The first time that you install the domain services, you create the Informatica domain and a gateway node. When you install the domain services on other machines, you create additional nodes that you join to the domain.
The domain has the following types of nodes:
Gateway node. A gateway node is any node that you configure to serve as a gateway for the domain. A gateway node can run application services and it can serve as a master gateway node. The master gateway node is the entry point to the domain. You can configure more than one node as a gateway node, but only gateway node acts as the master gateway node at any given time.
Worker node. A worker node is any node that you do not configure to serve as a gateway for the domain. A worker node can run application services, but it cannot serve as a gateway.
You need to plan the number and type of nodes that you need based on your service and processing requirements. If you have high availability, you will want to create more than one gateway node for fail-over functionality.