ovsdb-client(1)

NAME
ovsdb-client - command-line interface to ovsdb-server(1)

SYNOPSIS

Server-Level Commands:
    ovsdb-client [options] list-dbs [server]

Database Schema Commands:
    ovsdb-client [options] get-schema [server] [database]
    ovsdb-client [options] list-tables [server] [database]
    ovsdb-client [options] list-columns [server] [database] [table]

Database Version Management Commands:
    ovsdb-client [options] convert [server] schema
    ovsdb-client [options] needs-conversion [server] schema
    ovsdb-client [options] get-schema-version [server] [database]

Data Management Commands:
    ovsdb-client [options] transact [server] transaction
    ovsdb-client [options] query [server] transaction
    ovsdb-client [options] dump [server] [database] [table [column...]]
    ovsdb-client [options] backup [server] [database] > snapshot
    ovsdb-client [options] [--force] restore [server] [database] < snapshot
    ovsdb-client [options] monitor [server] [database] table [column[,column]...]...
    ovsdb-client [options] monitor [server] [database] ALL
    ovsdb-client [options] monitor-cond [server] [database] conditions table [column[,column]...]...
    ovsdb-client [options] monitor-cond-since [server] [database] [last-id] conditions table [column[,column]...]...
    ovsdb-client [options] wait [server] database state

Testing Commands:
    ovsdb-client [options] lock [server] lock
    ovsdb-client [options] steal [server] lock
    ovsdb-client [options] unlock [server] lock

Other Commands:
    ovsdb-client help

Cluster Options:
    [--no-leader-only]

Output formatting options:
    [--format=format] [--data=format] [--no-headings] [--pretty] [--bare] [--timestamp]

DESCRIPTION
The ovsdb-client program is a command-line client for interacting with a running ovsdb-server process. Each command connects to the specified OVSDB server, which may be an OVSDB active or passive connection method, as described in ovsdb(7). The default server is unix:@RUNDIR@/db.sock and the default database is Open_vSwitch.

ovsdb-client supports the method1,method2,...,methodN syntax described in ovsdb(7) for connecting to a cluster. When this syntax is used, ovsdb-client tries the cluster members in random order until it finds the cluster leader. Specify the --no-leader-only option to instead accept any server that is connected to the cluster.

For an introduction to OVSDB and its implementation in Open vSwitch, see ovsdb(7).

The following sections describe the commands that ovsdb-client supports.

  Server-Level Commands
Most ovsdb-client commands work with an individual database, but these commands apply to an entire database server.

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 other commands may use for database.

  Database Schema Commands

These commands obtain the schema from a database and print it or part of it.

get-schema [server] [database]
    Connects to server, retrieves the schema for database, and prints it in JSON format.

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.

  Database Version Management Commands

These commands work with different versions of OVSDB schemas and databases.

convert [server] schema
    Reads an OVSDB schema in JSON format, as specified in the OVSDB specification, from schema, then connects to server and requests the server to convert the database whose name is specified in schema to the schema also specified in schema.

    The conversion is atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable. Following the schema change, the server notifies clients that use the set_db_change_aware RPC introduced in Open vSwitch 2.9 and cancels their outstanding transactions and monitors. The server disconnects other clients, enabling them to notice the change when they reconnect.

    This command can do simple ``upgrades'' and ``downgrades'' on a database's schema. The data in the database must be valid when interpreted under schema, with only one exception: data for tables and columns that do not exist in schema are ignored. Columns that exist in schema but not in the database are set to their default values. All of schema's constraints apply in full.

    Some uses of this command can cause unrecoverable data loss. For example, converting a database from a schema that has a given column or table to one that does not will delete all data in that column or table. Back up critical databases before converting them.

    This command works with clustered and standalone databases. Standalone databases may also be converted (offline) with ovsdb-tool's convert command.

needs-conversion [server] schema
    Reads the schema from schema, then connects to server and requests the schema from the database whose name is specified in schema. If the two schemas are the same, prints no on stdout; if they differ, prints yes.

get-schema-version [server] [database]
    Connects to server, retrieves the schema for database, and prints its version number on stdout. 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.

get-schema-cksum [server] [database]
    Connects to server, retrieves the schema for database, and prints its checksum on stdout. If database does not include a checksum, prints a blank line.

