A deployment diagram is a diagram type in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) used to model the physical distribution of hardware components, software components, and network infrastructure in a distributed system or application. Deployment diagrams aid in visualizing and documenting the physical distribution and configuration of a system, articleing how various components are deployed on physical resources.
Here are some key concepts and elements of a deployment diagram:
Nodes: In a deployment diagram, nodes are used to represent physical resources on which software components or artifacts are executed or deployed. Nodes can be hardware devices such as servers, computers, or routers, as well as virtual machines or containers.
Artifacts: Artifacts represent software components, libraries, applications, or files that are executed or deployed on the nodes. They can be depicted as rectangles and often include names and version numbers.
Connections: Connections between nodes indicate communication and dependencies between physical resources. These can include network connections, communication channels, or physical cables.
Components: Deployment diagrams can also represent software components to article on which nodes they are distributed or executed. These are often the same software components modeled in other diagram types such as class diagrams or component diagrams.
Stereotypes: Stereotypes are optional tags or labels that can be used to further describe the nature or function of a node or artifact. For example, stereotypes like "Web Server" or "Database Server" can be used to categorize the role of a node.
Deployment diagrams are useful for documenting the physical architecture and configuration of a distributed system. They are widely used in system architecture and network service management. Deployment diagrams assist in the planning, design, and implementation of distributed applications, allowing developers to understand the physical distribution of components and their interactions.