The HCI platform requires the following network planes: Cluster management network, storage network, overlay network, and VM network. These network planes serve the following purposes:

1. Cluster management network: Data related to heartbeats, management, and VM cloning, migration, and backup is transmitted over the cluster management network.
2. Storage network: The storage network is used to transmit aSAN data. All data written to disks and partial data read from disks are transmitted over the storage network. When the storage network is unstable, a split-brain issue may occur.
3. Overlay network (VXLAN): East-west traffic is transmitted over the overlay network. If all VMs are directly connected to an edge, no east-west traffic is transmitted. In this case, the VXLAN is no longer needed. If VMs are not directly connected to the edge, VMs are spread across different nodes, VMs need to communicate, or only some nodes are connected to the edge, the VXLAN is required when VMs running on nodes that are not directly connected to the edge need to communicate with external networks.
4. VM network: North-south traffic is transmitted over the VM network. Functioning as the edge, the VM network is connected to core switches or routers to transmit service traffic from external access.