  Data Management Commands

These commands read or modify the data in a database.

transact [server] transaction
    Connects to server, sends it the specified transaction, which must be a JSON array appropriate for use as the params to a JSON-RPC transact request, and prints the received reply on stdout.

query [server] transaction
    This commands acts like a read-only version of transact. It connects to server, sends it the specified transaction, which must be a JSON array appropriate for use as the params to a JSON-RPC transact request, and prints the received reply on stdout. To ensure that the transaction does not modify the database, this command appends an abort operation to the set of operations included in transaction before sending it to the database, and then removes the abort result from the reply (if it is present).

dump [server] [database] [table [column...]]
    Connects to server, retrieves all of the data in database, and prints it on stdout as a series of tables. If table is specified, only that table is retrieved. If at least one column is specified, only those columns are retrieved.

backup [server] [database] > snapshot
    Connects to server, retrieves a snapshot of the schema and data in database, and prints it on stdout in the format used for OVSDB standalone and active-backup databases. This is an appropriate way to back up any remote database. The database snapshot that it outputs is suitable to be served up directly by ovsdb-server or used as the input to ovsdb-client restore.

    Another way to back up a standalone or active-backup database is to copy its database file, e.g. with cp. This is safe even if the database is in use.

    The output does not include ephemeral columns, which by design do not survive across restarts of ovsdb-server.

[--force] restore [server] [database] < snapshot
    Reads snapshot, which must be a OVSDB standalone or active-backup database (possibly but not necessarily created by ovsdb-client backup). Then, connects to server, verifies that database and snapshot have the same schema, then deletes all of the data in database and replaces it by snapshot. The replacement happens atomically, in a single transaction.

    UUIDs for rows in the restored database will differ from those in snapshot, because the OVSDB protocol does not allow clients to specify row UUIDs. Another way to restore a standalone or active-backup database, which does also restore row UUIDs, is to stop the server or servers, replace the database file by the snapshot, then restart the database. Either way, ephemeral columns are not restored, since by design they do not survive across restarts of ovsdb-server.

    Normally restore exits with a failure if snapshot and the server's database have different schemas. In such a case, it is a good idea to convert the database to the new schema before restoring, e.g. with ovsdb-client convert. Use --force to proceed regardless of schema differences even though the restore might fail with an error or succeed with surprising results.

monitor [server] [database] table [column[,column]...]...
    Connects to server and monitors the contents of rows that match conditions in table in database. By default, the initial contents of table are printed, followed by each change as it occurs. If conditions empty, all rows will be monitored. 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.

    conditions is a JSON array of <condition> as defined in RFC 7047 5.1 with the following change: A condition can be either a 3-element JSON array as described in the RFC or a boolean value.

    If --detach is used with monitor, monitor-cond or monitor-cond-since, then ovsdb-client detaches after it has successfully received and printed the initial contents of table.

    The monitor command uses RFC 7047 "monitor" method to open a monitor session with the server. The monitor-cond and monitor-cond-since commandls uses RFC 7047 extension "monitor_cond" and "monitor_cond_since" methods. See ovsdb-server(1) for details.

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.

    The monitor command uses RFC 7047 "monitor" method to open a monitor session with the server.

wait [server] database state
    Waits for database on server to enter a desired state, which may be one of:

    added
        Waits until a database with the given name has been added to server.

    connected
        Waits until a database with the given name has been added to server. Then, if database is clustered, additionally waits until it has joined and connected to its cluster.

    removed
        Waits until database has been removed from the database server. This can also be used to wait for a database to complete leaving its cluster, because ovsdb-server removes a database at that point.

    database is mandatory for this command because it is often used to check for databases that have not yet been added to the server, so that the ovsdb-client semantics of acting on a default database do not work.

    This command acts on a particular database server, not on a cluster, so server must name a single server, not a comma-delimited list of servers.

  Testing commands
These commands are mostly of interest for testing the correctness of the OVSDB server.

lock [server] lock
    Connects to server and issues corresponding RFC 7047 lock operations on lock. Prints json reply or subsequent update messages. The --detach option causes ovsdb-client to detach after it successfully receives and prints the initial reply.

    When running with the --detach option, lock, steal, unlock and exit commands can be issued by using ovs-appctl. exit command causes the ovsdb-client to close its ovsdb-server connection before exit. The lock, steal and unlock commands can be used to issue additional lock operations over the same ovsdb-server connection. All above commands take a single lock argument, which does not have to be the same as the lock that ovsdb-client started with.

OPTIONS

  Output Formatting Options
Much of the output from ovsdb-client is in the form of tables. The following options controlling output formatting:

--timestamp
    For the monitor, monitor-cond and monitor-cond-since commands, add 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.

-t  Limits ovsdb-client runtime to approximately secs seconds. If the timeout expires, ovsdb-client will exit with a SIGALRM signal.

  Daemon Options
The daemon options apply only to the monitor, monitor-cond and monitor-cond-since commands. With any other command, they have no effect.

  Logging Options

  Public Key Infrastructure Options

  SSL/TLS Connection Options

  Other Options

SEE ALSO
ovsdb(7), ovsdb-server(1), ovsdb-client(1).