I'll answer it anyway since reference guide doesn't say much. ;-) "david.lloyd(a)jboss.com" wrote : BTW, what does KernelDeploymentDeployer actually *do*? | In new Deployers there is a notion of component. As I see components, they are the atoms of what you pass around in deployer's attachments - cannot be split any further. And those are the items that represent the actual runtime components, e.g. BeanMetaData ~ bean, ServiceMetaData ~ MBean, ... e.g. if admin console needs to inspect its runtime environment, all it needs to do is look at the deployer's/deployment unit's components. So, in order to have components, something needs to create them. Usually splitting some group of components from plain deployment unit into component deployment units. And that's what KDD does. It takes KD and splits it into BMDs. Or takes BMD from plain deployment unit and puts it into component du - so that it really is a component. It's more of a conceptual thing, keeping things clean and prepared for things that follow - profile service, etc. OK, this is how I see it. :-) I just had a discussion with MarkN about it, and we don't completely agree on everything. Adrian might explain it better, and I hope I didn't do a shot in the dark (too much). :-) View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4152512#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...