In this documentation, a host is an [operating system](A10-Glossary/Operating system.md) instance running on a server. The host is assigned a name — its hostname — and is addressed on the network by that name. One physical server runs one host (there is no virtualization in this environment).
The term “host” has many meanings across computing. In networking it refers to any device participating in a network; in virtualization it refers to the physical machine running virtual machines; in web hosting it refers to a server making websites available. In the context of this documentation, “host” always means a named OS instance on a physical machine.
In This Home
The lab hosts are Raspberry Pi servers running Linux. Each is identified by its hostname (e.g., n8n.iot, homeassistant.iot). See Server and [Operating system](A10-Glossary/Operating system.md) for related terms.