NAME¶
ovsdb-client - command-line interface to
ovsdb-server(1)
SYNOPSIS¶
ovsdb-client [
options]
list-dbs [
server]
ovsdb-client [
options]
get-schema [
server]
[
database]
ovsdb-client [
options]
get-schema-version
[
server] [
database]
ovsdb-client [
options]
list-tables [
server]
[
database]
ovsdb-client [
options]
list-columns [
server]
[
database] [
table]
ovsdb-client [
options]
transact [
server]
transaction
ovsdb-client [
options]
dump [
server]
[
database]
ovsdb-client [
options]
monitor [
server]
[
database]
table [
column[
,column]...]...
ovsdb-client [
options]
monitor [
server]
[
database]
ALL
ovsdb-client help
- Output formatting options:
- [--format=format] [ --data=format] [
--no-heading] [ --pretty] [ --bare] [
--no-heading] [ --timestamp]
- Daemon options:
- [--pidfile[=pidfile]] [ --overwrite-pidfile] [
--detach] [ --no-chdir]
- Logging options:
- [-v[module[:facility[:level]]]]...
[
--verbose[=module[:facility[:level]]]]...
[ --log-file[=file]]
- Public key infrastructure options:
- [--private-key=privkey.pem]
[ --certificate=cert.pem]
[ --ca-cert=cacert.pem]
[ --bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem]
- Common options:
- [-h | --help] [ -V | --version]
DESCRIPTION¶
The
ovsdb-client program is a command-line client for interacting with a
running
ovsdb-server process. Each command connects to an OVSDB server,
which is
unix:/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock by default, or may be
specified as
server in one of the following forms:
- ssl:ip:port
- 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.
- tcp:ip:port
- 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.
- unix:file
- 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.
- pssl:port[:ip]
- 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.
- ptcp:port[:ip]
- 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].
- punix:file
- 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.
The default
database is
Open_vSwitch.
Commands¶
The following commands are implemented:
- list-dbs [server]
- Connects to server, retrieves the list of known databases, and
prints them one per line. These database names are the ones that may be
used for database in the following commands.
- get-schema [server] [database]
- Connects to server, retrieves the schema for database, and
prints it in JSON format.
- get-schema-version [server] [database]
- Connects to server, retrieves the schema for database, and
prints its version number on stdout. A schema version number has the form
x.y.z. See
ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) for details.
- Schema version numbers and Open vSwitch version numbers are
independent.
- If database was created before schema versioning was introduced,
then it will not have a version number and this command will print a blank
line.
- list-tables [server] [database]
- Connects to server, retrieves the schema for database, and
prints a table listing the name of each table within the database.
- list-columns [server] [database]
table
- Connects to server, retrieves the schema for database, and
prints a table listing the name and type of each column. If table
is specified, only columns in that table are listed; otherwise, the tables
include columns in all tables.
- transact [server] transaction
- Connects to server, sends it the specified transaction,
which must be a JSON array containing one or more valid OVSDB operations,
and prints the received reply on stdout.
- dump [server] [database]
- Connects to server, retrieves all of the data in database,
and prints it on stdout as a series of tables.
- monitor [server] [database] table
[column[ ,column]...]...
- Connects to server and monitors the contents of table in
database. By default, the initial contents of table are
printed, followed by each change as it occurs. If at least one
column is specified, only those columns are monitored. The
following column names have special meanings:
- !initial
- Do not print the initial contents of the specified columns.
- !insert
- Do not print newly inserted rows.
- !delete
- Do not print deleted rows.
- !modify
- Do not print modifications to existing rows.
- Multiple [column[,column]...] groups may be specified
as separate arguments, e.g. to apply different reporting parameters to
each group. Whether multiple groups or only a single group is specified,
any given column may only be mentioned once on the command line.
- If --detach is used with monitor, then ovsdb-client
detaches after it has successfully received and printed the initial
contents of table.
- monitor [server] [database] ALL
- Connects to server and monitors the contents of all tables in
database. Prints initial values and all kinds of changes to all
columns in the database. The --detach option causes
ovsdb-client to detach after it successfully receives and prints
the initial database contents.
OPTIONS¶
Much of the output from
ovsdb-client is in the form of tables. The
following options controlling output formatting:
- -f format
-
- --format=format
- Sets the type of table formatting. The following types of format
are available:
- table (default)
- 2-D text tables with aligned columns.
