9.0 OpenWBEM
Novell® has embraced the open standard strategies of Web-Based
Enterprise Management (WBEM) proposed by the
Distributed Management Task
Force (DTMF). Implementing these strategies can substantially
reduce the level of complexity associated with managing disparate systems
in your network.
The following information describes a few of the components proposed by
the DTMF standards. Understanding what these are and how they relate to
each other can help you understand what OpenWBEM is and how you most
effectively use it in your network.
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Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) is 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 standards-based management
tools leveraging the emerging Web technologies. The DMTF has developed a
core set of standards that make up WBEM:
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A data model: the Common Information Model (CIM) standard
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An encoding specification: CIM-XML Encoding Specification
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A transport mechanism: CIM operations over HTTP
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The Common Information Model (CIM) is a conceptual information model
that describes management and is not bound to a particular
implementation. This allows for the interchange of management
information between management systems and applications. This can be
either agent-to-manager or manager-to-manager communications that
provide for distributed system management. There are two parts to CIM:
the CIM Specification and the CIM Schema.
The CIM Specification describes the language, naming, and meta schema.
The meta schema is a formal definition of the model. It defines the
terms used to express the model and their usage and semantics. The
elements of the meta schema are Classes, Properties, and Methods. The
meta schema also supports Indications and Associations as types of
Classes, and References as types of Properties.
The CIM Schema provides the actual model descriptions. The CIM Schema
supplies a set of classes with properties and associations that provide
a well understood conceptual framework within which it is possible to
organize the available information about the managed environment.
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The Common Information Model Object Manager (CIMOM) is a CIM object
manager or, more specifically, an application that manages objects
according to the CIM standard.
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CIMOM providers are software that performs specific tasks within the
CIMOM that are requested by client applications. Each provider
instruments one or more aspects of the CIMOM's schema.
SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server contains the open source CIMOM from the
OpenWBEM project.
The Web-Based Enterprise Management software selection includes a set of
packages that contain basic Novell providers, including some sample
providers, and a base set of accompanying Novell schemas.
As Novell moves forward with OpenWBEM and development of specific
providers, it will provide tools that offer the following important
features:
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Efficient monitoring of network systems
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Recording of alterations within existing management configurations
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Hardware inventory and asset management
Understanding how the OpenWBEM CIMOM is set up and how to configure it can
help you monitor and manage disparate systems in your network with more
confidence and ease.