Deployment Diagrams Reference

Notation Description
Artifact

An artifact is a classifier that represents some physical entity, a piece of information that is used or is
produced by a software development process, or by deployment and operation of a system. A particular
instance (or "copy") of an artifact is deployed to a node instance.

Artifact is presented using an ordinary class rectangle with the keyword «artifact». Examples in UML
Artifact web-app.war specification also show document icon in upper right corner.

The UML Standard Profile defines several standard stereotypes that apply to artifacts:

«file» A physical file in the context of the system developed.

Standard stereotypes - subclasses of «file»:

«document» A generic file that is not a «source» file or «executable».

«source» A source file that can be compiled into an executable file.

«library» A static or dynamic library file.

«executable» A program file that can be executed on a computer system.

«script» A script file that can be interpreted by a computer system.

C# source file artifact UserServices.cs and Library

Standard UML 1.x stereotypes that is now obsolete:
commons.dll

«table» Table in database.

Artifact alternatively could be is depicted by an icon.

 Artifact web-tools-lib.jar

Associations of Artifacts

Artifacts can be involved in associations to other artifacts, e.g. composition associations. For
instance, a deployment descriptor artifact for a component may be contained within the artifact that
manifests that component. In that way, the component and its descriptor are deployed to a node
instance as one artifact instance.

Application book-club.ear artifact contains EJB user-

service.jar artifact and deployment descriptor.

Dependency between Artifacts

Dependency between artifacts is notated in the same way as general dependency, i.e. as a general
dashed line with an open arrow head directed from client artifact to supplier artifact.

The book-club.war artifact depends on web-tools-

lib.jar artifact

Manifestation

Manifestation is an abstraction relationship which represents the concrete physical rendering of one
or more model elements by an artifact or utilization of the model elements in the construction or
 generation of the artifact. Since UML 2.0 artifacts can manifest any packageable elements, not just
components.

Manifestation between artifact and packageable element is notated in the same way as an
abstraction dependency, i.e. as a general dashed line with an open arrow head directed from artifact
to packageable element (e.g. component or package) and labeled with the keyword «manifest».

In UML 1.x, the concept of manifestation was referred to as implementation and was annotated as
«implement».

EJB component UserService and skeleton of web

services are manifested by EJB module user-
service.jar artifact.

Node

Node is a deployment target which represents computational resource upon which artifacts may be
deployed for execution.

Node is shown as a perspective, 3-dimensional view of a cube.

Application Server Node.

Hierarchical Node

Nodes may have an internal structure defined in terms of parts and connectors associated with them
for advanced modeling applications. Parts of node could be only of type node.

Hierarchical nodes (i.e., nodes within nodes) can be modeled using composite associations, or by
defining an internal structure for advanced modeling applications.

Application server box runs several web servers and

J2EE servers.
 Execution environment is usually part of a general node or «device» which represents the physical
hardware environment on which this execution environment resides.

Execution environments can be nested (e.g., a database execution environment may be nested in an
operating system execution environment).

Several execution environments nested into server

device

Device

A device is a subclass of node which represents a physical computational resource with processing
capability upon which artifacts may be deployed for execution.

Device is rendered as a node (perspective, 3-dimensional view of a cube) annotated with keyword
«device».

Application Server device.

UML provides no standard stereotypes for devices. Examples of non-normative stereotypes for devices
are:
«application server»
«client workstation»
«mobile device»
«embedded device»

Application Server device depicted using custom icon.

Profiles, stereotypes, and tagged values could be used to provide custom icons and properties for
the devices.
 Computer stereotype with tags applied to Device
class.

Database Server device depicted using custom icon.

Mobile smartphone device depicted using custom

icon.

Execution Environment
 An execution environment is a (software) node that offers an execution environment for specific types
of components that are deployed on it in the form of executable artifacts.

Execution environment is notated as a node (perspective, 3-dimensional view of a cube) annotated

with the standard stereotype «executionEnvironment».

Execution environment - J2EE Container

UML provides no other standard stereotypes for execution environments. Examples of reasonable non-
normative stereotypes are:
«OS»
«workflow engine»
«database system»
«J2EE container»
Linux Operating System Execution Environment «web server»
«web browser»

Oracle 10g DBMS Execution Environment

Communication Path

A communication path is association between two deployment targets, through which they are able
to exchange signals and messages.

Communication path is shown as association, it has no additional notation.

Communication path between several application

servers and database servers.

When deployment targets are some physical devices, communication path will typically represent a
physical connection or media between the nodes.
 Gigabit Ethernet as communication path between
application and database servers.

When deployment targets are execution environments, communication path will typically represent
some protocol.

TCP/IP protocol as communication path between

J2EE server and database system.

Deployment

A deployment is a dependency relationship which describes allocation (deployment) of an artifact to

a deployment target.

Deployment could be shown as a dependency that is drawn from the artifact (supplier) to the
deployment target (client) and is labeled with «deploy». Note, that dependency usually points from the
client to the supplier, i.e. in the direction opposite to what is recommended by UML 2.4 for deployment.
J2EE web application archive portfolio.war deployed On the other hand, UML specification allows to change direction for a dependency based on user's
on Apache Tomcat JSP server. stipulations.

At the "instance level" instances of artifacts could be deployed to specific instances of the deployment
target. The underlining of the name of artifact instance may be omitted.

J2EE web application archive portfolio.war deployed

on two instances of Apache Tomcat JSP server -
psrv_023 and psrv_037.
 Deployed artifacts could be shown contained within a deployment target.

The portfolio.ear artifact deployed on application

server.

Deployment could also be shown using textual list of deployed artifacts within a deployment target.

The portfolio.ear, stocks.ear, weather.ear artifacts

deployed in J2EE 1.4 container.

Deployment could be shown in a rectangular frame around the diagram with deployment name in a
compartment in the upper left corner. The long form name for the diagram heading is deployment and
abbreviated form is dep.

User Services deployment shown in the diagram

frame.

Deployment Specification
A deployment specification at specification level is graphically displayed as a classifier rectangle
with optional deployment properties in a compartment.
 The ejb-jar.xml deployment specification

An artifact that reifies or implements deployment specification properties at instance level is a

deployment descriptor.

Deployment descriptor is rendered as a classifier rectangle with the name underlined and with
deployment properties having specific values in a compartment.

The ejb-jar.xml deployment descriptor

Dependency
A deployment specification could be displayed as a classifier rectangle attached to a component
artifact using a regular dependency arrow pointing to deployed artifact.

The ejb-jar.xml deployment specification for user-

service.ejb artifact.

Association

Deployment specification could be associated with the deployment of a component artifact on a

node. In this case deployment specification could be shown as a classifier rectangle attached to the
deployment.

Note, UML 2.4 specification shows this association as a dashed line (while association is normally
displayed as solid line.)
 The ejb-jar.xml deployment specification attached to
deployment.

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This document describes UML versions up to UML 2.5 and is based on the corresponding OMG™ Unified Modeling Language™ (OMG UML®)
specifications. UML diagrams were created in Microsoft® Visio® 2007-2016 using UML 2.x Visio Stencils. Lucidchart is a nice, free UML tool that
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