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.

Figure 1 shows a sample environment in which management applications can run that use the DMTF CIM standard data model.

Figure 1. Sample network environment managed with CIM management applications

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 for z/OS includes:

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. For 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 2.1, version 2.1 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.

Note:

Version 1 of the CIM client for Java (SBLIM CIM client) will be removed in a future release of z/OS.

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.

Figure 2. Exemplary components of the CIM server in a z/OS environment