Net management with XML, 09/27/99

By AMANDA MITCHELL HENRY
Network World, 09/27/99

In October 1998, the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) placed XML at the center of easier network management when it released a specification that encodes its Common Information Model (CIM) schema in XML. The intent is to let users share management information among disparate platforms.

CIM is the DMTF 's standardized object-oriented information model; XML is the mechanism for encoding data and HTTP is the method of transporting the data.

As part of the DMTF 's Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM) initiative, the addition of the XML specification means applications will be able to retrieve CIM data using XML Web technology. Each WBEM-compliant management tool will support XML and will therefore be able to exchange information easily in a common language understood by each participating platform.

"XML will provide interoperability that we 've never had before between management applications," says Barb Goldworm, director at Enterprise Management Associates, a research firm in Boulder, Colo.

Among the vendors pledging to support the DMTF 's WBEM initiative are 3Com, Adaptec, BMC Software, Cisco, Compaq, Computer Associates, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Micron Electronics, Microsoft, Network Associates, Novell, Platinum Technology (recently acquired by CA), Seagate Software and Tivoli.

While the DMTF is still carving out its compliance requirements, the plan is that any vendor conforming to the WBEM initiative must also support the XML component. But because WBEM 's XML encoding specification is so new - Version 2.0, which included the HTTP portion, was released in June - XML-compliant products won 't ship en masse immediately, according to DMTF President Winston Bumpus.

WBEM vendor Microsoft, for example, plans to include support for XML in its Windows Management Instrumentation service, which is included in Windows 98, NT and the 2000 beta.

As vendors climb aboard the new XML-compliant WBEM initiative, hopes are that a major source of managers ' problems will disappear. "With XML, all management tools should be able to work together," Bumpus says.

Related links

XML on your net
From directories to network management tools, XML marches toward the enterprise. Network World, 9/27/99.

CIM creeps ever closer
A look at this XML-focused system. Network World, 6/21/99.

XML and WBEM
White papers and specs from the Desktop Management Task Force.

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