54.5. Settings and Constraints Editor

To simplify the explanation of the Application and Logical Datacenter diagrams we intentionally left out one of their most important features, Settings and Constraints. This is better understood from the context of the Deployment Diagram. When you have your applications inside your servers, as shown in Figure 54-5, you can choose to validate the diagram (after right-clicking the design surface). This will ensure that all the settings in the Application Design match constraints in the Logical Datacenter Design, and that settings in the LDD match constraints in the AD.

To specify settings and constraints from View Other Windows Settings and Constraints, you can open the editor. Then, by selecting an application, endpoint, server, or zone, you can specify its settings and constraints. In the chapter's example for the WPF application, you need to specify that it needs to have Windows Vista, .NET 3.5, and Office 2007.

For the purposes of this hypothetical case, let's assume that these settings weren't specified in the LDD by the infrastructure architect, so that when you hit Validate you would clearly see that there were going to be problems and that you would need to talk these over with the (imagined) architect. If this were actually happening, he might tell you that .NET 3.5 isn't a problem, and he can install it in the clients; all his machines have Office 2003, but he can upgrade them to Office 2007, and he doesn't really need Vista — XP with SP2 is enough for the application.

This scenario could be extended, but the point of the story is to resolve such questions at the beginning of the project.