A method and apparatus are provided for collecting deployment information from a user for a multi-tier computer system. The method includes the steps of receiving a deployment size of the multi-tier system from the user and identifying a set of virtual appliances by function based upon the deployment size received from the user. The method further includes the steps of prompting the user for a name for each identified virtual appliance, collecting network information of each virtual appliance based upon the name and generating a deployment configuration file for a mandatory virtual appliance of the set of virtual appliances.