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.
Lenovo Storage V7000 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.