One of the important problems in High Level Architecture (HLA) based distributed simulation systems is the allocation of the different simulation modules to the available physical resources. Usually, the deployment of the simulation modules to the physical resources can be done in many different ways, and each deployment alternative will have a different impact on the performance. Although different algorithmic solutions have been provided to optimize the allocation with respect to the performance, the problem has not been explicitly tackled from an architecture design perspective. Moreover, for optimizing the deployment of the simulation system, tool support is largely missing. In this paper we propose a method for automatically deriving deployment alternatives for HLA based distributed simulation systems. The method extends the IEEE Recommended Practice for High Level Architecture Federation Development and Execution Process by providing an approach for optimizing the allocation at the design level. The method is realized by the tool framework, S-IDE (Simulation-IDE) that we have developed to provide an integrated development environment for deriving a feasible deployment alternative based on the simulation system and the available physical resources at the design phase. The method and the tool support have been validated using a case study for the development of a traffic simulation system. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.