NSX Architecture and Components
The three planes
NSX separates management, control, and data planes. The management plane is the NSX Manager cluster: UI/API, configuration, and desired state. The control plane computes and distributes topology and forwarding information; the central control plane runs on Manager, with local control plane agents on transport nodes. The data plane forwards packets: hypervisor transport nodes, NSX Edge nodes, segments, and uplinks. GENEVE encapsulates overlay traffic between transport nodes; VLAN-backed segments use existing VLANs. Transport zones group nodes with common networking; uplink profiles define teaming, MTU, and VLAN behavior. NSX Edge provides north-south routing, NAT, and centralized services; it is not required for every east-west flow.
Traps: Manager is not in the packet path; the control plane does not carry tenant data; Edge is not a mandatory hop for same-segment traffic; overlay MTU must account for GENEVE overhead.
Rule: ask 'which plane owns this?' Configuration belongs to management; topology and forwarding to control; packets to data. Worked example: a VM-to-VM flow on the same segment is switched locally by the host data plane and never traverses Manager, the control plane, or Edge. If the two VMs are on different hosts, GENEVE carries the frame over the transport network between TEPs.