Manager application programs can have somewhat different requirements from agent application programs. A manager application program generally has no need to register any objects unless it needs to be the target of CMIP requests from other manager application programs. VTAM® CMIP services requires that at least one object be registered. CMIP services does not require the object to be of a particular object class. The managerApplication object class has been defined for manager application programs that do not have a need for any specific class.

Manager application programs can base their management on the creation of EFDs so that they can receive CMIP event reports from managed systems. For a description of how to create the EFDs, see Filters and routes events. Such manager application programs must register to CMIP services as an application entity. The application entity title used must match the one specified in the destination list within the EFDs it creates on the managed systems. For information about how an application can register as an application entity to CMIP services, see Registering an application entity.

Manager application programs that rely on CMIP event reports for monitoring objects at remote systems might need a mechanism to help them determine when the connection to the managed system is down. CMIP services gives application programs the ability to subscribe to associations. For example, a manager might want to subscribe to each association that was used for creating an EFD. The handle for each such association is returned in the response to the create request for the EFDs. For information on how an application program can subscribe to an association, see Subscribing to association information.