With a Common Information Model (CIM) agent, application
programmers can use common building blocks rather than proprietary
software or device-specific programming interfaces to manage CIM-compliant
devices. Standardization of the way that applications manage storage
provides easier storage management.
Components
A CIM agent involves the following
components:
- agent code
- An open-systems standard that interprets CIM requests and responses as they transfer between the
client application and the device.
- CIM object manager (CIMOM)
- The common conceptual framework for data management that receives, validates, and authenticates
the CIM requests from the client application. It then directs the requests to the appropriate
component or device provider.
System level 7.4.0 and later is based on the Open Pegasus version 2.13.0 CIMOM.
- client application
- A storage management program that initiates CIM requests to the CIM agent for the device.
- device
- The storage server that processes and hosts the client application requests.
- device provider
- A device-specific handler that serves as a plug-in for the CIM. That is, the CIMOM uses the
handler to interface with the device.
- Service Location Protocol (SLP)
- A directory service that the client application calls to locate the CIMOM.