wbem

- Web-Based Enterprise Management

Description

Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) is a set of management and Internet-related technologies intended to unify the management of enterprise computing environments. Developed by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), WBEM enables organizations to deliver an integrated set of standards-based management tools that support and promote World Wide Web technology. The DMTF has developed a set of standards that make up WBEM. This set of standards includes:

Common Information Model (CIM)

CIM is an object-oriented data model that describes the overall management of information in an enterprise network environment. CIM consists of a CIM specification and a CIM schema:

CIM Specification

Consists of the language and methodology that describes management data.

CIM Schema

Provides actual model descriptions of systems, applications, large area networks, and devices. The CIM Schema enables applications from different developers on different platforms to describe management data in a standard format. As a result, a variety of management applications can share this information.

CIM Operations Over HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) 1.1 is a transport mechanism that maps CIM operations to HTTP to allow implementations of CIM to interoperate in an open, standardized manner.

CIM Operations Over HTTP 1.1 uses eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which is a markup language that represents management information in textual form.

In addition to the XML representation, CIM information is also represented textually by the managed object format (MOF). These MOF representations are typically stored as text files that developers compile into a CIM Object Manager.

WBEM Tools and Services

Tools and services that enable developers to create and Services management applications and instrumentation that manage heterogeneous computer environments include:

• Solaris WBEM Services

• Solaris WBEM Software Development Kit (SDK)

Solaris WBEM Services

These services consist of a set of value-added Services components. These services make it easier for developers to create management applications that run in the Solaris operating environment. They also make the Solaris operating environment easier to manage. Solaris WBEM Services consists of:

• CIM Object Manager, CIM Repository, and MOF Compiler

• CIM and Solaris Schema, which is an extension schema of CIM. CIM and Solaris Schema is a collection of CIM classes that describe managed elements in the Solaris operating environment. These classes are available from the CIM Object Manager at start up.

• Solaris Providers, which are programs that communicate information between the Solaris operating environment and the CIM Object Manager (providers get and set dynamic information about managed elements, acting as an intermediary between the CIM Object Manager and the managed elements).

  Solaris software providers have been developed for a variety of areas: users, roles, file systems, and network configuration, for example. A remote provider is also available to distribute agents away from the CIM Object Manager when required. Because of the incremental development capabilities of the WBEM instrumentation framework, developers can progressively and consistently add more providers for additional Solaris software services.

• SNMP Adapter for WBEM, which enables Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) management applications to access system management information that is provided by Solaris WBEM Services. Used with the Solstice Enterprise Agent (SEA) Master Agent snmpdx(1M), the SNMP Adapter for WBEM maps SNMP requests into equivalent WBEM Common Information Model (CIM) properties or instances.

  The SNMP Adapter for WBEM also remaps the response from the CIM Object Manager into an SNMP response, which is returned to the management application.

  A mapping file contains the corresponding Object Identifier (OID), class name, property name, and Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) type for each object. Developers can create their own mapping files.

• SNMP Provider, which enables WBEM services to deliver SNMP information.

Solaris WBEM SDK

The Solaris WBEM SDK is a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that contain the components necessary to write management applications. These applications communicate with WBEM-enabled management devices by using XML and HTTP communication standards.

Solaris WBEM applications request information or services from the Common Information Model (CIM) Object Manager through the WBEM APIs. These APIs represent CIM objects as Java classes. The APIs are used to describe managed objects and to retrieve information about managed objects in a system environment. The advantage of modeling managed resources by using CIM is that those objects can be shared across any system that is CIM-compliant.

For more information on the Solaris WBEM SDK, see the Solaris WBEM Developer's Guide. The Solaris WBEM API documentation is available in Javadoc format with the Solaris OS installation at /usr/sadm/lib/wbem/doc/index.html.

Compatibility of Solaris WBEM Services with Existing Protocols

Adapters and converters enable Solaris WBEM Services of Solaris to work compatibly with existing protocols by mapping WBEM information to these protocols. One such protocol is Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

Legacy management applications can administer WBEM-enabled software in the Solaris operating environment. Developers can write agents or providers that convert information from these protocols to WBEM, and they can write adapters that convert WBEM information into these protocols.

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

See Also

appletviewer(1), cimworkshop(1M), init.wbem(1M), mofcomp(1M), mofreg(1M), snmpdx(1M), wbemadmin(1M), wbemconfig(1M), wbemlogviewer(1M), attributes(5)