A node is a StreamBase Runtime container for one or more engines. For StreamBase and LiveView, a node is a container for one or more JVM instances.

Nodes are the primary runtime point of execution for a StreamBase Application. That is, even though a fragment is the minimum executable unit, you cannot deploy and run a fragment by itself. A fragment must be associated with a JVM engine and a node, and then you install and start the node to run the fragment.

When a node contains more than one engine, and therefore more than one fragment, when you start the node, you start all fragments in that node at the same time.

Each node is always a member of a cluster, even if there is a single node in the cluster.

Each node is associated with a node directory that contains logs, operational state, and application data.