The commands implemented by vtep-ctl are described in the sections below.
PhysicalSwitchCommands
These commands examine and manipulate physical switches.
[--may-exist] add-pspswitch
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-pspswitch
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-existspswitch
Tests whether pswitch exists. If so, vtep-ctl exits successfully with exit code 0. If not,
vtep-ctl exits unsuccessfully with exit code 2.
PortCommands
These commands examine and manipulate VTEP physical ports.
list-portspswitch
Lists all of the ports within pswitch on standard output, one per line.
[--may-exist] add-portpswitchport
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.
LogicalSwitchCommands
These commands examine and manipulate logical switches.
[--may-exist] add-lslswitch
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-lslswitch
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-existslswitch
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-lspswitchportvlanlswitch
Bind logical switch lswitch to the port/vlan combination on the physical switch pswitch.
unbind-lspswitchportvlan
Remove the logical switch binding from the port/vlan combination on the physical switch pswitch.
list-bindingspswitchport
List the logical switch bindings for port on the physical switch pswitch.
set-replication-modelswitchreplication-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-modelswitch
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".
LogicalRouterCommands
These commands examine and manipulate logical routers.
[--may-exist] add-lrlrouter
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-lrlrouter
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-existslrouter
Tests whether lrouter exists. If so, vtep-ctl exits successfully with exit code 0. If not,
vtep-ctl exits unsuccessfully with exit code 2.
LocalMACBindingCommands
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-locallswitchmac [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-locallswitchmac
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-locallswitchmac [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-locallswitchmac [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-macslswitch
Clear the local MAC bindings for lswitch.
list-local-macslswitch
List the local MAC bindings for lswitch, one per line.
RemoteMACBindingCommands
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-remotelswitchmac [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-remotelswitchmac
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-remotelswitchmac [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-remotelswitchmac [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-macslswitch
Clear the remote MAC bindings for lswitch.
list-remote-macslswitch
List the remote MAC bindings for lswitch, one per line.
ManagerConnectivity
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-managertarget...
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).
DatabaseCommands
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.
IdentifyingTables,Records,andColumns
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.
DatabaseValues
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 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 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=xother-config=1=y, which may not have the desired effect).
DatabaseCommandSyntax
[--if-exists] [--columns=column[,column]...] listtable [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]...] findtable [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] gettablerecord [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] settablerecordcolumn[: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] addtablerecordcolumn [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] removetablerecordcolumnvalue...
[--if-exists] removetablerecordcolumnkey...
[--if-exists] removetablerecordcolumnkey=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] cleartablerecordcolumn...
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] createtablecolumn[: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.
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 database activity. Thus, a create command must generally be accompanied
by additional commands withinthesameovs-vsctlinvocation 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] destroytablerecord...
Deletes each specified record from table. Unless --if-exists is specified, each records must
exist.
--alldestroytable
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-untiltablerecord [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-untilbridgebr0--getbridgebr0datapath_id waits until a bridge named br0
is created, then prints its datapath_id column, whereas getbridgebr0datapath_id--wait-untilbridgebr0 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.
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