- list
- A list with one column per line and rows separated by a blank line.
- html
- HTML tables.
- csv
- Comma-separated values as defined in RFC 4180.
- json
- JSON format as defined in RFC 4627. The output is a sequence of JSON
objects, each of which corresponds to one table. Each JSON object has the
following members with the noted values:
- caption
- The table's caption. This member is omitted if the table has no
caption.
- headings
- An array with one element per table column. Each array element is a string
giving the corresponding column's heading.
- data
- An array with one element per table row. Each element is also an array
with one element per table column. The elements of this second-level array
are the cells that constitute the table. Cells that represent OVSDB data
or data types are expressed in the format described in the OVSDB
specification; other cells are simply expressed as text strings.
- -d format
-
- --data=format
- Sets the formatting for cells within output tables. The following types of
format are available:
- string (default)
- The simple format described in the Database Values section of
ovs-vsctl(8).
- bare
- The simple format with punctuation stripped off: [] and {}
are omitted around sets, maps, and empty columns, items within sets and
maps are space-separated, and strings are never quoted. This format may be
easier for scripts to parse.
- json
- JSON.
- The json output format always outputs cells in JSON format,
ignoring this option.
- --no-heading
- 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 readable fashion.
Members of objects and elements of arrays are printed one per line, with
indentation.
- This option does not affect JSON in tables, which is always printed
compactly.
- --bare
- Equivalent to --format=list --data=bare --no-headings.
- --timestamp
- For the monitor command, adds a timestamp to each table update.
Most output formats add the timestamp on a line of its own just above the
table. The JSON output format puts the timestamp in a member of the
top-level JSON object named time.
Daemon Options¶
The daemon options apply only to the
monitor command. With any other
command, they have no effect. The following options are valid on POSIX based
platforms.
- --pidfile[=pidfile]
- Causes a file (by default, ovsdb-client.pid) to be created
indicating the PID of the running process. If the pidfile argument
is not specified, or if it does not begin with /, then it is
created in /var/run/openvswitch.
- If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
- --overwrite-pidfile
- By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified pidfile
already exists and is locked by a running process, ovsdb-client
refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pidfile to cause it to
instead overwrite the pidfile.
- When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
- --detach
- Causes ovsdb-client to detach itself from the foreground session
and run as a background process.
- --monitor
- Creates an additional process to monitor the ovsdb-client daemon.
If the daemon dies due to a signal that indicates a programming error (
SIGABRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGFPE,
SIGILL, SIGPIPE, SIGSEGV, SIGXCPU, or
SIGXFSZ) then the monitor process starts a new copy of it. If the
daemon dies or exits for another reason, the monitor process exits.
- This option is normally used with --detach, but it also functions
without it.
- --no-chdir
- By default, when --detach is specified, ovsdb-client changes
its current working directory to the root directory after it detaches.
Otherwise, invoking ovsdb-client from a carelessly chosen directory
would prevent the administrator from unmounting the file system that holds
that directory.
- Specifying --no-chdir suppresses this behavior, preventing
ovsdb-client from changing its current working directory. This may
be useful for collecting core files, since it is common behavior to write
core dumps into the current working directory and the root directory is
not a good directory to use.
- This option has no effect when --detach is not specified.
Logging Options¶
- -v[spec]
-
- --verbose=[spec]
- 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.
- -v
-
- --verbose
- Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to
--verbose=dbg.
- -vPATTERN:facility:pattern
-
- --verbose=PATTERN:facility:pattern
- 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/ovsdb-client.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.
Public Key Infrastructure Options¶
- -p privkey.pem
-
- --private-key=privkey.pem
- Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as
ovsdb-client's identity for outgoing SSL 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 connections will use to verify it.
- -C cacert.pem
-
- --ca-cert=cacert.pem
- Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate that
ovsdb-client 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.)
- -C none
-
- --ca-cert=none
- Disables verification of certificates presented by SSL peers. This
introduces a security risk, because it means that certificates cannot be
verified to be those of known trusted hosts.
- --bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem
- When cacert.pem exists, this option has the same effect as
-C or --ca-cert. If it does not exist, then
ovsdb-client 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.
Other Options¶
- -h
-
- --help
- Prints a brief help message to the console.
- -V
-
- --version
- Prints version information to the console.
SEE ALSO¶
ovsdb-server(1),
ovsdb-client(1), and the OVSDB
specification.