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:

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.

Output Formatting 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:

-d format

--data=format

Sets the formatting for cells within output tables. The following types of format are available:

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.

--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 (e.g. SIGSEGV, SIGABRT), then the monitor process starts a new copy of it. If the daemon die 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:

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.

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, but ovsdb-server(8) can be configured to do so with the --peer-ca-cert option.

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.