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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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ovsdb-server(1) Open vSwitch Manual ovsdb-server(1)
ovsdb-server - Open vSwitch database server
ovsdb-server [database]... [relay:schema_name:remote]...
[--remote=remote]... [--config-file=file] [--run=command]
Daemon options:
[--pidfile[=pidfile]] [--overwrite-pidfile] [--detach]
[--no-chdir] [--no-self-confinement]
Service options:
[--service] [--service-monitor]
Logging options:
[-v[module[:destination[:level]]]]...
[--verbose[=module[:destination[:level]]]]...
[--log-file[=file]]
Active-backup options:
[--sync-from=server] [--sync-exclude-
tables=db:table[,db:table]...] [--active]
Public key infrastructure options:
[--private-key=privkey.pem]
[--certificate=cert.pem]
[--ca-cert=cacert.pem]
[--bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem]
[--peer-ca-cert=peer-cacert.pem]
SSL/TLS connection options:
[--ssl-protocols=protocols]
[--ssl-ciphers=ciphers]
[--ssl-ciphersuites=ciphersuites]
Runtime management options:
--unixctl=socket
Replay options:
[--record[=directory]] [--replay[=directory]]
Common options:
[-h | --help] [-V | --version]
The ovsdb-server program provides RPC interfaces to one or more
Open vSwitch databases (OVSDBs). It supports JSON-RPC client
connections over active or passive TCP/IP or Unix domain sockets.
For an introduction to OVSDB and its implementation in Open
vSwitch, see ovsdb(7).
Each OVSDB file may be specified on the command line as database.
Relay databases may be specified on the command line as
relay:schema_name:remote. For a detailed description of relay
database argument, see ovsdb(7). If none of database files or
relay databases is specified, the default is
/usr/local/etc/openvswitch/conf.db. The database files must
already have been created and initialized using, for example,
ovsdb-tool's create, create-cluster, or join-cluster command.
All types of databases can alternatively be added using a
configuration file provided via --config-file option. This option
is mutually exclusive with specifying database on the command
line. For a detailed description of the configuration file format
see ovsdb(7).
This OVSDB implementation supports standalone, active-backup,
relay and clustered database service models, as well as database
replication. See the Service Models section of ovsdb(7) for more
information.
For clustered databases, when the --detach option is used,
ovsdb-server detaches without waiting for the server to
successfully join a cluster (if the database file is freshly
created with ovsdb-tool join-cluster) or connect to a cluster that
it has already joined. Use ovsdb-client wait (see
ovsdb-client(1)) to wait until the server has successfully joined
and connected to a cluster. The same is true for relay databases.
Same commands could be used to wait for a relay database to
connect to the relay source (remote).
In addition to user-specified databases, ovsdb-server version 2.9
and later also always hosts a built-in database named _Server.
Please see ovsdb-server(5) for documentation on this database's
schema.
--remote=remote
Adds remote as a connection method used by ovsdb-server.
The remote may be an OVSDB active or passive connection
method, e.g. pssl:6640, as described in ovsdb(7). The
following additional form is also supported:
db:db,table,column
Reads additional connection methods from column in
all of the rows in table within db. As the contents
of column changes, ovsdb-server also adds and drops
connection methods accordingly.
If column's type is string or set of strings, then
the connection methods are taken directly from the
column. The connection methods in the column must
have one of the forms described above.
If column's type is UUID or set of UUIDs and
references a table, then each UUID is looked up in
the referenced table to obtain a row. The following
columns in the row, if present and of the correct
type, configure a connection method. Any additional
columns are ignored.
target (string)
Connection method, in one of the forms
described above. This column is mandatory:
if it is missing or empty then no connection
method can be configured.
max_backoff (integer)
Maximum number of milliseconds to wait
between connection attempts.
inactivity_probe (integer)
Maximum number of milliseconds of idle time
on connection to client before sending an
inactivity probe message.
read_only (boolean)
If true, only read-only transactions are
allowed on this connection.
It is an error for column to have another type.
To connect or listen on multiple connection methods, use
multiple --remote options.
Alternatively, remotes can be specified in a "remotes"
section of the configuration file, if provided using
--config-file option. --config-file and --remote options
are mutually exclusive.
