The SAF HPI provides platform-independent C APIs to use as building blocks for monitoring and controlling highly-available systems. The HPI standards specify generic data structures, functions, and resources that you can program to interact with manageable components of the modular system.
Using the standard interfaces, you can develop applications and middleware to access and manage hardware components. The HPI allows portability of HPI code across many hardware platforms.
The SAF HPI is based upon the IPMI specification, which defines platform-independent capabilities and data formats. However, HPI is a generic interface specification, therefore, you can implement it on any platform with compatible platform management technology.
For more information about the HPI specification and usage examples, refer to http://www.saforum.org.
The SAF HPI model defines four concepts: sessions, domains, resources, and entities.
Sessions – Provide all access to an HPI implementation by HPI user. An HPI session is opened on a single domain; one HPI user can have multiple sessions open at once, and there can be multiple sessions open on any given domain at once. Sessions also provide access to events created or forwarded by the domain accessed by the session. An HPI user accesses the system through sessions, where each session is opened on a domain. A session provides access to domain functions and to a set of resources that are accessible through the domain.
Domains – All HPI user functions are accessed through sessions, and each session is associated with a single domain. A domain provides access to zero or more resources and provides a set of associated services and capabilities. The latter are logically grouped into an abstraction called a domain controller. The resources that are accessible through a domain are listed in the domain's Resource Presence Table (RPT). The contents of this table can change over time, and the domain's session management capability rejects any attempt to access a resource that is not currently listed in the domain's RPT.
Resources – Provide management access to the entities within the system. Frequently, resources represent functions performed by a local control processor used for management of the entity's hardware. Each resource is responsible for presenting a set of management instruments and management capabilities to the HPI User. Resources can be dynamically added and removed in a system as hot-swappable system components.
Entities – Represent the physical components of the system. Each entity has a unique identifier, called an entity path, which is defined by the component's location in the physical containment hierarchy of the system.