An entry adding method includes: a switch receives a first group entry sent by a controller, where the first group entry includes importance indication information of the first group entry, and a first action bucket; the switch determines that the first group entry cannot be added to a group table, and that a second group entry exits in the group table, the switch deletes the second group entry and adds the first group entry to the group table. Where importance of the second group entry is lower than importance of the first group entry; the second group entry includes a second action bucket; a quantity of first action buckets is not greater than the sum of a first value and a quantity of second action buckets; and the first value is a quantity of available action buckets in the group table.