Distributed Management Task Force
Encyclopedia
Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF, formerly "Desktop Management Task Force") is an industry organization that develops, maintains and promotes standards for systems management
in enterprise IT environments. These standards allow for building systems management infrastructure components in a platform
-independent and technology-neutral way. By creating the open industry standards, DMTF helps enable systems management interoperability between IT products from different manufacturers or companies.
, Broadcom
, CA, Inc., Cisco
, Citrix
, EMC
, Fujitsu
, HP
, Huawei
, IBM
, Intel, Microsoft
, Oracle
, Red Hat
, VMware
). The DMTF is organized in working group
s where the participants jointly develop and maintain the standards. DMTF has alliances with a number of other organisations and with academia
.
Within the VMAN initiative, there are several specifications and profiles:
CIM related standards are also developed outside of the DMTF. Some examples are:
CIM and WBEM are supported by a large number of products and open source
projects. A small list is provided here:
Systems management
Systems management refers to enterprise-wide administration of distributed systems including computer systems. Systems management is strongly influenced by network management initiatives in telecommunications....
in enterprise IT environments. These standards allow for building systems management infrastructure components in a platform
Platform (computing)
A computing platform includes some sort of hardware architecture and a software framework , where the combination allows software, particularly application software, to run...
-independent and technology-neutral way. By creating the open industry standards, DMTF helps enable systems management interoperability between IT products from different manufacturers or companies.
Overview
DMTF was found in 1992. It is a Standards Development Organisation where companies, other organisations and single persons can become members. In 2005, DMTF had more than 3500 participants out of more than 200 organisations and companies (such as AMDAdvanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
, Broadcom
Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA. Broadcom was founded by a professor-student pair Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III from the University of California, Los...
, CA, Inc., Cisco
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
, Citrix
Citrix Systems
Citrix Systems, Inc. is a multinational corporation founded in 1989, that provides server and desktop virtualization, networking, software-as-a-service , and cloud computing technologies, including Xen open source products....
, EMC
EMC Corporation
EMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...
, Fujitsu
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
, HP
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, Huawei
Huawei
Huawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China...
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Intel, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Oracle
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
, Red Hat
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
, VMware
VMware
VMware, Inc. is a company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary ....
). The DMTF is organized in working group
Working group
A working group is an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers working on new research activities that would be difficult to develop under traditional funding mechanisms . The lifespan of the WG can last anywhere between a few months and several years...
s where the participants jointly develop and maintain the standards. DMTF has alliances with a number of other organisations and with academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
.
Standards
DMTF standards include:- Common Information ModelCommon Information Model (computing)The Common Information Model is an open standard that defines how managed elements in an IT environment are represented as a common set of objects and relationships between them...
(CIM) – The CIM schema is a conceptual schemaConceptual schemaA conceptual schema or conceptual data model is a map of concepts and their relationships. This describes the semantics of an organization and represents a series of assertions about its nature...
that defines how the managed elements in an IT environment (for instance computerComputerA computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s or storage area networkStorage area networkA storage area network is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices...
s) are represented as a common set of objectsObject (computer science)In computer science, an object is any entity that can be manipulated by the commands of a programming language, such as a value, variable, function, or data structure...
and relationships between them. CIM is extensible in order to allow product specific extensions to the common definition of these managed elements. CIM uses a model based upon UMLUnified Modeling LanguageUnified Modeling Language is a standardized general-purpose modeling language in the field of object-oriented software engineering. The standard is managed, and was created, by the Object Management Group...
to define the CIM Schema. CIM is the basis for most of the other DMTF standards. - Common Diagnostic ModelCommon Diagnostic ModelThe Common Diagnostics Model, or CDM, is a diagnostics standard developed and maintained by the Distributed Management Task Force . CDM models the entire flow of diagnosis from test discovery, configuration and execution to progress updates and execution controls to finally viewing and managing the...
(CDM) – The CDM schema is a part of the CIM schema that defines how system diagnostics should be incorporated into the management infrastructure. - Web-Based Enterprise ManagementWeb-Based Enterprise ManagementWeb-Based Enterprise Management is a set of systems management technologies developed to unify the management of distributed computing environments. WBEM is based on Internet standards and Distributed Management Task Force open standards: Common Information Model infrastructure and schema,...
(WBEM) – defines protocols for the interaction between systems management infrastructure components implementing CIM, a concept of DMTF management profiles, that allows defining the behavior of the elements defined in the CIM schema, the CIM Query Language (CQL) and other specifications needed for the interoperability of CIM infrastructure. - Systems Management Architecture for Server HardwareSystems Management Architecture for Server HardwareThe Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware is a suite of specifications that deliver industry standard protocols to increase productivity of the management of a data center....
(SMASH) – defines a command line protocol for interacting with CIM infrastructure, and DMTF management profiles for server hardware management. - System Management BIOSSMBIOSIn computing, the System Management BIOS specification defines data structures in a BIOS which allows a user or application to store and retrieve information specifically about the computer in question. Circa 1999, it became part of the domain of the Distributed Management Task Force...
