Common Information Model

The Common Information Model (CIM) is a standard that is developed by Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). DMTF is a consortium of major hardware and software vendors (including IBM®) that is a 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. WBEM technologies can help you develop a single set of management applications for a diverse set of resources.

CIM is a major component of the WBEM initiative that provides a model for describing and accessing data across an enterprise. CIM comprises both a specification and a schema. The specification defines the details for integration with other management models, whereas the schema provides the actual model descriptions.

On IBM i 7.2 and later, CIM is a feature of the IBM Universal Manageability Enablement for i licensed program (5770-UME V1R4M0). It includes the following functions:

  • Providers instrumentation for server resources on the system. The providers, which are based on a subset of the standardized CIM classes, gather data on a system.
  • Common Information Model Object Manager (CIMOM), a central component of the WBEM server that is responsible for the communication between clients and providers. CIMOM also provides several management functions, including security, and a set of commands that provide configuration and management functions to administrators.
  • A schema that defines an information model for representing systems management functions.
  • An implementation of the standardized formats for communication between clients and CIMOM, called CIM in XML, V2.2 and CIM operations over HTTP, V1.1. For more information about these standards, see the WBEM Web site.

CIM on IBM i 7.2 and later environment and dependence considerations

  • CIM Server runs as a single TCP/IP server job in the QSYSWRK subsystem. There is only one instance of CIM Server. CIM Server itself is multi-threaded (using pthread library). The providers run in separate jobs (Out of process support required). 5770-UME V1R4M0 CIM server is configured as an auto-start service when doing scratch install of IBM i 7.2 and later system. IBM Navigator for i can be used to enable/disable the auto-start with TCP/IP feature.
  • CIM Server enables the SSL connections by default. The CIM server checks for its private key and certificate during startup, and if either of those files does not exist, will create its private key and a self-signed 365 day certificate.
  • CIM server depends on OpenSSL command to generate the certificates. 5733SC1 (OpenSSL) and 5770SS1 Option 33 (PASE) are the pre-request licensed programs of 5770-UME V1R4M0. The start-up code of CIM server checks the existence of these dependency licensed programs and give an error message if they are not there.

The IBM i 7.2 and later operating systems support only the IBM Universal Manageability Enablement for i licensed program (5770-UME V1R4M0). The 5770–UME V1R4M0 licensed program is also supported on IBM i 6.1 and IBM i 7.1