A method for managing a managed forwarding element (MFE) that forwards data in a network. A network controller publishes, to the MFE, a first set of data for configuring the MFE to perform a set of forwarding operations. The network controller collects, from the MFE, a second set of data regarding current operational state of the MFE. The network controller identifies a difference between a desired operational state of the MFE maintained by the network controller and the collected current operational state of the MFE. Based on the identified difference, the network controller publishes a new third set of data for configuring the MFE to adjust the current operational state of the MFE to the desired state.