0.2: What are administrative server nodes?

A node is a physical machine in a topology comprised of one or more machines. An administrative server node is a node that contains a WebSphere administrative server.

WebSphere Application Server Standard Edition resides on a single node. That is, each machine holds a separate installation of the product that is unaware of installations on other machines.

Nearly every resource in the WebSphere administrative domain resides on one node or another. A few resource types, such as virtual hosts and enterprise applications, are not associated with particular nodes.

For its contents to be managed by the IBM WebSphere Application Server product, a node must contain an administrative server. Therefore, for all practical purposes, a node and administrative server node are equivalent in the world of WebSphere administration.