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Deployment diagram

Where software runs: zones, hosts, replicas, versioned artifacts and ports.

1 deployment diagram example

Production deployment topology

Where the checkout service runs: edge, production pods and the database zone, with replicas and versions.

Deployment answers what is installed where. Zones are real boundaries, replica badges count copies, and artifact chips carry the version. The primary database and its replication path are the two accented elements.

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What is a deployment diagram?

A deployment diagram shows where software runs: the physical or virtual nodes, such as regions, clusters, hosts and containers, and which artifacts are deployed on each. It is defined in UML and is widely used for cloud topology.

Read it from the outer zones inward. Nested boxes show regions, networks and hosts, artifacts inside them show what runs there with its version, and lines show network connections with their ports.

When to use a deployment diagram

  • Use it to document a production topology for operations, incident response or an audit.
  • Use it to plan capacity and failover, by showing replicas across availability zones.
  • If you are explaining what the system does rather than where it runs, an architecture diagram is clearer.

How to make a good deployment diagram

  1. Name nodes with real environment names, such as eu-west-1 or prod-cluster.
  2. Show replica counts and artifact versions, since those are what operators look for.
  3. Label connections with protocol and port.
  4. Keep separate diagrams for production and staging instead of mixing them.