Deployment Model

Deployment Model represents another layer, physical model with its own structure and elements (deployment nodes).
It references the logical model and inherits its relationships.

Specification

First, following the same approach, deployment node kinds have to defined within the specification:

specification {
  deploymentNode environment
  deploymentNode zone
  deploymentNode kubernetes {
    // Nodes have same styling options
    style {
      color blue
      icon tech:kubernetes
      multiple true
    }
  }
  deploymentNode vm {
    // Common properties for the kind
    notation 'Virtual Machine'
    technology 'VMware'
  }
}

You define whatever you need to represent your deployment model and your ubiquitous language.

Deployment nodes

The deployment model is a set of nodes, organized in a hierarchical structure:

deployment {
  environment prod {
    zone eu {
      zone zone1 {
        vm vm1
        vm vm2
      }
      // You can also use '=' with the name coming first
      zone2 = zone {
        vm1 = vm
        vm2 = vm
      }
    }
  }
}

Node names must be unique within its container (parent node); same rules as for element names in the logical model.

Nodes can also have titles, descriptions, tags, style, and other properties just like logical elements.

deployment {
  environment prod 'Production' {
    #live #sla-customer
    description 'Production environment'
    technology 'OpenTofu'
    link https://likec4.dev

    zone eu {
      title 'EU Region'
      // ...
    }
  }
}

Extend nodes

As in the logical model, you can extend deployment nodes:

// File: 'deployments/prod.c4'
deployment {
  environment prod
}

// File: 'deployments/prod/zone-eu.c4'
deployment {
  extend prod {
    zone eu
  }
}

Same rules apply for extending nodes:

extended node must be referenced by a fully qualified name.
define additional properties.

Deployed instances

Operator instanceOf “deploys” elements from the logical model to deployment nodes:

deployment {
  environment prod {
    zone eu {
      zone zone1 {
        // 'frontend.ui' is a logical element
        // by default, instance has same name,
        // i.e. it becomes 'prod.eu.zone1.ui'
        instanceOf frontend.ui
        // this becomes 'prod.eu.zone1.api'
        instanceOf backend.api
      }

      zone zone2 {
        // or use '=' with the name coming first
        ui = instanceOf frontend.ui

        // two instances of same element
        api1 = instanceOf backend.api
        api2 = instanceOf backend.api
      }

      // Deploy to any level, not only leaf nodes
      // Assume database shared between zones
      db = instanceOf database
    }
  }
}

Deployed instance inherits properties and styling from the element.
It is possible to override:

deployment {
  environment prod {
    zone eu {
      db = instanceOf database {
        title 'Primary DB'
        technology 'PostgreSQL with streaming replication'
        icon tech:postgresql
        style {
          color red
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Deployment relationships

Deployment model inherits relationships from the logical model.
But also allows to define specific ones:

deployment {
  environment prod {
    vm vm1 {
      db = instanceOf database 'Primary DB'
    }
    vm vm2 {
      db = instanceOf database 'Standby DB'
    }
    vm2.db -> vm1.db 'replicates'
  }
}

As you see, relationship is between same logical element, but different instances.
Assume, we don’t need this relationship in our logical model, but it makes sense for deployment.

Deployment relationships can be “kinded”, and have same properties as logical ones:

deployment {
  environment prod {
    vm2.db -[streaming]-> vm1.db {
      #next, #live
      title 'replicates'
      description 'Streaming replication'
    }
  }
}

Relationships can be defined for nested elements of deployed instances:

model {
  component database {
    component repl_log
  }
}
deployment {
  vm vm1 {
    db = instanceOf database 'Primary DB'
  }
  vm vm2 {
    db = instanceOf database 'Standby DB'
  }

  // 'repl_log' is a nested element of deployed instance
  vm2.db -> vm1.db.repl_log 'replicates'
}