Looking for suggestions on the best UML elements and connections for representing geographical locations and relationships with network devices in such a way that one can trace the location of a given network device.
For the network devices, I already have a package and deployment diagram for each type of network device types (server, router, switch, etc.) as well as stereotypes defined in an MDG for each type from which I create instances for each network device in the respective deployment diagram. Most of my network devices have a tag for location, which is populated from values obtained from our discovery tools. However the goal is to have a complete traceable relationship to its location, which I believe implies some relationship connections as well as package hierarchy for locations in browser.
This is what I have tried so far:
I created another package called Facility Locations and an associated Facility Locations diagram. Under the Facility Locations package, I have a package for each country. Under country I have a package for each location/city, then under city I have a package for building. Thus in the project browser one can see the geographical country, city/location, building hierarchy of where we own/manage network devices. Then in the Facility Locations diagram, I basically duplicate the same hierarchy structure, by dragging each geographical package as a package element and then connecting them appropriately using a nesting connection.
Then under the package for each building I have a deployment diagram onto which I drag links to the device instances that are located in the building. To create a traceable link between device and building, I also dragged the associated package for the building as a package element onto the diagram and link each device using a nested connection.
Now when I click on a network device, I can trace its location within the traceability window.
QUESTIONS:
- Can you think of a better way that may be more UML compliant?
- Are package elements the best element to use for defining a geographical location?
- Is the nesting connection the best relationship connection? Seems to be the only choice for connecting the package elements.
- Is the nesting connection the best relationship connection to associate the device node to the building package element? When you use the quick link from the node to the package, nesting connection is not an option, however, EA allows one to use the nesting connection from the toolbox to create the link. Does that mean I am not UML compliant?
