DMTF Tutorial > Management Profiles

Management Profiles

A DMTF Management Profile is a specification that defines the CIM model and associated behavior for a management domain. The CIM model includes the CIM classes, associations, indications, methods and properties. The management domain is a set of related management tasks.

The CIM Schema defines a vast set of management information. Profile specifications use a small subset of the full CIM Schema and define rigid requirements regarding the classes and associations used to represent the management information in a given management domain, as well as the properties, methods and indications of those classes that must be supported and also the behavior of how the model must be implemented for a specific management domain. Additionally, DMTF Management Profiles might require a specific value or set of values to be populated for a particular property of a class, the format of property values and the cardinality requirements of the associations that define the relationships in the model. These requirements enable management applications to consume a known set of information with a well-defined format, meaning and behaviour in a cross-platform, interoperable manner.

DMTF Management Profiles are defined in the Management Profile Specification Usage Guide (DSP1001). The DMTF also defines the related DMTF Management Profile Template (DSP1000) to accelerate the definition of new Management Profiles to address management domains of industry-wide interest.

DMTF Management Profiles provide solutions for both end-users and vendors. End-users can determine which Profiles support the management tasks that they want to leverage and include them in a Request For Quote or requirement document. Vendors can use a Profile specification as a high-level functional specification for the management capabilities they want to support in their products. Vendors can also create vendor-specific (that is, vendor extension) Profiles that define added-value management capabilities or interoperability with different groups inside a company, other companies or customers.

The different types of Management Profiles are as follows:

An Autonomous Profile defines an autonomous and self-contained management domain. This type includes Profiles that are stand-alone or have relationships to other Profiles.

A Component Profile describes a subset of a management domain. A Component Profile includes CIM Elements that are scoped within an Autonomous Profile or in rare cases, another Component Profile. Multiple Autonomous Profiles can and often do reference the same Component Profile, enables the encapsulation of a management domain that is applicable in multiple management contexts. For example, network port management is applicable to servers, switches, routers and storage devices.

A Specialized Profile is based on and constrains another Profile specification. For example Fibre Channel, Ethernet and iSCSI port management require more specialized information than general network port management, but build upon a common set of management information.

An Abstract Profile specifies common elements and behavior that form the base for Specialized Profiles. Abstract Profiles are templates and can not be implemented.