--config-file=file
Specifies a configuration file for ovsdb-server. This file
can contain connection methods and databases used by the
server. The file contains a JSON object with two main
elements:
remotes
JSON object that contains a set of connection
methods in the following format: "target": {
"option": value, ... }. Where target is in the same
format as remote in --remote option. option can be
max-backoff (integer), inactivity-probe (integer),
read-only (boolean), role (string) or dscp (integer)
with their allowed values respectively. The meaning
of these options is the same as in configuration of
remote via a database row with --remote option.
databases
JSON object that describes databases that should be
added to the ovsdb-server in the following format:
"name":{ "option": value, ... }. Where name is
either a file name of a previously created and
initialized database or a schema name in case of
relay databases. Available options are:
service-model (string)
Describes the service model of this database.
One of: standalone, clustered, active-backup
or relay. This option is required for all
types, except for standalone and clustered.
For these databases the service model will be
inferred from the file, if not specified
explicitly. ovsdb-server will refuse to add
a database if the specified service-model
doesn't match with the provided file.
source (JSON object; active-backup or relay)
Describes the connection method to the active
database or to the relay source. It is a
JSON object with exactly one element in the
same format as elements of "remotes", except
that read-only and role options are not
applicable. E.g. "source": { "unix:db.sock":
{ "inactivity-probe": 10000, "max-backoff":
8000 } }
backup (boolean; active-backup only)
If set to true, ovsdb-server will use this
database as a backup for the specified
source. Will be served as an active database
otherwise.
exclude-tables (JSON array of strings; active-backup
only)
List of table names that should be excluded
from replication in backup mode, e.g.
"exclude-tables": [ "Table_One", "Table_Two"
].
Content of the most basic configuration file may look like
this: { "remotes": { "pssl:6640": {} }, "databases": {
"conf.db": {} } }
Examples of configuration files for different service
models can be found in in ovsdb(7).
--config-file option is mutually exclusive with the
--remote as well as with specifying database on a command
line. It is also mutually exclusive with all the Active-
Backup Options and all the RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS that
can change the configuration of the server in conflict with
the content of the file, i.e. all the commands that
manipulate with remotes and databases. Read-only commands
can still be used.
In case of changes in the file, users should run the ovsdb-
server/reload command with ovs-appctl(8) in order for
changes to take effect.
--run=command]
Ordinarily ovsdb-server runs forever, or until it is told
to exit (see RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS below). With this
option, ovsdb-server instead starts a shell subprocess
running command. When the subprocess terminates,
ovsdb-server also exits gracefully. If the subprocess
exits normally with exit code 0, then ovsdb-server exits
with exit code 0 also; otherwise, it exits with exit code
1.
This option can be useful where a database server is needed
only to run a single command, e.g.: ovsdb-server
--remote=punix:socket --run='ovsdb-client dump unix:socket
Open_vSwitch'
This option is not supported on Windows platform.
Daemon Options
The following options are valid on POSIX based platforms.
--pidfile[=pidfile]
Causes a file (by default, ovsdb-server.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 /usr/local/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-server 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
Runs ovsdb-server as a background process. The process
forks, and in the child it starts a new session, closes the
standard file descriptors (which has the side effect of
disabling logging to the console), and changes its current
directory to the root (unless --no-chdir is specified).
After the child completes its initialization, the parent
exits. ovsdb-server detaches only after it starts
listening on all configured remotes. At this point, all
standalone and active-backup databases are ready for use.
Clustered databases only become ready for use after they
finish joining their clusters (which could have already
happened in previous runs of ovsdb-server).
--monitor
Creates an additional process to monitor the ovsdb-server
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-server
changes its current working directory to the root directory
after it detaches. Otherwise, invoking ovsdb-server 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-server 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.
--no-self-confinement
By default daemon will try to self-confine itself to work
with files under well-known directories determined during
build. It is better to stick with this default behavior
and not to use this flag unless some other Access Control
is used to confine daemon. Note that in contrast to other
access control implementations that are typically enforced
from kernel-space (e.g. DAC or MAC), self-confinement is
imposed from the user-space daemon itself and hence should
not be considered as a full confinement strategy, but
instead should be viewed as an additional layer of
security.
--user Causes ovsdb-server to run as a different user specified in
"user:group", thus dropping most of the root privileges.
Short forms "user" and ":group" are also allowed, with
current user or group are assumed respectively. Only
daemons started by the root user accepts this argument.
On Linux, daemons will be granted CAP_IPC_LOCK and
CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICES before dropping root privileges.
