CIM Tutorial > DMTF Glossary

DMTF Tutorial > DMTF Glossary

DMTF Glossary

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aggregation relationship: A relationship in which one entity is made up of the aggregation of some number of other entities.
alias: A symbolic reference in either a class or instance declaration to an object located elsewhere in a MOF file. Alias names follow the same rules as instance and class names. Aliases are typically used as shortcuts to lengthy object paths. To define an alias, add the phrase "as $AliasName" to the instance or class declaration.
application life cycle: The concept of applications used in an organization falling into various stages including deployable, installable, executable, and executing.
association class: A class that describes a relationship between two classes or between instances of two classes. The properties of an association class include pointers, or references, to the two classes or instances. The Association qualifier is attached to every association class for identification. Although inclusion is not mandatory, in the Microsoft implementation of the CIM classes can be included in one or more association classes.
asynchronous method: A method that returns to the caller immediately regardless of whether processing has completed. The results of processing are returned through another call on another thread. Asynchronous methods free the caller from having to wait until processing has finished. Asynchronous methods have an Async suffix.; Back to Top

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Backus-Naur Form (BNF): Backus-Naur Form. A metalanguage that specifies the syntax of programming languages.; Back to Top

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cardinality: The number of instances of a class related to another class' instance via an association. For example, if an association relates ClassA to ClassB, then A's cardinality indicates how many instances of ClassA may be associated with a single instance of ClassB. Cardinality does NOT dictate the number of instances of the association or of the individual classes.
CIM Schema: A collection of class definitions used to represent managed objects that occur in every management environment. Also see core model , common model , and extension schema .
Common Information Model (CIM): Describes the components of a managed computing and networking environment using an object-oriented modeling approach. CIM is comprised of a Specification and a Schema. The Specification defines the details for integration with other management models (i.e., SNMP's MIBs or the DMTF's MIFs) while the Schema provides the actual model descriptions.
Common Information Model Object Manager (CIM Object Manager): A component in the CIM Server that handles the interaction between management applications and providers . The CIM Object Manager supports services such as event notification, remote access, and query processing .
common model: The second layer of the CIM Schema , which includes a series of domain-specific but platform-independent classes. The domains are systems, networks, applications, and other management-related data. The common model is derived from the core model . Also see extension schema .
core model: The first layer of the CIM Schema , which includes the top-level classes and their properties and associations . The core model is implementation independent. Also see common model and extension schema .

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Directory: A directory is, in general, an approach to organizing information, the most familiar example being a telephone directory.
On the World Wide Web, a directory is a subject guide, typically organized by major topics and subtopics.
In computer file systems, a directory is a named group of related files that are separated by the naming convention from other groups of files.
In computer networks, a directory is a collection of users, user passwords, and, usually, information about what network resources they can access.
Directory Enabled Network (DEN): A mapping of CIM to various repositories with the goal of providing complete management data. Specifically, it is a mapping to a form that can be implemented in a directory that uses (L)DAP as its access protocol.
Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF): A not-for-profit organization, delivering technology standards for end-to-end management of distributed computing environments.
Desktop Management Interface (DMI): An initiative by the DMTF. The DMI allows desktop computers, hardware and software products, and peripherals — whether they are standalone systems or linked into networks — to be manageable and intelligent. It allows them to communicate their system resource requirements and to coexist in a manageable PC system. The DMI is independent of operating system and processor, enabling the development of manageable PC products and applications across platforms.
domain: The class to which a property or method belongs. For example, if status is a property of Logical Device, it is said to belong to the Logical Device domain.; Back to Top

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extension schema: The third layer of the CIM Schema , which includes platform-specific extensions of the CIM Schema. Also see common model and core model .

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- I -

indication: An operation executed as a result of some action such as the creation, modification, or deletion of an instance , access to an instance, or modification or access to a property . Indications can also result from the passage of a specified period of time. An indicationtypically results in an event.
Information Model: An operation executed as a result of some action such as the creation, modification, or deletion of an instance , access to an instance, or modification or access to a property . Indications can also result from the passage of a specified period of time. An indicationtypically results in an event.
inheritance: The relationship that describes how classes and instances are derived from parent classes, or superclasses . A class can spawn a new subclass , also called a child class. A subclass contains all the methods and properties of its parent class. Inheritance is one of the features that allows the CIM classes to function as templates for actual managed objects in the CIM environment.
instance: A representation of a real-world managed object that belongs to a particular class, or a particular occurrence of an event. Instances contain actual data.
Interface Definition Language (IDL): A generic term for a language that lets a program or object written in one language communicate with another program written in an unknown language.; Back to Top

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key: A property that is used to provide a unique identifier for an instance of a class. Key properties are marked with the Key qualifier.
Key qualifier: A qualifier that must be attached to every property in a class that serves as part of the key for that class.

