The AS-5 "Installation and Getting Started Guide" section 9.5 http://docs.jboss.org/jbossas/docs/Installation_And_Getting_Started_Guide/5/html/The_JBoss_Server___A_Quick_Tour.html#The_JBoss_Server___A_Quick_Tour-Hot-deployment_of_services_in_JBoss has this:

<quote>
"Start JBoss if it isn't already running and take a look at the server/production/deploy directory"
</quote>

The "production" server applies only for JBoss EAP and not for JBoss AS.