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WBEM, CIM and the world of defined standards... |
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ajm4, 29/10/2000 |
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What is all this? |
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----------------- |
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Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) is an initiative |
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based on a set of management and Internet standard |
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technologies developed to unify the management of enterprise |
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computing environments. WBEM provides the ability for the |
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industry to deliver a well-integrated set of standard-based |
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management tools leveraging the emerging technologies such |
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as CIM and XML. |
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The Common Information Model is a common data model of an |
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implementation-neutral schema for describing overall |
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management information in a network/enterprise environment. |
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CIM is comprised of a Specification and a Schema. The |
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Specification defines the details for integration with other |
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management models (i.e. SNMP's MIBs or the DMTF's MIFs) |
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while the Schema provides the actual model descriptions. |
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The above are quite clearly lifted from the glossary on the |
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DMTF website. Mainly because they give the best definition. |
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How can we use them? |
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One of the main topics of conversations that seems to have |
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come up time and again is how are the "hosts" going to |
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communicate with the main system. CIM and WBEM provide a |
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well defined standard of passing objects of data throughout |
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a system. This means that the data undergoes no translation |
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at any stage, the "hosts" sources the data, wraps it in XML |
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in the CIM Schema and passes it to the main system. This |
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can then be passed so alter mechanisms, or can even be |
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attached a CIM object that has a metaschema that allows |
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alerts, though this is very advanced. The main point is |
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that it allows a universal representation of data that can |
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be interpreted by all parts of the system as well as |
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external systems. |
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Why should we use them? |
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----------------------- |
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Once of the communications methods frequently suggested by |
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the group is the use of SNMP. SNMP has been around many |
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years now and is well established. However it is a heavy |
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and dated protocol, heaving under extensions and |
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modifications that have been made to it over the years. The |
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DMTF or Distributed Management Task Force have been trying |
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to use SNMP as a basis for dragging systems management into |
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the new millenium. They have gathered together people who |
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understand the shortfalls of SNMP and have (and still are) |
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developed a system that will in the long term replcae SNMP. |
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Many companies have already taken and implemented the |
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standards such as WBEM that DMTF have produced. Indeed, few |
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motherboards today are not DMI (Distributed Management |
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Interface - another DMTF standard) compliant. |
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As the main part of our backend system is possibly (well, |
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probably) going to be predominantly Java based, it is |
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perhaps good to mention that Sun have been on the DMTF |
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bandwaggon for some time. This has two main advantage, 1) |
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There is a Solaris SDK for WBEM - quite what use that will |
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be I don't know 2) There are Java API extensions in the form |
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of JMX - java mangement extentions, which implement the WBEM |
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and CIM standards. Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and many others |
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have all implemented WBEM in various forms. |
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So where do we start? |
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--------------------- |
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I don't know. |
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I have read the introductory information, seen some |
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presentations and read a tutorial and some white papers. It |
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is big, but no bigger than a standard such as SNMP. The |
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system should certainly be investigated by all members of |
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the group, we should endevour to help each other understand |
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it. However it may be better to simply ignore this until |
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such a stage that we feel we are "on top of" the project and |
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that we can spare time to investigate this route. |
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One of the things that has been discussed is "protocols", |
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these are unimportant at this early stage. Indeed we could |
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implement the framework without really bothering about the |
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protocol (just use some simple method). As long as the data |
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encapsulation is seperated enough from the function then we |
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have no real problem. The system can operate, calls can be |
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fired and the system can work, then at a later stage the |
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classes that deal with the data communication and storage |
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can be replaced and updated (in line with the implementation |
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phases). However this still means that a concertated effort |
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needs to be made into deciding *what* data will be used, |
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*how* it will be used and what interfaces will the various |
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components need (ie, accessors, mutators and other methods - |
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think java interfaces, not GUI). |
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Online Resources |
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---------------- |
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There is little more that can be said on this subject until |
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a stage when we choose to pursue it further. Some useful |
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online resources are: |
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The home of all the information that is specific to the |
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standards group. |
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http://www.dmtf.org |
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Sun's Java API that implements the standards (JMX). |
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http://java.sun.com/products/JavaManagement/ |
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Sun's central WBEM site |
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http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/wbem/ |
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About |
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----- |
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|
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This document was written by Alex Moore for use by the team working on |
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a 3rd year Computer Science project called "i-scream". More details |
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can be found on the project website; |
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http://www.i-scream.org |
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