NESTING TRANSACTION UPDATES TO MINIMIZE COMMUNICATION

For a controller for managing a network including managed forwarding elements that forward data in the network, a method for configuring a set of managed forwarding elements is described. The method generates a first set of flow entries for configuring the set of managed forwarding elements to forward packets as non-first-hop forwarding elements for a logical datapath set. The method generates a second set of flow entries for configuring the set of managed forwarding elements to forward packets as first-hop forwarding elements for the logical datapath set. The method sends the first set of flow entries to the set of managed forwarding elements prior to sending the second set of flow entries to the set of managed forwarding elements.