The Web Service Distributed Management (WSDM) standard is the first step toward solving the systems management integration problem (i.e. reducing the complexity associated with managing resources in a heterogeneous environment).
The developerWorks article
A little wisdom about WSDM (
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-wisdom/) explains the reason why this standard is needed. As stated in this article: The industry has been wrestling with the complexity of managing its business systems for years. This complexity stems from the variety of IT resource providers and application providers that enterprises use to build their business systems. A variety of management systems already co-exist to be able to manage the breadth of resources. Ultimately, this creates a classic integration issue: the problem of management integration. It is this problem that is addressed by the WSDM standard.
The specifications associated with the WSDM standard are located on the OASIS web site (
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=wsdm). The WSDM standard consists of two specifications: Management Using Web Services (MUWS) and Management Of Web Services (MOWS).
Here is a description of the MUWS and MOWS specifications from the article,
A little wisdom about WSDM. The MUWS specifications "define how to represent and access the manageability interfaces of resources as Web services. Standard manageable resource definitions create an integration layer between managers and the different management protocols used to instrument resources. They are the foundation of enabling the use of Web services to build management applications and allowing many managers with one set of instrumentation to manage resources." The MOWS specification "defines how to manage Web services as resources and how to describe and access that manageability using MUWS. It provides mechanisms and methodologies that enable manageable Web services applications to interoperate across enterprise and organizational boundaries."
After reviewing the WSDM standard, let us know if you think that it will help address the systems management integration problem?
To show how this standard is being used effectively in IBM products and by IBM partners, a new IBM web page was launched that focuses on just the WSDM standard (
http://www-03.ibm.com/autonomic/wsdm/). From this page you can access a description of some of the IBM products and technologies that are already implementing parts of the WSDM standard (
http://www-03.ibm.com/autonomic/wsdm/product.html). There are also ten IBM partners that have provided their endorsement for WSDM as well (
http://www-03.ibm.com/autonomic/wsdm/quotes.html).
To help developers start using WSDM today, the IBM Autonomic Integrated Development Environment (AIDE) was released on the IBM alphaWorks site (
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/aide). The AIDE contains two primary tools. The IBM Manageability Endpoint Builder includes tools and a run-time environment for building endpoints that allow products to expose manageability interfaces using the WSDM standard. The IBM Manageability Endpoint Simulator, previously known as IBM Touchpoint Simulator, assists in the development of autonomic managers by emulating a WSDM-compliant managed resource.
Related to these tools is the IBM Autonomic Task Manager for Administrators which uses WSDM to communicate with managed resources and displays their status in a spreadsheet-oriented user interface (
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/atma).
Will tools such as these help you get started using the WSDM standard? If you have tried either of these tools, tell us what you think of them.
There are many other excellent resources on the developerWorks site that will help you understand WSDM:
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Autonomic computing and Web Services Distributed Management (
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/autonomic/library/ac-architect/).
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Understand Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM) (
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/ws-dw-ws-wsdm.html).
This tutorial covers the following topics:
- WSDM Overview
- WSDM Management Using Web Services (MUWS)
- WSDM Management of Web Services (MOWS)
- WSDM Events
- WSDM In Grids
- Additional WSDM related resources on the developerWorks site can be found here:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/search/searchResults.jsp?searchType=1&searchSite=dW&searchScope=dW&query=WSDM&Search.x=0&Search.y=0&Search=Search
There is a real need for a standard like WSDM, and it would be wise to learn more about it and then start using it. Do you think it would be wise to do this?
