C H A P T E R 8 - Platform Management Model

C H A P T E R 8

Platform Management Model

This chapter provides an overview of how SNMP models the hardware platform using the Sun platform SNMP model (SunPSM).

The chapter contains the following sections:

Modeling the Platform

Managed Objects

Derivation of sunPlat Classes

Modeling the Platform

The server is represented as a collection of nested hardware resources within a chassis. Some resources can be nested directly within the chassis, such as a motherboard. Others are nested within other resources--for example, a motherboard can include a processor. These relationships, extending from within the chassis, form a hierarchy of hardware resources, each physically contained within its enclosing parent. This hierarchy is modeled using relationships between managed objects that represent the hardware resources (FIGURE 8-1).

FIGURE 8-1 Hardware Resource Hierarchy Example

Managed Objects

The SunPSM model provides a useful set of common platform building blocks representing fundamental hardware resources. Instances of these platform building blocks are called managed objects. A hardware resource is represented by a managed object if it can be monitored or if it provides useful configuration information.

Additional managed objects are used to represent other features of the management interface. For example, hardware resources can issue asynchronous status reports, (notifications), in response to problems (alarms) or changes in configuration (events).

Managed objects are defined in terms of managed object classes. Characteristics of the resource are represented by properties of the managed object. New classes, called subclasses, are defined in terms of existing classes. A subclass inherits all the characteristics of its superclass, but represents its own characteristics by adding new properties.

FIGURE 8-2 shows the class inheritance hierarchy of the hardware building blocks defined by the SunPSM model.

FIGURE 8-2 SunPSM Managed Object Class Inheritance Diagram

Derivation of sunPlat Classes

The SunPSM classes are based on industry-standard management concepts. The Sun SNMP management agent system uses a subset of the ITU-T generic network information model, chosen for its representation of hardware infrastructure. This provides a powerful and extendible framework that supports uniform fault and configuration management in a Telecommunications Management Network (TMN).

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) common information model (CIM) schema models the physical environment, and event definition and handling, and provides system-specific extensions to the common model.