When you install the Informatica domain services, you are prompted to create a domain or to join a domain. The domain is a collection of nodes that represent the machines on which the application services run. The first time you run the installer, you must create the domain. If you install on a single machine, you create the Informatica domain and a gateway node on the machine. If you install on multiple machines, you create an Informatica domain and a gateway node during the first installation. During the installation on the additional machines, you create gateway or worker nodes that you join to the domain.

When you run the installer, it installs files for services. You can optionally create application services during the installation process, or you can manually create application services when the installation completes.