← Support | October 2019.

What’s the difference between an asset and a node

Guardian Community Edition uses the concept of “assets” and “nodes”. Learn more about what each one and how they’re used.

Nodes

A single node is represented by a single network address (IP, IPv6, or MAC address). This is typical for many devices that you’d find on the network. However, nodes are not always a part of an asset. For example, broadcast and multicast addresses are separate nodes. So if you’re in an environment that uses a lot of multicasting (DCS or maybe CCTV) then you’ll likely experience this. Nodes can be viewed in Guardian Community Edition by navigating to Environment > Network View > Nodes in the web UI.

Assets

An asset can be made up of one or more nodes. For example, you may have a server with two NICs (network interface cards). That server would have two nodes associated with it, both belonging to a single asset. Assets can be viewed in Guardian Community Edition by navigating to Environment > Asset View in the web UI.