A software defined networking, SDN, orchestration method, comprising: obtaining, by an SDN controller, a first request, sent from a platform, for creating a first logical switch; in response to the first request, creating, by the SDN controller, a control plane instance of the first logical switch, determining to deploy a data plane instance of the first logical switch on a first forwarding device which is selected by the SDN controller as a forwarding device that is relatively close to the platform, and sending first configuration information to the first forwarding device, wherein the first configuration information is used to instruct the first forwarding device to configure the data plane instance of the first logical switch, the control plane instance of the first logical switch is used to run a communications protocol, generate a forwarding rule table, and send the forwarding rule table to the data plane instance of the first logical switch, and the data plane instance of the first logical switch is used to perform data forwarding according to the forwarding rule table; obtaining, by the SDN controller, a second request for connecting the first logical switch to a first logical router; and in response to the second request, sending, by the SDN controller, second configuration information to the first forwarding device, and sending third configuration information to a second forwarding device configured with a data plane instance of the first logical router, wherein the second configuration information is used to instruct the first forwarding device to configure a first port of the data plane instance of the first logical switch to be communicatively connected to a second port of the data plane instance of the first logical router on the second forwarding device, and the third configuration information is used to instruct the second forwarding device to configure the second port to be communicatively connected to the first port. obtaining, by an SDN controller, a first request, sent from a platform, for creating a first logical switch; in response to the first request, creating, by the SDN controller, a control plane instance of the first logical switch, determining to deploy a data plane instance of the first logical switch on a first forwarding device which is selected by the SDN controller as a forwarding device that is relatively close to the platform, and sending first configuration information to the first forwarding device, wherein the first configuration information is used to instruct the first forwarding device to configure the data plane instance of the first logical switch, the control plane instance of the first logical switch is used to run a communications protocol, generate a forwarding rule table, and send the forwarding rule table to the data plane instance of the first logical switch, and the data plane instance of the first logical switch is used to perform data forwarding according to the forwarding rule table; obtaining, by the SDN controller, a second request for connecting the first logical switch to a first logical router; and in response to the second request, sending, by the SDN controller, second configuration information to the first forwarding device, and sending third configuration information to a second forwarding device configured with a data plane instance of the first logical router, wherein the second configuration information is used to instruct the first forwarding device to configure a first port of the data plane instance of the first logical switch to be communicatively connected to a second port of the data plane instance of the first logical router on the second forwarding device, and the third configuration information is used to instruct the second forwarding device to configure the second port to be communicatively connected to the first port.