There are three types of Platform Analytics hosts that you install:
The Platform Analytics server manages the data that the Platform Analytics nodes collect. You can perform all server functions using the Platform Analytics Console in the server.
The Platform Analytics reporting server generates reports based on the data that the Platform Analytics nodes collect. Users can view these reports using a web browser. The Platform Analytics reporting server can run on the same host as the Platform Analytics server if this host meets the system requirements of both the Tableau Server and the Platform Analytics server software.
Platform Analytics nodes are hosts that collect data from clusters or license servers. Each node either belongs to a cluster from which Platform Analytics collects data (including license data if connected to a license server), or is a standalone host that collects license data.