Provided by: ovn-common_25.03.0-1_amd64 
NAME
ovn-ic-nbctl - Open Virtual Network interconnection northbound db management utility
SYNOPSIS
ovn-ic-nbctl [options] command [arg...]
DESCRIPTION
This utility can be used to manage the OVN interconnection northbound database.
GENERAL COMMANDS
init Initializes the database, if it is empty. If the database has already been initialized, this
command has no effect.
show Prints a brief overview of the database contents.
TRANSIT SWITCH COMMANDS
[--may-exist] ts-add switch
Creates a new transit switch named switch.
Transit switch names must be unique. Adding a duplicated name results in error. With --may-exist,
adding a duplicate name succeeds but does not create a new transit switch.
[--if-exists] ts-del switch
Deletes switch. It is an error if switch does not exist, unless --if-exists is specified.
ts-list
Lists all existing switches on standard output, one per line.
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 ovn-ic-nbctl 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, which may be abbreviated to its first 4 (or more) hex digits, as long as that is
unique. 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.
For a list of tables and their columns, see ovn-ic-nb(5) or see the table listing from the --help option.
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. t or transit is sufficient to identify the Transit_Switch
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 ovs-vsctl 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).
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 ovs-vsctl 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 ovs-vsctl 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|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 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 \*(PN 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 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 ovs-vsctl 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.
REMOTE CONNECTIVITY COMMANDS
get-connection
Prints the configured connection(s).
del-connection
Deletes the configured connection(s).
[--inactivity-probe=msecs] set-connection target...
Sets the configured manager target or targets. Use --inactivity-probe=msecs to override the
default idle connection inactivity probe time. Use 0 to disable inactivity probes.
SSL/TLS CONFIGURATION COMMANDS
get-ssl
Prints the SSL/TLS configuration.
del-ssl
Deletes the current SSL/TLS configuration.
[--bootstrap] set-ssl private-key certificate ca-cert [ssl-protocol-list [ssl-cipher-list [ssl-
ciphersuites]]]
Sets the SSL/TLS configuration.
SYNCHRONIZATION COMMANDS
sync Ordinarily, --wait=sb only waits for changes by the current ovn-ic-nbctl invocation to take
effect. This means that, if none of the commands supplied to ovn-ic-nbctl change the database,
then the command does not wait at all. With the sync command, however, ovn-ic-nbctl waits even for
earlier changes to the database to propagate down to the southbound database, according to the
argument of --wait.
OPTIONS
--no-wait | --wait=none
--wait=sb
These options control whether and how ovn-ic-nbctl waits for the OVN system to become up-to-date
with changes made in an ovn-ic-nbctl invocation.
By default, or if --no-wait or --wait=none, ovn-ic-nbctl exits immediately after confirming that
changes have been committed to the Interconnect northbound database, without waiting.
With --wait=sb, before ovn-ic-nbctl exits, it waits for ovn-ics to bring the Interconnect southbound
database up-to-date with the Interconnect northbound database updates.
Ordinarily, --wait=sb only waits for changes by the current ovn-ic-nbctl invocation to take effect.
This means that, if none of the commands supplied to ovn-ic-nbctl change the database, then the
command does not wait at all. Use the sync command to override this behavior.
--db database
The OVSDB database remote to contact. If the OVN_IC_NB_DB environment variable is set, its value is
used as the default. Otherwise, the default is unix:/ovn_ic_nb_db.sock, but this default is unlikely
to be useful outside of single-machine OVN test environments.
--leader-only
--no-leader-only
By default, or with --leader-only, when the database server is a clustered database, ovn-ic-nbctl
will avoid servers other than the cluster leader. This ensures that any data that ovn-ic-nbctl reads
and reports is up-to-date. With --no-leader-only, ovn-ic-nbctl will use any server in the cluster,
which means that for read-only transactions it can report and act on stale data (transactions that
modify the database are always serialized even with --no-leader-only). Refer to Understanding
Cluster Consistency in ovsdb(7) for more information.
LOGGING OPTIONS
-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 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. (If --detach is specified, the daemon 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 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: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 /var/log/ovn/program.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 as how syslog messages should be sent to syslog daemon. The following forms are
supported:
• libc, to use the 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, to use a UNIX domain socket directly. It is possible 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, to use a UDP socket. With this method it is possible 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 example, 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, to discard all messages logged to syslog.
The default is taken from the OVS_SYSLOG_METHOD environment variable; if it is unset, the default is
libc.
TABLE FORMATTING OPTIONS
These options control the format of output from the list and find commands.
-f format
--format=format
Sets the type of table formatting. The following types of format 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 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 unless the table format is set to json, in
which case json formatting is always used when formatting cells. 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 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 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.
PKI Options
PKI configuration is required to use SSL/TLS for the connection to the database.
-p privkey.pem
--private-key=privkey.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as 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 for verifying certificates presented to
this program 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 the executable 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 reconnect, and from then on all SSL/TLS
connections must be authenticated by a certificate signed by the CA certificate thus
obtained.
This option exposes the SSL/TLS 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/TLS peer sends its CA certificate as part of the
SSL/TLS certificate chain. SSL/TLS protocols do 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.
OVN 25.03.0 ovn-ic-nbctl ovn-ic-nbctl(8)