Introduction
The Common Information Model (CIM) is a standard data model developed by a consortium of major hardware and software vendors (including IBM®) called the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) as part of the Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) initiative. WBEM includes a set of standards and technologies that provide management solutions for a distributed network environment. Interoperability is a major focus of WBEM, and using WBEM technologies can help you develop a single set of management applications for a diverse set of resources and systems.
CIM is a major component of the WBEM initiative, providing a model for describing and accessing data across an enterprise. CIM consists of both a specification and a schema. The specification defines the details for integration with other management models, while the schema provides the actual model descriptions.
CIM supports the concept of indications as described in CIM indication concept.
With support for the CIM server on systems running z/OS, users have the ability to access z/OS resources through an extendible industry standard model. This document contains information about how to use the CIM server for z/OS for this purpose.
- CIM server
- The open source implementation
of the CIM server manages
the communication between clients and providers. The CIM server also
provides several management functions, including security, and a
set of commands that provide configuration and management functions
to administrators.
The CIM server implementation on z/OS is based on the OpenPegasus CIM server from The Open Group. See the OpenPegasus website for more information.
- CIM operations over HTTP
- The "CIM over HTTP"
protocol is an implementation of the standardized formats for communication
between clients and the CIM server Representation
of CIM in XML (DSP0201) and CIM Operations over HTTP (DSP0200).
The CIM server for z/OS supports
most of the CIM operations defined in the CIM Operations over HTTP
specification by the DMTF.
For more information about these standards, see the WBEM website.
- Web Services for Management
- Starting with z/OS 1.13, the CIM server for z/OS supports the WS-Transfer, WS-Enumeration and WS-Eventing operations defined in the WS-CIM Mapping specification. Web Services for Management (DSP0226) is a general SOAP-based protocol for managing systems. The WS-CIM Mapping specification (DSP0230) describes how to use the Web Services for Management (WS-Management) protocol to communicate with resources modeled with CIM and exposed through the XML schema mapping described by the WS-Management CIM Binding Specification (DSP0227).
- DMTF CIM Schema
- A CIM Schema defines an information model for
representing systems management functions.
Starting in
z/OS
2.1, CIM Schema version 2.25 is supported by the CIM server. - Instrumentation for server resources
- Instrumentation for server resources on the system are called providers. The providers, which are based on a subset of the standardized CIM classes, gather data on a system. CIM clients can work with this data by accessing the providers through the CIM server. For more information about what is supported in z/OS, refer to z/OS Management Instrumentation for CIM.
- CIM client for Java™
- z/OS CIM includes
the CIM client for Java library
from the SBLIM project. With z/OS 2.2,
version 2.2 of the CIM client for Java is
included. The CIM client for Java is
a programming API that enables z/OS applications
written in Java for local and
remote access of CIM instrumentation through the CIM over HTTP access
protocol. It consists of a Java library
and associated online Java documentation.
To use version 2.2 of the CIM client for Java,
you must add sblim-cim-client2-v2r2.jar and sblim-cim-client2-v2r2-doc.zip to the environment variables CLASSPATH and LIBPATH. You should also remove sblim-cim-client2.jar and sblim-cim-client-doc.zip from these environment variables.Note:Version 1 of the CIM client for Java
(SBLIM CIM client) has been removed in z/OS V2R2.
Figure 2 illustrates how the CIM server works in the z/OS environment: A CIM client application requests the CIM server to return information about z/OS resources, in this case about basic operating system (OS) data as well as monitoring metrics, in this example RMF™ metrics. The CIM server invokes the according CIM providers which retrieve the requested data associated to z/OS system resources. The z/OS RMF monitoring provider invokes the RMF Distributed Data Server (DDS) which in turn collects RMF Monitor III performance data. The CIM server consolidates the data from the providers and returns them back to the calling client through the CIM over HTTP protocol.
Figure 2 shows two types of CIM providers: RMF monitoring providers that use the RMF DDS to access the z/OS system, and z/OS operating system management providers that access the z/OS system data directly.
Important Note:
Each IBM eServer™ operating system is supporting a specific open source implementation of a CIM server. The "eServer Common Information Model" document contains overall information about how to use CIM for systems management on IBM eServers. Users of CIM for z/OS need to know this information. The present z/OS Common Information Model User's Guide contains the z/OS-specific supplements and deviations from the common eServer CIM and from OpenPegasus.