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- L -

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol): A "lightweight" (smaller amount of code) version of Directory Access Protocol (DAP). It is a standard for directory services in a network.

local property: A property defined for a class but not inherited from a superclass.

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managed object: A hardware or software system component that is represented as an instance of the CIM class. Information about managed objects is supplied by data and event providers, as well as by the CIM Object Manager.
Managed Object Format (MOF): A compiled language for defining classes and instances . A MOF compiler offers a textual means of adding data to the CIM Object Manager repository. It is based on the Object Management Group's (OMG's) Interface Definition Language (IDL), and can be encoded using either UTF-8 or Unicode.
management application: An application or service that uses information originating from one or more managed objects in a managed environment. Management applications retrieve this information through calls to the CIM Object Manager API from the CIM Object Manager and from providers .
management client: A management client is a program that initiates management requests. The management client interacts with a management infrastructure or agent (via a protocol and data model) to perform management operations.
Management Information Format (MIF): Part of DMI that stores and manages information and passes it to management applications on request. MIFs define the standard manageable attributes of PC products in categories including PC systems, servers, printers, LAN adapters, modems, and software applications.
metamodel: A CIM component that describes the entities and relationships representing managed objects . For example, classes, instances, and associations are included in the metamodel.
metaschema: The metaschema is a formal definition of the model. It defines the terms used to express the model and its usage and semantics.
method: 1. A function describing the behavior of a class. Including a method in a class does not guarantee an implementation of the method. The Implemented qualifier is attached to the method to indicate that an implementation is available for the class. 2. A function included in a CIM Object Manager API interface.; Back to Top

- N -

Named Element: An entity that can be expressed as an object in the meta schema.
namespace: A unit for grouping classes and instances to control their scope and visibility. Namespaces are not physical locations; they are more like logical databases containing specific classes and instances.

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- O -

object path: A formatted string used to access namespaces , classes, and instances . Each object on the system has a unique path which identifies it locally or over the network. Object paths are conceptually similar to Universal Resource Locators (URL).
override: Indicates that the property, method, or reference in the derived class overrides the similar construct in the parent class in the inheritance tree or in the specified parent class.

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- P -

property: A name/value pair that describes a unit of data for a class. Property names cannot begin with a digit and cannot contain white space. Property values must have a valid Managed Object Format (MOF) data type.
provider: Communicates with managed objects to access data and event notifications from a variety of sources, such as the system registry or an SNMP device. Providers forward this information to the CIM Object Manager for integration and interpretation.

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- Q -

qualifier: A modifier containing information that describes a class, an instance , a property , a method , or a parameter.
qualifier flavor: The CIM defined flag that governs the use of a qualifier . The CIM flavors describe rules that specify whether a qualifier can be propagated to derived classes and instances and whether or not a derived class or instance can override the qualifier's original value.

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- R -

range: The class that is referenced by a reference property.
reference: A special string property typethat is marked with the reference qualifier , indicating that it is a pointer to other instances.
required property: A property that must have a value.

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- S -

schema: A collection of class definitions that describe managed objects in a particular environment.
selective inheritance: The ability of a descendant class to drop or override the properties of an ancestral class.
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP): A protocol for network management and monitoring. SNMP is defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
standard schema: A common conceptual framework for organizing and relating the various classes representing the current operational state of a system, network, or application. The standard schema is defined by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) in the Common Information Model (CIM) .
subclass: A class that is derived from a superclass . The subclass inherits all features of its superclass, but can add new features or redefine existing ones.
subschema: A part of a schema owned by a particular organization.
superclass: The class from which a subclass inherits .

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- T -

trigger: A recognition of a state change (such as create, delete, update, or access) of a class instance, and update or access of a property. Note: The CIM implementation does not have an explicit object representing a trigger. Triggers are implied either by the operations on basic objects of the system (create, delete, and modify on classes, instances and namespaces) or by events in the managed environment.

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Unified Modeling Language (UML): A graphical representation (using boxes and lines) of objects and relationships. The Object Management Group (OMG) publishes the UML Specification.
Unicode: A 16-bit character set capable of encoding all known characters and used as a worldwide character-encoding standard.
UTF-8: An 8-bit transformation format that may also serve as a transformation format for Unicode character data.

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- W -

Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM): Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) is an initiative based on a set of management and Internet standard technologies developed to unify the management of enterprise computing environments. WBEM provides the ability for the industry to deliver a well-integrated set of standard-based management tools leveraging the emerging technologies such as CIM and XML.