| Site | One or a collection of nodes running a single GitLab application. A site can be single-node or multi-node. | GitLab | deployment, installation instance |
| Single-node site | A specific configuration of GitLab that uses exactly one node. | GitLab | single-server, single-instance
| Multi-node site | A specific configuration of GitLab that uses more than one node. | GitLab | multi-server, multi-instance, high availability |
| Primary site | A GitLab site that is configured to be read and writable. There can only be a single primary site. | Geo-specific | Geo deployment, Primary node |
| Secondary site(s) | GitLab site that is configured to be read-only. There can be one or more secondary sites. | Geo-specific | Geo deployment, Secondary node |
| Primary site | A GitLab site whose data is being replicated by at least one secondary site. There can only be a single primary site. | Geo-specific | Geo deployment, Primary node |
| Secondary site(s) | A GitLab site that is configured to replicate the data of a primary site. There can be one or more secondary sites. | Geo-specific | Geo deployment, Secondary node |
| Geo deployment | A collection of two or more GitLab sites with exactly one primary site being replicated by one or more secondary sites. | Geo-specific | |
| Reference architecture(s) | A [specified configuration of GitLab for a number of users](../reference_architectures/index.md), possibly including multiple nodes and multiple sites. | GitLab | |
| Promoting | Changing the role of a site from secondary to primary. | Geo-specific | |
