Status Published Base standards CIM and WS-Management Abbreviation WBEM | Year started 1996 Domain Systems management | |
Organization Distributed Management Task Force | ||
In computing, Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) comprises a set of systems-management technologies developed to unify the management of distributed computing environments. The WBEM initiative, initially sponsored in 1996 by BMC Software, Cisco Systems, Compaq Computer, Intel, and Microsoft, is now widely adopted. WBEM is based on Internet standards and Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) open standards:
Contents
- Features
- Architecture
- WBEM specifications
- Implementing support
- WBEM in operating systems
- WBEM implementations
- References
Although the name labels WBEM as "web-based", it is not necessarily dependent on any particular user interface (see below). Other systems-management approaches include remote shells, proprietary solutions and IETF standardized network-management architectures like the SNMP and netconf.
Features
WBEM allows the management of any element in a standard and inter-operable manner.
WBEM provides the technology underlying different management initiatives in information technology:
Architecture
To understand the WBEM architecture, consider the components which lie between the operator trying to manage a device (configure it, turn it off and on, collect alarms, etc.) and the actual hardware and software of the device:
- the operator will invoke some form of graphical user interface (GUI), Browser User Interface (BUI), or command-line interface (CLI). The WBEM standard has nothing to say about this interface (although the definition of a CLI for specific applications has started): WBEM operates independently of the human interface, since human interfaces can change without the rest of the system needing to note such changes.
- the GUI, BUI or CLI will interface with a WBEM client through a small set of application programming interfaces (APIs). This client will find the WBEM server for the managed device (typically on the device itself) and construct an XML message containing the request.
- the client will use the HTTP (or HTTPS) protocol to pass the request, encoding it in CIM-XML, to the WBEM server
- the WBEM server will decode the incoming request, perform the necessary authentication and authorization checks and then consult the previously defined model of the managed device to see how to handle the request. This model provides the power of the architecture: it represents the pivot point of the transaction, with the client simply interacting with the model and the model interacting with the real hardware or software. The model uses the Common Information Model standard; the DMTF has published many models for commonly managed devices and services: IP routers, storage servers, desktop computers, etc.
- for most operations, the WBEM server determines from the model that it needs to communicate with the actual hardware or software. So-called "providers" handle the interaction: small pieces of code interface between the WBEM server (using a standardised interface known as CMPI) and the real hardware or software. Because the interface is well-defined and the number of types of call is small, it is normally easy to write providers. In particular, the writer of the provider knows nothing of the GUI, BUI, or CLI used by the operator.
WBEM specifications
Implementing support
So, which pieces of this does a device manufacturer or service provider have to write?
WBEM in operating systems
WBEM implementations
References
Web-Based Enterprise Management Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA