---
title: "Highly Available Nodes"
description: "How Pangolin can be deployed in a cluster for high availability"
---

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.

## 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>
