Sun has been an active participant in the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), and a substantial provider in the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) initiative. This initiative was designed to unify the management of enterprise environments through the development of a set of standard Internet and management technologies. With WBEM, companies can develop and deliver a set of standards-based management tools that leverage new and emerging technologies such as the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and Common Information Model (CIM).

Based on open Internet standards and an extensible schema, Solaris WBEM Services makes the Solaris^TM Operating Environment an ideal platform for development and deployment of management applications, and also manageable by tools from other enterprise vendors. Sun WBEM Software Development Kit (SDK) delivers a comprehensive set of tools and services for the development of Java^TM technology-based management applications and WBEM provider interfaces, in addition to instrumentation for managing systems running the Solaris Operating Environment and other WBEM-based devices.

Download

The early access version may be downloaded at http://www.sun.com/solaris/wbem/

Requirements

• Solaris 7 or Solaris 2.6 Operating Environment on SPARC^TM processor or Intel platforms
• 12 MB disk space for installation of all components
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory service
• JDK^TM 1.1.7 software

Performance

A major issue facing information technology (IT) staff and line-of-business managers today is the increasing ownership cost of a heterogeneous network consisting of hardware, software, and storage from multiple vendors. A significant portion of these costs can be saved if vendor-specific information is captured using a standard schema or model -- a standard mechanism to access common applications and management information -- that allows for management information from different vendors to be combined, analyzed, and shared.

Solaris WBEM Services

• CIM Object Manager

• Managed Object Format (MOF) Compiler: A program that parses MOF statements in an ASCII text file and adds compiled classes and instances to the CIM repository

• Schema: A collection of Java software classes that describe managed objects in the Solaris Operating Environment

• Providers: Programs that communicate information between the Solaris^TM Operating Environment and CIM Object Manager

Sun WBEM SDK

• Client APIs: Java software client APIs used by applications to request WBEM operations from the CIM Object Manager

• Provider APIs: Communicate information about managed objects

• CIM Object Manager

• CIM Workshop: Java application using a GUI that enables developers to create, delete, and browse CIM classes and instances representing objects on their systems

• Sample Programs: Sample source code that uses client and provider APIs

• Documentation

Benefits

• ISVs and hardware vendors that need to store and provide configuration information can allow their services to be managed by tools from other enterprise vendors.

• A network of different components -- hardware, printers, storage devices, operating systems, application software -- can be managed by third-party applications from a number of different vendors.

• By combining information from diverse applications, objects from different vendors can be managed as if they were from a single vendor, helping to reduce management complexity and cost.