Does Confluence Data Center use "Shared Home Plugins" directories (like Jira)?

[Bill Mall (Karma)]

I've installed Confluence Data Center 7.3.2 (with multiple nodes) and my <shared-home> directory does not contain any "plugins" folders.  Should it?

I only see the "bundled-plugins", "plugins-cache", "plugins-osgi-cache", and "plugins-temp" directories in the root <confluence-home> directory.

This article explains how to clear the above directories when clearing the Confluence plugin cache. I'm still failing to understand where the downloaded and installed plugin jars are stored though (not the cache, the actual plugin jars themselves).

https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/how-to-clear-confluence-plugins-cache-297664846.html

For my Jira Data Center installation, the <jira-home> plugin directories remain (but empty), and the <jira-shared-home> directory is where plugins are downloaded and installed to.  Is this not the case for Confluence?

How does each Confluence node share the same plugin data (jar, etc.)?

Thanks for any/all help/info!

[Hua Soon SIM _Akeles_]

In case anyone comes across this page.

For Confluence Data Center, the plugins are stored in the database within the PLUGINDATA table

https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/how-to-manually-remove-malfunctioning-add-ons-113705118.html