The Deployment Server (DS) centrally manages configurations for groups of forwarders (deployment clients). Instead of manually updating each forwarder, you push configurations from one place.
Deployment clients check in with the DS at regular intervals (default: every 60 seconds via phoneHomeIntervalInSecs). When configs change, the DS pushes updates automatically.
The DS uses two key concepts: Server Classes (groups of clients) and Deployment Apps (bundles of configs to push). You define both in serverclass.conf.