A network device attached to a port. Records may be identified by
name.
.IP "\fBQoS\fR"
-Quality-of-service configuration for an \fBInterface\fR.
+Quality-of-service configuration for a \fBPort\fR. Records may be
+identified by port name.
.IP "\fBQueue\fR"
-Configuration for one queue within a \fBQoS\fR configuration.
+Configuration for one queue within a \fBQoS\fR configuration. Records
+may only be identified by UUID.
.IP "\fBMonitor\fR"
Connectivity Monitoring attached to an \fBInterface\fR. Records may be
identified by \fBInterface\fR name.
referred to by that name elsewhere in the same \fBovs\-vsctl\fR
invocation in contexts where a UUID is expected. Such references may
precede or follow the \fBcreate\fR command.
+.IP
+Records in the Open vSwitch database are significant only when they
+can be reached directly or indirectly from the \fBOpen_vSwitch\fR
+table. Except for records in the \fBQoS\fR or \fBQueue\fR tables,
+records that are not reachable from the \fBOpen_vSwitch\fR table are
+automatically deleted from the database. This deletion happens
+immediately, without waiting for additional \fBovs\-vsctl\fR commands
+or other database activity. Thus, a \fBcreate\fR command must
+generally be accompanied by additional commands \fIwithin the same
+\fBovs\-vsctl\fI invocation\fR to add a chain of references to the
+newly created record from the top-level \fBOpen_vSwitch\fR record.
+The \fBEXAMPLES\fR section gives some examples that show how to do
+this.
.
.IP "\fR[\fB\-\-if\-exists\fR] \fBdestroy \fItable record\fR..."
Deletes each specified \fIrecord\fR from \fItable\fR. Unless
\fB\-\-if\-exists\fR is specified, each \fIrecord\fRs must exist.
+.IP
+It is often unnecessary to specify explicit \fBdestroy\fR commands,
+because (except for records in the \fBQoS\fR or \fBQueue\fR tables)
+records that are not reachable from the \fBOpen_vSwitch\fR table are
+automatically deleted from the database. This means that deleting the
+last reference to a record is sufficient for deleting the record
+itself. See the \fBEXAMPLES\fR section below for more information.
.
.IP "\fBwait\-until \fItable record \fR[\fIcolumn\fR[\fB:\fIkey\fR]\fB=\fIvalue\fR]..."
Waits until \fItable\fR contains a record named \fIrecord\fR whose
.IP
.B "\-\- \-\-id=@m create Mirror name=mymirror select-dst-port=@eth0,@eth1 select-src-port=@eth0,@eth1 output-port=@eth2"
.PP
-Remove the mirror created above from \fBbr0\fR and destroy the Mirror
-record (to avoid having an unreferenced record in the database):
+Remove the mirror created above from \fBbr0\fR, which also destroys
+the Mirror record (since it is now unreferenced):
.IP
-.B "ovs\-vsctl destroy Mirror mymirror \-\- clear Bridge br0 mirrors"
+.B "remove Bridge br0 mirrors mymirror"
.SS "Quality of Service (QoS)"
.PP
Create a \fBlinux\-htb\fR QoS record that points to a few queues and
.B "ovs\-vsctl clear Port eth1 qos"
.PP
To deconfigure the QoS record from both \fBeth0\fR and \fBeth1\fR and
-then delete the QoS record:
+then delete the QoS record (which must be done explicitly because
+unreferenced QoS records are not automatically destroyed):
.IP
.B "ovs\-vsctl \-\- destroy QoS eth0 \-\- clear Port eth0 qos \-\- clear Port eth1 qos"
.PP
.IP
.B "ovs\-vsctl set NetFlow br0 active_timeout=60"
.PP
-Deconfigure the NetFlow settings from \fBbr0\fR and delete the NetFlow
-record (to avoid having an unreferenced record in the database):
+Deconfigure the NetFlow settings from \fBbr0\fR, which also destroys
+the NetFlow record (since it is now unreferenced):
.IP
-.B "ovs\-vsctl destroy NetFlow br0 \-\- clear Bridge br0 netflow"
+.B "ovs\-vsctl clear Bridge br0 netflow"
.SS "sFlow"
.PP
Configure bridge \fBbr0\fR to send sFlow records to a collector on
.IP
.B "\-\- set Bridge br0 sflow=@s"
.PP
-Deconfigure sFlow from br0 and destroy the sFlow record (to avoid
-having an unreferenced record in the database):
+Deconfigure sFlow from br0, which also destroys the sFlow record
+(since it is now unreferenced):
.IP
-.B "ovs\-vsctl \-\- destroy sFlow br0 \-\- clear Bridge br0 sflow"
+.B "ovs\-vsctl \-\- clear Bridge br0 sflow"
.SH "EXIT STATUS"
.IP "0"
Successful program execution.