About Indications

CIM events can be classified as either life cycle or process. A life cycle event is a built-in CIM event that occurs in response to a change to a particular change in data. The types of changes that trigger a life cycle event are:

• A class is created, modified, or deleted

• A class instance is created, modified, deleted, read, or has a method invocation

A process event is a user-defined event that is not described by a life cycle event.

Event providers generate indications in response to requests made by the CIMOM. The CIMOM analyzes subscription requests. The CIMOM uses the EventProvider or the CIMIndicationProvider interface to contact the provider, requesting the provider to generate the appropriate indications. When the provider generates the indication, the CIMOM routes the indication to the destinations specified by the CIM_IndicationHandler instances. These instances are created by the subscribers.

Event providers are located in the same manner as instance providers. There is a sequence of steps that the CIMOM follows in the case of subscriptions pertaining to instance life cycle indication, such as subclasses of CIM_InstIndication. Once the CIMOM determines the classes covered by the subscription, the CIMOM contacts the instance providers for those classes. For process indications, the CIMOM contacts the appropriate provider using the Provider qualifier.

The CIM Object Manager and the CIM Object Manager Repository handle indications under the following circumstances:

• The CIMOM handles the following events, if either the provider does not support indications or the provider tells the CIMOM not to poll:

  • CIM_InstMethodCall

  • CIM_InstModification

  • CIM_InstDeletion

  • CIM_InstCreation

• The CIM Object Manager Repository handles all class indications and life cycle indications for classes that do not have providers. These classes include the following:

  • CIM_ClassCreation

  • CIM_ClassDeletion

  • CIM_ClassModification

  • CIM_InstCreation

  • CIM_InstModification

  • CIM_InstDeletion

  • CIM_InstRead

In these cases, the provider does not generate indications or implement the EventProvider interface. In addition, the provider can delegate event generation responsibilities to the CIM Object Manager. The CIM Object Manager invokes enumerateInstances on the providers. The CIMOM compares snapshots of previous states to current states to determine whether instances have been created, modified, or deleted.

In most cases, providers should handle their own indications because polling carries a high overhead. In order to generate indications, the provider must poll. In this case, the provider can delegate the task to the CIMOM.

If a provider implements the EventProvider interface, the CIMOM invokes the methods in the interface and takes actions according to the responses. When the CIMOM determines that a particular provider must participate in a subscription request, the methods are invoked in the following order:

1. mustPoll– Invoked by the CIM Object Manager for CIM_InstCreation, CIM_InstDeletion, and CIM_InstModification to determine whether the provider wants the CIM Object Manager to poll. If the provider does not implement the EventProvider interface, the CIM Object Manager assumes polling by default.

2. authorizeFilter– If the provider implements the Authorizable interface, this method is invoked by the CIMOM to determine whether the subscription is authorized. The provider can make the determination based on either the user ID of: the owner of the indication handler, which is the user who receives the indications, or the user who created the subscription.

   If the provider does not implement the Authorizable interface, the CIM Object Manager performs the default read authorization check for the name space.

   If the provider does not implement the EventProvider interface and the CIMOM tries to poll, the authorization succeeds if enumerateInstances succeeds on the provider.

3. activateFilter– Invoked by the CIMOM when the authorization succeeds and the provider does not want to be polled.

4. deActivateFilter– Called when a subscription is removed either by the subscriber or the CIMOM. For example, if the destination handler malfunctions.