Daemons that interact with a datapath, such as
ovs-vswitchd, will be granted three additional
capabilities, namely CAP_NET_ADMIN, CAP_NET_BROADCAST and
CAP_NET_RAW. The capability change will apply even if the
new user is root.
On Windows, this option is not currently supported. For
security reasons, specifying this option will cause the
daemon process not to start.
Service Options
The following options are valid only on Windows platform.
--service
Causes ovsdb-server to run as a service in the background.
The service should already have been created through
external tools like SC.exe.
--service-monitor
Causes the ovsdb-server service to be automatically
restarted by the Windows services manager if the service
dies or exits for unexpected reasons.
When --service is not specified, this option has no effect.
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,
ovsdb-server 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
/usr/local/var/log/openvswitch/ovsdb-server.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 how syslog messages should be sent to syslog
daemon. Following forms are supported:
• libc, use 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, use 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, use 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, discards all messages logged to syslog.
The default is taken from the OVS_SYSLOG_METHOD environment
variable; if it is unset, the default is libc.
Active-Backup Options
These options support the ovsdb-server active-backup service model
and database replication. These options apply only to databases
in the format used for standalone and active-backup databases,
which is the database format created by ovsdb-tool create. By
default, when it serves a database in this format, ovsdb-server
runs as a standalone server. These options can configure it for
active-backup use:
• Use --sync-from=server to start the server in the backup
role, replicating data from server. When ovsdb-server is
running as a backup server, it rejects all transactions
that can modify the database content, including lock
commands. The same form can be used to configure the local
database as a replica of server.
• Use --sync-from=server --active to start the server in the
active role, but prepared to switch to the backup role in
which it would replicate data from server. When
ovsdb-server runs in active mode, it allows all
transactions, including those that modify the database.
At runtime, management commands can change a server's role and
otherwise manage active-backup features. See Active-Backup
Commands, below, for more information.
--sync-from=server
Sets up ovsdb-server to synchronize its databases with the
databases in server, which must be an active connection
method in one of the forms documented in ovsdb-client(1).
Every transaction committed by server will be replicated to
ovsdb-server. This option makes ovsdb-server start as a
backup server; add --active to make it start as an active
server.
--sync-exclude-tables=db:table[,db:table]...
Causes the specified tables to be excluded from
replication.
--active
By default, --sync-from makes ovsdb-server start up as a
backup for server. With --active, however, ovsdb-server
starts as an active server. Use this option to allow the
syncing options to be specified using command line options,
yet start the server, as the default, active server. To
switch the running server to backup mode, use ovs-appctl(1)
to execute the ovsdb-server/connect-active-ovsdb-server
command.
These options are mutually exclusive with the --config-file.
Public Key Infrastructure Options
The options described below for configuring the SSL public key
infrastructure accept a special syntax for obtaining their
configuration from the database. If any of these options is given
db:db,table,column as its argument, then the actual file name is
read from the specified column in table within the db database.
The column must have type string or set of strings. The first
nonempty string in the table is taken as the file name. (This
means that ordinarily there should be at most one row in table.)
-p privkey.pem
--private-key=privkey.pem
Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as
ovsdb-server's 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 that
ovsdb-server should use to verify certificates presented to
it 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 ovsdb-server
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.
--peer-ca-cert=peer-cacert.pem
Specifies a PEM file that contains one or more additional
certificates to send to SSL/TLS peers. peer-cacert.pem
should be the CA certificate used to sign ovsdb-server's
own certificate, that is, the certificate specified on -c
or --certificate. If ovsdb-server'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/TLS peer must already have the CA certificate for the
peer to have any confidence in ovsdb-server's identity.
However, this offers a way for a new installation to
bootstrap the CA certificate on its first SSL/TLS
connection.
SSL Connection Options
--ssl-protocols=protocols
Specifies a range or a comma- or space-delimited list of
the SSL/TLS protocols ovsdb-server will enable for SSL/TLS
connections. Supported protocols include TLSv1.2 and
TLSv1.3. Ranges can be provided in a form of two protocol
names separated with a dash, or as a single protocol name
with a plus sign. For example, use TLSv1.2-TLSv1.3 to
allow TLSv1.2 and TLSv1.3. Use TLSv1.2+ to allow TLSv1.2
and any later protocol. The option accepts a list of
protocols or exactly one range. The range is a preferred
way of specifying protocols and the option always behaves
as if the range between the minimum and the maximum
specified version is provided, i.e., if the option is set
to TLSv1.X,TLSv1.(X+2), the TLSv1.(X+1) will also be
enabled as if it was a range. Regardless of order, the
highest protocol supported by both sides will be chosen
when making the connection. The default when this option
is omitted is TLSv1.2 or later.
