Deployment model with clusters?

[Gerd Aschemann]

Hi,

I would like to model my (WebSphere) Application Server clusters. Typical structures in deployment diagrams are hierarchical. Execution environments can be nested into each other, e.g.,

• The top level concept of the WAS environment is the cell, modeled as execution environment
• the cell may contain several clusters, also modeled as execution environments
• each cluster may be composed of servers (JVMs).

Now when it comes to physics, I can model nodes which contain the servers, since each JVM resides on a physical node. But then I can hardly see the logical containment of the WA servers in their clusters and their cells since they are spread across the different nodes.

How do you model this? Is there a good possibility to get a notion of the logical containment in a deployment diagram, e.g., by adding boundaries, different colors etc.?

Thanks,
  Gerd

[qwerty]

Hmm. You should have a look in my EA for BA book  

q.

[rothnic]

Hi,

I would like to model my (WebSphere) Application Server clusters. Typical structures in deployment diagrams are hierarchical. Execution environments can be nested into each other, e.g.,

• The top level concept of the WAS environment is the cell, modeled as execution environment
• the cell may contain several clusters, also modeled as execution environments
• each cluster may be composed of servers (JVMs).

Now when it comes to physics, I can model nodes which contain the servers, since each JVM resides on a physical node. But then I can hardly see the logical containment of the WA servers in their clusters and their cells since they are spread across the different nodes.

How do you model this? Is there a good possibility to get a notion of the logical containment in a deployment diagram, e.g., by adding boundaries, different colors etc.?

Thanks,
  Gerd

If you want to show a logical grouping, there are a couple ways I know of how to do this coming from a SysML perspective.

Allocation - Showing this relationship within the element is not supported within EA. If it was, you could show the relationship in the element shape, and it would say <<allocatedFrom>> WSA Cluster.

Reference - Depict each WSA Cluster with composition relationships to the WSAs, then have each physical server/node reference a specific WSA. Then the composite/IBD would show the WSAs with dashed lines inside of the servers/node. Further, you could give a descriptive role for each WSA.

So Node1 could reference
cluster1wsa1:WSA
cluster2wsa1:WSA
cluster3wsa1:WSA.

Then Node2 could reference
cluster1wsa2:WSA
cluster2wsa2:WSA
cluster3wsa2:WSA, and so on.