Brocade SMI Agent User’s Guide
1
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Chapter
1
Overview
In this chapter
•
Common Information Model (CIM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
•
Brocade SMI-S Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
•
Brocade SMI Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Common Information Model (CIM)
The Common Information Model (CIM) is a conceptual, object-based information model defined by
the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) for describing management, which is not bound to
a particular implementation. This allows for the interchange of management information between
management systems and applications.
CIM consists of two parts:
•
CIM Specification
•
CIM Schema
The CIM Specification describes the language, naming, metaschema, and mapping techniques to
other management models, such as SNMP MIBs and FC-GS. The metaschema is a formal definition
of the model that defines the terms used to express the model and their usage and semantics. The
elements of the metaschema are
classes
,
properties
, and
methods
. The metaschema 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.
The CIM Schema itself is structured into three distinct layers:
•
Core Schema
•
Common Schema
•
Extension Schema
The
Core Schema
defines basic classes, such as a managed element or an association. The
Common Schema
provides a set of foundation classes that can be used as the super-class to
describe other devices, such as a system, a device, or a network. The
Extension Schema
allows
users to expand the definitions in the Common Schema to describe specific device types, such as a
Brocade FC switch.
The formal definition of the CIM Schema is expressed in a managed object format (MOF) file, which
is an ASCII file that can be used as input into a MOF editor, parser, or compiler to generate code for
use in a provider or client application.
Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) is a set of management and internet standard
technologies to unify management of an enterprise. It includes CIM, CIM Schemas, CIM operations
over HTTP, and CIM-XML encoding.