A node is a controller in a cluster. It is connected to other nodes in the cluster over a cluster network. It is also connected to the disk shelves that provide physical storage for the Data ONTAP system or to third-party storage arrays that provide array LUNs for Data ONTAP use.
A node Vserver represents a node in the cluster. The cluster setup process automatically creates a node Vserver for each node in the cluster. If you run the vserver show command, the output includes node Vservers in the list.