--ssl-ciphers=ciphers
Specifies, in OpenSSL cipher string format, the ciphers
ovsdb-server will support for SSL/TLS connections with
TLSv1.2. The default when this option is omitted is
DEFAULT:@SECLEVEL=2.
--ssl-ciphersuites=ciphersuites
Specifies, in OpenSSL ciphersuite string format, the
ciphersuites ovsdb-server will support for SSL/TLS
connections with TLSv1.3 and later. Default value from
OpenSSL will be used when this option is omitted.
Other Options
--unixctl=socket
Sets the name of the control socket on which ovsdb-server
listens for runtime management commands (see RUNTIME
MANAGEMENT COMMANDS, below). If socket does not begin with
/, it is interpreted as relative to
/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch. If --unixctl is not used
at all, the default socket is
/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/ovsdb-server.pid.ctl, where
pid is ovsdb-server's process ID.
On Windows a local named pipe is used to listen for runtime
management commands. A file is created in the absolute
path as pointed by socket or if --unixctl is not used at
all, a file is created as ovsdb-server.ctl in the
configured OVS_RUNDIR directory. The file exists just to
mimic the behavior of a Unix domain socket.
Specifying none for socket disables the control socket
feature.
--record[=directory]
Sets the process in "recording" mode, in which it will
record all the connections, data from streams (Unix domain
and network sockets) and some other important necessary
bits, so they could be replayed later. Recorded data is
stored in replay files in specified directory. If
directory does not begin with /, it is interpreted as
relative to /usr/local/var/run/openvswitch. If directory
is not specified, /usr/local/var/run/openvswitch will be
used.
--replay[=directory]
Sets the process in "replay" mode, in which it will read
information about connections, data from streams (Unix
domain and network sockets) and some other necessary bits
directly from replay files instead of using real sockets.
Replay files from the directory will be used. If directory
does not begin with /, it is interpreted as relative to
/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch. If directory is not
specified, /usr/local/var/run/openvswitch will be used.
-h
--help Prints a brief help message to the console.
-V
--version
Prints version information to the console.
ovs-appctl(8) can send commands to a running ovsdb-server process.
The currently supported commands are described below.
ovsdb-server Commands
These commands are specific to ovsdb-server.
exit Causes ovsdb-server to gracefully terminate.
ovsdb-server/compact [db]
Compacts database db in-place. If db is not specified,
compacts every database in-place. A database is also
compacted automatically when a transaction is logged if it
is over 2 times as large as its previous compacted size
(and at least 10 MB), but not before 100 commits have been
added or 10 minutes have elapsed since the last compaction.
It will also be compacted automatically after 24 hours
since the last compaction if 100 commits were added
regardless of its size.
ovsdb-server/memory-trim-on-compaction on|off
If this option is on, ovsdb-server will try to reclaim all
unused heap memory back to the system after each successful
database compaction to reduce the memory consumption of the
process. off by default.
ovsdb-server/reconnect
Makes ovsdb-server drop all of the JSON-RPC connections to
database clients and reconnect.
This command might be useful for debugging issues with
database clients.
ovsdb-server/add-remote remote
Adds a remote, as if --remote=remote had been specified on
the ovsdb-server command line. (If remote is already a
remote, this command succeeds without changing the
configuration.)
Mutually exclusive with the --config-file option.
ovsdb-server/remove-remote remote
Removes the specified remote from the configuration,
failing with an error if remote is not configured as a
remote. This command only works with remotes that were
named on --remote or ovsdb-server/add-remote, that is, it
will not remove remotes added indirectly because they were
read from the database by configuring a db:db,table,column
remote. (You can remove a database source with
ovsdb-server/remove-remote db:db,table,column, but not
individual remotes found indirectly through the database.)
Mutually exclusive with the --config-file option.
ovsdb-server/list-remotes
Outputs a list of the currently configured remotes named on
--remote or ovsdb-server/add-remote, that is, it does not
list remotes added indirectly because they were read from
the database by configuring a db:db,table,column remote.
ovsdb-server/add-db database
Adds the database to the running ovsdb-server. database
could be a database file or a relay description in the
following format: relay:schema_name:remote. The database
file must already have been created and initialized using,
for example, ovsdb-tool create.
