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