is specified but a particular record's column does not contain key, the record is always omitted from the results. Thus, the condition other-config:mtu!=1500 matches records that have a mtu key whose value is not 1500, but not those that lack an mtu key.
For the set operators, when key is specified but a particular record's column does not contain key, the comparison is done against an empty set. Thus, the condition other-config:mtu{!=}1500 matches records that have a mtu key whose value is not 1500 and those that lack an mtu key.
Don't forget to escape < or > from interpretation by the shell.
If --columns is specified, only the requested columns are listed, in the specified order. Otherwise all columns are listed, in alphabetical order by column name.
The UUIDs shown for rows created in the same vtep-ctl invocation will be wrong.
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.
For a map column, without --if-exists it is an error if key does not exist; with it, a blank line is printed. If column is not a map column or if key is not specified, --if-exists has no effect.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 vtep-ctl commands or other database activity. Thus, a create command must generally be accompanied by additional commands within the same vtep-ctl 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.
Deletes each specified record from table. Unless --if-exists is specified, each records must exist.
Deletes all records from the table.
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.
Waits until table contains a record named record whose column equals value or, if key is specified, whose column contains a key with the specified value. Any of the operators !=, <, >, <=, or >= may be substituted for = to test for inequality, less than, greater than, less than or equal to, or greater than or equal to, respectively. (Don't forget to escape < or > from interpretation by the shell.)
If no column[:key]=value arguments are given, this command waits only until record exists. If more than one such argument is given, the command waits until all of them are satisfied.
Consider specifying --timeout=0 along with --wait-until, to prevent vtep-ctl from terminating after waiting only at most 5 seconds.
This command has no effect on behavior, but any database log record created by the command will include the command and its arguments.
Successful program execution.
Usage, syntax, or configuration file error.
The switch argument to ps-exists specified the name of a physical switch that does not exist.
ovsdb-server(1), vtep(5).