Mutually exclusive with the --config-file option.
ovsdb-server/remove-db database
Removes database from the running ovsdb-server. database
must be a database name as listed by ovsdb-server/list-dbs.
If a remote has been configured that points to the
specified database (e.g. --remote=db:database,... on the
command line), then it will be disabled until another
database with the same name is added again (with
ovsdb-server/add-db).
Any public key infrastructure options specified through
this database (e.g. --private-key=db:database,... on the
command line) will be disabled until another database with
the same name is added again (with ovsdb-server/add-db).
Mutually exclusive with the --config-file option.
ovsdb-server/list-dbs
Outputs a list of the currently configured databases added
either through the command line or through the
ovsdb-server/add-db command.
ovsdb-server/tlog-set database:table on|off
Enables or disables logging of all operations executed on
the specified database and table. Logs are generated at
INFO level and are rate limtied.
ovsdb-server/tlog-list
Displays the logging state for all currently configured
databases and tables.
Active-Backup Commands
These commands query and update the role of ovsdb-server within an
active-backup pair of servers. See Active-Backup Options, above,
and Active-Backup Database Service Model in ovsdb(7) for more
information.
All Active-Backup Commands that change the state of ovsdb-server
are mutually exclusive with the --config-file option.
ovsdb-server/set-active-ovsdb-server server
Sets the active server from which ovsdb-server connects
through ovsdb-server/connect-active-ovsdb-server. This
overrides the --sync-from command-line option.
ovsdb-server/get-active-ovsdb-server
Gets the active server from which ovsdb-server is currently
synchronizing its databases.
ovsdb-server/connect-active-ovsdb-server
Switches the server to a backup role. The server starts
synchronizing its databases with the active server
specified by ovsdb-server/set-active-ovsdb-server (or the
--sync-from command-line option) and closes all existing
client connections, which requires clients to reconnect.
ovsdb-server/disconnect-active-ovsdb-server
Switches the server to an active role. The server stops
synchronizing its databases with an active server and
closes all existing client connections, which requires
clients to reconnect.
ovsdb-server/set-active-ovsdb-server-probe-interval probe interval
Sets the probe interval (in milli seconds) for the
connection to active server.
ovsdb-server/set-sync-exclude-tables db:table[,db:table]...
Sets the table within db that will be excluded from
synchronization. This overrides the --sync-exclude-tables
command-line option.
ovsdb-server/get-sync-exclude-tables
Gets the tables that are currently excluded from
synchronization.
ovsdb-server/sync-status
Prints a summary of replication run time information. The
state information is always provided, indicating whether
the server is running in the active or the backup mode.
For all databases with active-backup service model,
replication connection status, which can be either
connecting, replicating or error, are shown. When the
connection is in replicating state, further output shows
the tables that are currently excluded from replication.
Cluster Commands
These commands support the ovsdb-server clustered service model.
They apply only to databases in the format used for clustered
databases, which is the database format created by ovsdb-tool
create-cluster and ovsdb-tool join-cluster.
cluster/cid db
Prints the cluster ID for db, which is a UUID that
identifies the cluster. If db is a database newly created
by ovsdb-tool cluster-join that has not yet successfully
joined its cluster, and --cid was not specified on the
cluster-join command line, then this command will report an
error because the cluster ID is not yet known.
cluster/sid db
Prints the server ID for db, which is a UUID that
identifies this server within the cluster.
cluster/status db
Prints this server's status within the cluster and the
status of its connections to other servers in the cluster.
cluster/leave db
This command starts the server gracefully removing itself
from its cluster. At least one server must remain, and the
cluster must be healthy, that is, over half of the
cluster's servers must be up.
When the server successfully leaves the cluster, it stops
serving db, as if ovsdb-server/remove-db db had been
executed.
Use ovsdb-client wait (see ovsdb-client(1)) to wait until
the server has left the cluster.
Once a server leaves a cluster, it may never rejoin it.
Instead, create a new server and join it to the cluster.
Note that removing the server from the cluster alters the
total size of the cluster. For example, if you remove two
servers from a three server cluster, then the "cluster"
becomes a single functioning server. This does not result
in a three server cluster that lacks quorum.
cluster/kick db server
Start graceful removal of server from db's cluster, like
cluster/leave, except that it can remove any server, not
just this one.
server may be a server ID, as printed by cluster/sid, or
the server's local network address as passed to ovsdb-
tool's create-cluster or join-cluster command. Use
cluster/status to see a list of cluster members.
cluster/change-election-timer db time
Change the leader election timeout base value of the
cluster, in milliseconds.
