Distributed System Designers (DSD’s) are an integrated set of graphical designers which are part of the new Visual Studio 2005. With these designers which you can use to visualise and define applications, compose systems, design classes, model logical representations of datacenters, and bind systems to logical servers in the logical layout of the target datacenter. Their high-level goals are:

  • Support designing and implementing applications
  • Composing applications into deployable systems
  • Modelling logical representations of the target datacenter
  • Defining and validating deployments of the systems you compose against the logical datacenter models.

The designers help software architects and designers, developers, and operations analysts resolve the following high-level goals:

  • Illustrate, communicate, and document application designs and the application host environment in a datacenter.
  • Maintain and synchronise design documents with source code.
  • Compose and configure systems from reusable applications and other systems.
  • Validate systems against target deployment environments to determine whether those systems can deploy successfully, even before you implement the applications in those systems.

DSD’s support the following high-level tasks:

  1. Design, implement, and connect applications using Application Connection Designer.
  2. Specify and review operations provided by Web service applications using the Endpoint Details window.
  3. Compose deployable systems from the applications you design using System Designer.
  4. Design CLR classes visually using Class Designer.
  5. Design a logical representation of the target datacenter environment using Logical Datacenter Designer.
  6. Specify settings and constraints for applications in the logical datacenter using the Settings and Constraints editor.
  7. Define and validate deployment for applications in the systems you create to the logical servers in the target datacenter using Deployment Designer.