Today, networked systems are the rule, not the exception, in commercial computing environments. For all the promise of multi-vendor networks, however, most users have achieved one thing only: connectivity. The goal of networking, sharing information, is still distant for many.
Interoperability at an informational level requires two things: the ability to develop and deploy applications which can take advantage of all the data and resources in a network, regardless of location; and the ability to manage all the diverse systems in that environment reliably.
While networking and system software have matured, approaches to system management have yet to reach the same level of consistency, interoperability and scalability. What system administrators need, a way to administer multi- vendor systems in networks, no one organization has been able to provide -- until now.
The Open Software Foundation's Distributed Management Environment (DME) represents a structure under which the management of systems and networks can be brought together. It will form the foundation for the management of the distributed systems of the 1990s, while retaining compatibility with existing solutions.
The OSF(tm) Distributed Management Environment is operating system- independent and supports de facto and formal network and system management standards. It provides building blocks for the development of management applications, as well as key management services and proof-of- concept applications.
OSF's Key Role in Distributed Computing and Distributed Management
OSF has taken the lead in making distributed networks of mixed-vendor systems a reality in commercial computing environments with its Distributed Computing Environment (DCE).
With DCE, users are able to use their networked systems -- which already provide connectivity -- to develop, distribute and maintain distributed applications. The Distributed Management Environment will bring manageability and ease of use to distributed computing, and allow network components, systems and applications to be well maintained and managed.
The immediate beneficiaries of DME will be systems administrators, who require a more efficient and reliable set of management applications to keep their distributed computing environments operating. Another constituency, application developers, will benefit from the rich set of tools and services provided by the DME framework for writing management applications. And the ultimate beneficiaries will be end users everywhere, who rely on the systems they use in their day-to-day work to perform to their best potential.
To effectively manage networks made up of PCs, workstations, and mainframes running a variety of operating systems and applications requires an approach which accommodates standards and existing technology, while providing room for technical innovation. Additionally, a distributed management environment must provide both system and network management, and scale from a single system to an enterprise.
The OSF Distributed Management Environment has two main components: a set of application services that provide some of the most critical system management functions, and a framework, which provides the building blocks needed to develop applications to manage diverse systems. This design provides consistency with existing solutions and interoperability in multi- vendor, distributed networks.
The DME offering contains distributed applications services, provided as a set of modules and APIs, that address some of the most crucial management tasks in today's distributed computing environments. The offering also provides the management applications that use the underlying applications services to perform their tasks, and a consistent user interface. This modular approach allows for the enhancement or replacement of individual components by ISVs and system vendors. The DME Management Applications are:
In both network and systems management, the administrator manages by modifying information related to a resource or a service, and by performing operations on some service and data. The DME classification of information and operations into objects leads to a well-defined and structured approach to management. All DME management operations can be carried out via the same interface and style of interaction: by communicating with objects.
The services provided by the DME framework, and its object-oriented approach which encourages modularity in application design, represent a significant business opportunity. For example, ISVs will be able to create libraries of objects for specific management functions. System vendors will be able to provide their specific versions of managed objects, and plug them into existing management applications. System integrators and application developers can, in effect, mix-and-match subcomponents in management applications, tailoring the management solution to particular needs without rewriting the entire application.
Previous management solutions were asymmetrical, forcing rigid distinctions between the managed system, for example, a mainframe, and the objects being managed, for example, printers or applications. This centralized perspective made scalability and innovation difficult.
The DME framework is symmetrical in design, facilitating the delegation and distribution of management operations. This capability provides the foundation for scalability. The components of the DME framework are a comprehensive set of building blocks which will ease new management application development, and provide a means to accommodate older applications. The components include
Management request brokers are the central pieces in the DME framework. The framework provides two to facilitate communication between applications and objects.The management request brokers accept requests on objects, locate objects anywhere in the network, and forward requests.
One request broker supports the established standard network managment protocols SNMP (Internet's Simple Network Management Protocol) and CMIP (ISO's Common Management Information Protocol), and is used to collect management information from devices in the network. The second request broker makes available an RPC-based management protocol that provides an innovative, symmetrical, secure object-oriented environment used primarily to implement management applications.
With both request brokers, objects are maintained by object servers. DME provide two types of object servers, one for short-duration tasks, such as changing a password, and one for longer-duration tasks, such as monitoring a network.
Management applications and system administrators need to be notified about problems and changes occurring in the system. DME's event management services provide notification of forwarding, logging and filtering. Filters can be programmed to analyze the attributes of an event notification and associate the event with a particular action.
To make this management service easy to use, DME provides a high-level template language for event definition.
The DME Object Services provide a management data repository for storing data contained in managed objects on disk. Management data otherwise may be lost if the management environment is shut down or subject to an external failure. The DME Data Management Services are highly integrated with the object services and support a change log roll-back for increased reliability.
The DME User Interface Services provide an efficient, consistent interface that simplifies the development, integration, and use of management applications. It is based on the OSF/Motif(tm) GUI.
Screen layout and actions on objects are defined by means of a dialogue language, which allows developers to define the user interface of an object, and specify its actions and appearance. This user interface definition is stored in the managed object and interpreted by the DME Display Manager upon request. In this way, a managed object not only contains the management information and the operations possible on it, but also the user interface that is associated with that managed object, creating a self-contained software module.
The DME user interface supports several views of management information. Users can view and interact with collections of icons representing management objects. Topological views allow users to view and interact with icons arranged in a manner that reflects their geographical location. Finally, management dialogues allow users to view management information and interact with dialog boxes for data entry and to initiate management operations.
Organizations differ in their approach and requirements for systems and network management. The DME management services provide a flexible, customizable way to develop management models and policies. Concepts like management domains and management policies are built upon DME management services. The DME architecture does not prescribe any specific management model, but provides defaults, which developers and users may customize.
Protocols are used to facilitate communication between management applications and managed objects. The DME framework supports SNMP and CMIP, as well as a management protocol based on the DCE RPC. The DCE RPC-based protocol is optimally suited for secure, distributed systems management.
To make the development of management applications easier, a rich programming environment is necessary. The DME toolkit provides APIs to DME framework services, including three which provide access services specifically to management request brokers. One API provides a consistent programming model for SNMP and CMIP management protocols. Two object-oriented APIs, one ANSI-C based and the other C++ based, simplify the task of writing management applications for DME's object-oriented management request broker. Additional high-level tools for user interface development, event management and object implementation are provided.
DME allows the full integration and management of DOS-based PCs into heterogeneous distributed environments.
Personal computer support services will include network licensing, event notification services, fault monitoring, and PC configuration management services.
Additionally, DME will provide interoperability with most existing management standards. DME can be used to manage existing resources, as well as integrate with other open and proprietary management environments. It can be applied from a single, stand-alone system to managing entire, networked enterprises.
The DME offering goes beyond existing management environments available today. By providing enabling services which cover many important aspects of network and system management, DME will define distributed, open management for the 1990s and beyond.