Leader election will be initiated by a follower if there is
no heartbeat received from the leader within this time plus
a random time within 1 second.
The default value is 1000, if not changed with this
command. This command can be used to adjust the value when
necessary, according to the expected load and response time
of the servers.
This command must be executed on the leader. It initiates
the change to the cluster. To see if the change takes
effect (committed), use cluster/status to show the current
setting. Once a change is committed, it persists at server
restarts.
cluster/set-backlog-threshold db n_msgs n_bytes
Sets the backlog limits for db's RAFT connections to a
maximum of n_msgs messages or n_bytes bytes. If the
backlog on one of the connections reaches the limit, it
will be disconnected (and re-established). Values are
checked only if the backlog contains more than 50 messages.
VLOG COMMANDS
These commands manage ovsdb-server's logging settings.
vlog/set [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.
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 ovsdb-server was invoked
with the --log-file option.
For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is
accepted as a word but has no effect.
vlog/set 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.
vlog/list
Lists the supported logging modules and their current
levels.
vlog/list-pattern
Lists logging patterns used for each destination.
vlog/close
Causes ovsdb-server to close its log file, if it is open.
(Use vlog/reopen to reopen it later.)
vlog/reopen
Causes ovsdb-server to close its log file, if it is open,
and then reopen it. (This is useful after rotating log
files, to cause a new log file to be used.)
This has no effect unless ovsdb-server was invoked with the
--log-file option.
vlog/disable-rate-limit [module]...
vlog/enable-rate-limit [module]...
By default, ovsdb-server limits the rate at which certain
messages can be logged. When a message would appear more
frequently than the limit, it is suppressed. This saves
disk space, makes logs easier to read, and speeds up
execution, but occasionally troubleshooting requires more
detail. Therefore, vlog/disable-rate-limit allows rate
limits to be disabled at the level of an individual log
module. Specify one or more module names, as displayed by
the vlog/list command. Specifying either no module names
at all or the keyword any disables rate limits for every
log module.
The vlog/enable-rate-limit command, whose syntax is the
same as vlog/disable-rate-limit, can be used to re-enable a
rate limit that was previously disabled.
MEMORY COMMANDS
These commands report memory usage.
memory/show
Displays some basic statistics about ovsdb-server's memory
usage. ovsdb-server also logs this information soon after
startup and periodically as its memory consumption grows.
COVERAGE COMMANDS
These commands manage ovsdb-server's ``coverage counters,'' which
count the number of times particular events occur during a
daemon's runtime. In addition to these commands, ovsdb-server
automatically logs coverage counter values, at INFO level, when it
detects that the daemon's main loop takes unusually long to run.
Coverage counters are useful mainly for performance analysis and
debugging.
coverage/show
Displays the averaged per-second rates for the last few
seconds, the last minute and the last hour, and the total
counts of all of the coverage counters.
coverage/read-counter counter
Displays the total count for the given coverage counter.
In Open vSwitch before version 2.4, when ovsdb-server sent JSON-
RPC error responses to some requests, it incorrectly formulated
them with the result and error swapped, so that the response
appeared to indicate success (with a nonsensical result) rather
than an error. The requests that suffered from this problem were:
transact
get_schema
Only if the request names a nonexistent database.
monitor
lock
unlock In all error cases.
Of these cases, the only error that a well-written application is
likely to encounter in practice is monitor of tables or columns
that do not exist, in an situation where the application has been
upgraded but the old database schema is still temporarily in use.
To handle this situation gracefully, we recommend that clients
should treat a monitor response with a result that contains an
error key-value pair as an error (assuming that the database being
monitored does not contain a table named error).
ovsdb(7), ovsdb-tool(1), ovsdb-server(5), ovsdb-server(7).
This page is part of the Open vSwitch (a distributed virtual
multilayer switch) project. Information about the project can be
found at ⟨http://openvswitch.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for
this manual page, send it to [email protected]. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2025-07-31.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
[email protected]
Open vSwitch 3.6.90 ovsdb-server(1)
Pages that refer to this page: ovsdb-client(1), ovsdb-tool(1), ovn-architecture(7), ovsdb(7), ovs-appctl(8), ovs-vsctl(8), ovs-vswitchd(8), vtep-ctl(8)
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