Rudder components

The Rudder infrastructure uses three types of machines:

Rudder Node
A Node is client computer managed by Rudder. To be managed, a Node must first be accepted as an authorized node.
Rudder Root Server
This is the core of the Rudder infrastructure. This server must be a dedicated machine (either virtual of physical), and contains the main application components: the web interface, databases, configuration data, logs…
Rudder Relay Server
Relay servers are an optional component in a Rudder architecture. They can act as a proxy for all network communications between Rudder agents and a Rudder server. This enables them to be installed in a remote datacenter, or inside a restricted network zone, to limit the network flows required to use Rudder.