(SMBIOS) – defines how the BIOSBIOSIn IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
interface of x86 architecture systems is represented in CIM (and DMI). - Alert Standard Format (ASF) – defines remote control and alerting interfaces for OS-absent environments (for instance a system board controller of a PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
). - Directory Enabled Network (DEN) – defines how LDAPLightweight Directory Access ProtocolThe Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol network...
directories can be used to provide access to CIM managed elements and defines CIM to LDAP mappings for a part of the CIM schema. - Desktop Management InterfaceDesktop Management InterfaceThe Desktop Management Interface generates a standard framework for managing and tracking components in a desktop, notebook or server computer, by abstracting these components from the software that manages them. The development of DMI marked the first move by the Distributed Management Task...
(DMI) – DMI was the first desktop management standard. Due to the rapid advancement of DMTF technologies, such as CIM, the DMTF defined an "end of life" process for DMI, which ended March 31, 2005. - Desktop and mobile Architecture for System Hardware (DASH) – a management standard based on DMTF Web Services for Management (WS-Management), for desktop and mobile client systems.
- Configuration Management Database Federation (CMDBf) - CMDBf facilitates the sharing of information between configuration management databases (CMDBs) and other management data repositories (MDRs). The CMDBf standard enables organizations to federate and access information from complex, multi-vendor infrastructures, simplifying the process of managing related configuration data stored in multiple CMDBs and MDRs.
- Virtualization Management Initiative (VMAN) – A suite of specifications based on DMTF’s CIM that helps IT managers: Deploy virtual computer systems, Discover/inventory virtual computer systems, Manage lifecycle of virtual computer systems, Create/modify/delete virtual resources and Monitor virtual systems for health and performance
Within the VMAN initiative, there are several specifications and profiles:
- Open Virtualization Format (OVF) – Standard for packaging and deploying virtual applianceVirtual applianceA virtual appliance is a virtual machine image designed to run on a virtualization platform ....
s. OVF was adopted by the American National Standards InstituteAmerican National Standards InstituteThe American National Standards Institute is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international...
in August, 2010. - DSP1042 – System Virtualization Profile
- DSP1057 – Virtual System Profile
- DSP1059 – Generic Device Resource Virtualization Profile
- DSP1041 – Resource Allocation Profile
- DSP1043 – Allocation Capabilities Profile
CIM related standards are also developed outside of the DMTF. Some examples are:
- The SNIAStorage Networking Industry AssociationAn association of producers and consumers of storage networking products, whose goal is to further storage networking technology and applications.The Storage Networking Industry Association, or SNIA, was incorporated in December, 1997, and is a registered 501 non-profit trade association...
– develops and maintains the SMI-SSMI-SSMI-S, or the Storage Management Initiative – Specification, is a storage standard developed and maintained by the Storage Networking Industry Association . It has also been ratified as an ISO standard...
standard that defines DMTF management profiles for Storage Area NetworksStorage area networkA storage area network is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices...
. - The Open GroupThe Open GroupThe Open Group is a vendor and technology-neutral industry consortium, currently with over three hundred member organizations. It was formed in 1996 when X/Open merged with the Open Software Foundation...
– develops and maintains the CMPICommon Manageability Programming InterfaceThe Common Manageability Programming Interface is an open standard that defines a programming interface between a CIM server and CIM providers.-Overview:The CMPI standard is defined by the of The Open Group and is implementation neutral....
standard that defines a CC (programming language)C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
/C++C++C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
APIApplication programming interfaceAn application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
for CIM providers. - The Java Community ProcessJava Community ProcessThe Java Community Process or JCP, established in 1998, is a formalized process that allows interested parties to get involved in the definition of future versions and features of the Java platform....
– currently develops the JSR-48 standard that defines a JavaJava (programming language)Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
API for CIM client applications.
CIM and WBEM are supported by a large number of products and open source
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
projects. A small list is provided here:
- Windows Management InstrumentationWindows Management InstrumentationWindows Management Instrumentation is a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components provide information and notification...
(WMI) – Implementation of CIM and WBEM in Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... - SBLIM – Open source project providing an implementation of CIM and WBEM for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
as well as other CIM and WBEM related components and tools - OpenPegasus – Open source project providing a CIM Object Manager written in C++ (the central infrastructure component for CIM and WBEM)
- WBEM Services – Open source project providing a CIM Object Manager written in Java
- OpenWBEM – Open source project providing another CIM Object Manager written in C++
Incubators
- Open Cloud Standards Incubator – The Open Cloud Standards Incubator was a DMTF group focused on standards for facilitating management interoperability between private clouds within enterprises and between private, public and hybrid clouds. Initial priorities include cloud resource management protocols, packaging formats and security mechanisms to help enable interoperability. The group developed a set of documents including an architecture for managing clouds, use cases and interactions for managing clouds and a white paper titled "The Interoperable Cloud". The group completed its chartered deliverables in August 2010 . DMTF's cloud standards development work is now being handled by the Cloud Management Workgroup and the Cloud Auditing Data Federation Workgroup.
- Software License Management Incubator(SLM) - The Software License Management Incubator is working to develop white papers which focus on challenges to enabling the industry to manage licensed software products and product use. The SLM incubator employs key leaders in the IT management space, and also has representation from end user organizations such as JP Morgan Chase.