# Can 1 gateway be a part of multiple security zones?

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-1-gateway-be-a-part-of-multiple-security-zones/70520>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition80\
**Created:** [March 2, 2023, 10:19am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-1-gateway-be-a-part-of-multiple-security-zones/70520 "2023-03-02T10:19:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hewking32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@hewking32](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/hewking32)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 10:19am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-1-gateway-be-a-part-of-multiple-security-zones/70520/1 "2023-03-02T10:19:14Z")

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Can you please help me to understand if in complex gateway network 1 gateway can be a member of multiple security zones or just 1 zone ( the first zone that was fulfilled when checking from the top hierarchy of the zones)?  
If the zone has no identifiers i assume that this is not a valid configuration - is it right?

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**Author:** ![Gurjot\_Sandhu](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/gurjot_sandhu/32/38368_2.png) [@Gurjot\_Sandhu](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Gurjot_Sandhu)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 7:17pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-1-gateway-be-a-part-of-multiple-security-zones/70520/2 "2023-03-09T19:17:02Z")

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Hi [hewking32](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/hewking32),

I am not sure what you mean by "the first zone that was fulfilled when checking from the top hierarchy of the zones", can you expand on that? A zone that has no identifiers is basically useless, so you're right it is not a valid configuration.

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**Author:** ![hewking32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@hewking32](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/hewking32)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-1-gateway-be-a-part-of-multiple-security-zones/70520/3 "2023-03-09T20:45:42Z")

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after configuring zones i believe you can shuffle the order moving it up or down. If no other zones are fulfilled it always must land on default zone.

in my understanding - hopefully not oversimplified -zones are just a network traffic segregation method so each gateway process whatever traffic was left by filtering done by zones. its a way o managing traffic on gateway network and creating segments.

Open to hear any comments

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**Author:** ![Gurjot\_Sandhu](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/gurjot_sandhu/32/38368_2.png) [@Gurjot\_Sandhu](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Gurjot_Sandhu)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 10:42pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/can-1-gateway-be-a-part-of-multiple-security-zones/70520/4 "2023-03-15T22:42:18Z")

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You are correct, there is a hierarchy the zones follow, and if no zones are fulfilled then it lands on the default zone. Paragraph 2 in the attached user manual section talks about that and the IU video does as well.  
[https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/Security+Zones#SecurityZones-UsingSecurityZones](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/Security+Zones#SecurityZones-UsingSecurityZones)

Going back to your original question, a gateway can be set to multiple zones, but the hierarchy will take precedence and use the more important zone.