| description | Vector's deployment roles |
|---|
Once you have a general understanding of your topology's shape, you'll want to think about your deployment in terms of "roles". Fortunately, Vector keeps this simple by serving just two roles:
{% page-ref page="agent.md" %}
{% page-ref page="service.md" %}
The agent role efficiently collects and forwards data while the service role buffers, aggregates, and routes data. Both are described in more detail in their respective documents.