1.4 What is DMI?

The Desktop Management Interface (DMI) is a set of interfaces and a service provider that mediate between management applications and components residing in a system. The DMI is a free-standing interface that is not tied to any particular operating system or management process.

Sun provides DMI based functionality for management of the Sun platforms (hardware and software) and software applications running on these platforms. The DMI subagent is one type of subagent included in the SEA product. By using DMI, you may manage various elements within most systems (for example, PCs, workstations, routers, hubs, and other network objects).

DMI has four elements:

• A format for describing management information (MIF)

• A Service Provider entity

• Two sets of APIs

  • An interface between management applications and the Service Provider

  • An interface between the Service Provider and component instrumentation

• A set of services (using ONC/RPC) for facilitating remote communication

For more information, refer to Chapter 5, Using DMI.