If you try to deploy a portlet or theme or any .war
file on a standalone JBoss 5.1, it will fail and try to create the directory in [Jboss_home]\jboss-5.1.0.GA\standalone\deployments
Resolution
The issue is that deployments are not put in the correct folder.
Add the property auto.deploy.jboss.dest.dir=${jboss.home.dir}/server/default/deploy