Someone (I can't remember who) asked me about this a while ago. I hope
this clarifies.
.ST "CA Certificate Bootstrap"
.PP
Ordinarily, all of the files named in the SSL configuration must exist
-when \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR starts. However, if the \fB\-\-bootstrap\fR
+when \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR starts. However, if the \fIca-cert\fR file
+does not exist and the \fB\-\-bootstrap\fR
option is given, then \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR will attempt to obtain the
CA certificate from the controller on its first SSL connection and
save it to the named PEM file. If it is successful, it will