---
title: "Highly Available Nodes"
description: "Learn about Pangolin's network of nodes and how they provide highly available, low-latency access to your applications"
---

Pangolin's nodes are an ability to put strategically located servers around the world that serve as entry points for user traffic to your applications. They form the foundation of Pangolin's distributed architecture, providing high availability and optimal performance.

## What Are Nodes?

<CardGroup cols={2}>
<Card title="Entry Points" icon="door-open">
  Handle incoming user requests before routing them to your applications.
</Card>

<Card title="Global Coverage" icon="globe">
  Located regionally to minimize latency for users in different regions.
</Card>

<Card title="High Availability" icon="shield-check">
  Multiple locations ensure your applications remain accessible even if individual locations fail.
</Card>

<Card title="Authentication" icon="key">
  Verify user identity and enforce access policies before allowing access.
</Card>
</CardGroup>

<Info>
Think of different nodes as the "front doors" to your applications - users connect to the closest one, and it securely routes their requests to your backend services.
</Info>

## How Nodes Work

<Steps>
<Step title="Ingress Routing">
  Request is routed to the closest available node. If one goes down, there is always another node available.
</Step>

<Step title="Authentication">
  User identity is verified at the node before getting routed to your backend.
</Step>

<Step title="Tunnel Selection">
  Pangolin selects the optimal tunnel route to your backend service. Site tunnel clients (Newt) connect to the optimal node.
</Step>

<Step title="Failover Handling">
  If the primary tunnel fails, traffic automatically switches to an alternative route.
</Step>
</Steps>

## Advantages of Nodes

<CardGroup cols={2}>
<Card title="Low Latency" icon="bolt">
  Users connect to the geographically closest node.
</Card>

<Card title="Optimized Routing" icon="route">
  Automatic selection of the best available tunnel to route to your backend services.
</Card>

<Card title="Edge Computing" icon="microchip">
  Provide ingress to thin-clients on private networks via tunnels.
</Card>

<Card title="Health Monitoring" icon="heart-pulse">
  Each node continuously monitors its health and connectivity to your backend.
</Card>
</CardGroup>

<CardGroup cols={2}>
<Card title="Regional Redundancy" icon="check-double">
  Multiple nodes ensure your applications remain accessible during regional outages.
</Card>

<Card title="Fault Tolerance" icon="shield">
  No single point of failure - if one location goes down, there is always a way back to your application.
</Card>
</CardGroup>

## Deployment Models

<CardGroup cols={3}>
<Card title="Pangolin Cloud" icon="cloud" href="https://pangolin.fossorial.io/auth/signup">
  Network of nodes with automatic failover and routing to your backend services.
</Card>

<Card title="Managed" icon="circle-nodes" href="/manage/managed">
  Host your own multiple nodes with cloud coordination and automatic failover. Data always transits your servers.
</Card>

<Card title="Self-Hosted" icon="server" href="/self-host/quick-install">
  Fully self-hosted, self-contained Pangolin server acting as a single node.
</Card>
</CardGroup>

<Warning>
Self-hosted Pangolin provides only a single node and is not highly available. Consider Pangolin Cloud or managed deployment for production environments requiring high availability.
</Warning>

<Tip>
Managed deployment is ideal for organizations that need high availability while maintaining control over their infrastructure and data transit.
</Tip>