ovs-dpctl(8) Open vSwitch Manual ovs-dpctl(8)
NAME
ovs-dpctl - administer Open vSwitch datapaths
SYNOPSIS
ovs-dpctl [options] command [switch] [args...]
DESCRIPTION
The ovs-dpctl program can create, modify, and delete Open vSwitch data‐
paths. A single machine may host any number of datapaths.
This program works only with datapaths that are implemented outside of
ovs-vswitchd itself, such as the Linux and Windows kernel-based data‐
paths. To manage datapaths that are integrated into ovs-vswitchd, such
as the userspace (netdev) datapath, use ovs-appctl(8) to invoke the
dpctl/* commands, which are documented in ovs-vswitchd(8).
A newly created datapath is associated with only one network device, a
virtual network device sometimes called the datapath's ``local port''.
A newly created datapath is not, however, associated with any of the
host's other network devices. To intercept and process traffic on a
given network device, use the add-if command to explicitly add that
network device to the datapath.
If ovs-vswitchd(8) is in use, use ovs-vsctl(8) instead of ovs-dpctl.
Most ovs-dpctl commands that work with datapaths take an argument that
specifies the name of the datapath. Datapath names take the form
[type@]name, where name is the network device associated with the data‐
path's local port. If type is given, it specifies the datapath
provider of name, otherwise the default provider system is assumed.
The following commands manage datapaths.
add-dp dp [netdev[,option]...]
Creates datapath dp, with a local port also named dp. This will
fail if a network device dp already exists.
If netdevs are specified, ovs-dpctl adds them to the new data‐
path, just as if add-if was specified.
del-dp dp
Deletes datapath dp. If dp is associated with any network
devices, they are automatically removed.
add-if dp netdev[,option]...
Adds each netdev to the set of network devices datapath dp moni‐
tors, where dp is the name of an existing datapath, and netdev
is the name of one of the host's network devices, e.g. eth0.
Once a network device has been added to a datapath, the datapath
has complete ownership of the network device's traffic and the
network device appears silent to the rest of the system.
A netdev may be followed by a comma-separated list of options.
The following options are currently supported:
type=type
Specifies the type of port to add. The default type is
system.
port_no=port
Requests a specific port number within the datapath. If
this option is not specified then one will be automati‐
cally assigned.
key=value
Adds an arbitrary key-value option to the port's configu‐
ration.
ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) documents the available port types and
options.
set-if dp port[,option]...
Reconfigures each port in dp as specified. An option of the
form key=value adds the specified key-value option to the port
or overrides an existing key's value. An option of the form
key=, that is, without a value, deletes the key-value named key.
The type and port number of a port cannot be changed, so type
and port_no are only allowed if they match the existing configu‐
ration.
del-if dp netdev...
Removes each netdev from the list of network devices datapath dp
monitors.
dump-dps
Prints the name of each configured datapath on a separate line.
[-s | --statistics] show [dp...]
Prints a summary of configured datapaths, including their data‐
path numbers and a list of ports connected to each datapath.
(The local port is identified as port 0.) If -s or --statistics
is specified, then packet and byte counters are also printed for
each port.
The datapath numbers consists of flow stats and mega flow mask
stats.
The "lookups" row displays three stats related to flow lookup
triggered by processing incoming packets in the datapath. "hit"
displays number of packets matches existing flows. "missed" dis‐
plays the number of packets not matching any existing flow and
require user space processing. "lost" displays number of pack‐
ets destined for user space process but subsequently dropped
before reaching userspace. The sum of "hit" and "miss" equals to
the total number of packets datapath processed.
The "flows" row displays the number of flows in datapath.
The "masks" row displays the mega flow mask stats. This row is
omitted for datapath not implementing mega flow. "hit" displays
the total number of masks visited for matching incoming packets.
"total" displays number of masks in the datapath. "hit/pkt" dis‐
plays the average number of masks visited per packet; the ratio
between "hit" and total number of packets processed by the data‐
path".
If one or more datapaths are specified, information on only
those datapaths are displayed. Otherwise, ovs-dpctl displays
information about all configured datapaths.
DATAPATH FLOW TABLE DEBUGGING COMMANDS
The following commands are primarily useful for debugging Open vSwitch.
The flow table entries (both matches and actions) that they work with
are not OpenFlow flow entries. Instead, they are different and consid‐
erably simpler flows maintained by the Open vSwitch kernel module. Use
ovs-ofctl(8), instead, to work with OpenFlow flow entries.
The dp argument to each of these commands is optional when exactly one
datapath exists, in which case that datapath is the default. When mul‐
tiple datapaths exist, then a datapath name is required.
[-m | --more] dump-flows [dp] [filter=filter]
Prints to the console all flow entries in datapath dp's flow ta‐
ble. Without -m or --more, output omits match fields that a
flow wildcards entirely; with -m or --more, output includes all
wildcarded fields.
If filter=filter is specified, only displays the flows that
match the filter. filter is a flow in the form similiar to that
accepted by ovs-ofctl(8)'s add-flow command. (This is not an
OpenFlow flow: besides other differences, it never contains
wildcards.) The filter is also useful to match wildcarded
fields in the datapath flow. As an example, fil‐
ter='tcp,tp_src=100' will match the datapath flow containing
'tcp(src=80/0xff00,dst=8080/0xff)'.
add-flow [dp] flow actions
[--clear] [--may-create] [-s | --statistics] mod-flow [dp] flow actions
Adds or modifies a flow in dp's flow table that, when a packet
matching flow arrives, causes actions to be executed.
The add-flow command succeeds only if flow does not already
exist in dp. Contrariwise, mod-flow without --may-create only
modifies the actions for an existing flow. With --may-create,
mod-flow will add a new flow or modify an existing one.
If -s or --statistics is specified, then mod-flow prints the
modified flow's statistics. A flow's statistics are the number
of packets and bytes that have passed through the flow, the
elapsed time since the flow last processed a packet (if ever),
and (for TCP flows) the union of the TCP flags processed through
the flow.
With --clear, mod-flow zeros out the flow's statistics. The
statistics printed if -s or --statistics is also specified are
those from just before clearing the statistics.
[-s | --statistics] del-flow [dp] flow
Deletes the flow from dp's flow table that matches flow. If -s
or --statistics is specified, then del-flow prints the deleted
flow's statistics.
get-flow [dp] ufid:ufid
Fetches the flow from dp's flow table with unique identifier
ufid. ufid must be specified as a string of 32 hexadecimal
characters.
del-flows [dp]
Deletes all flow entries from datapath dp's flow table.
OPTIONS
-s
--statistics
Causes the show command to print packet and byte counters for
each port within the datapaths that it shows.
-m
--more Increases the verbosity of dump-flows output.
-t
--timeout=secs
Limits ovs-dpctl runtime to approximately secs seconds. If the
timeout expires, ovs-dpctl will exit with a SIGALRM signal.
-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 com‐
mand 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 --ver‐
bose=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/open‐
vswitch/ovs-dpctl.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 dae‐
mon. Following forms are supported:
· libc, use libc syslog() function. This is the default
behavior. 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 possi‐
ble 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 pos‐
sible 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 sock‐
ets, but do not apply to UNIX domain sockets.
-h
--help Prints a brief help message to the console.
-V
--version
Prints version information to the console.
SEE ALSO
ovs-appctl(8), ovs-vswitchd(8)
Open vSwitch 2.4.90 ovs-dpctl(8)