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Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) is an architecture that allows
you to use a web browser to monitor many devices that are connected to
a network. Devices can be computer systems, networked printers, or network
components such as routers.
WBEM Architecture
Older architectures use a two-tiered approach to network management :
a management console and a managed device. WBEM uses a three-tiered
architecture that includes:
- Devices managed by web agents
- A management server
- A web browser
Figure 1 illustrates the WBEM architecture.
Figure 1 - WBEM Architecture
As shown in Figure 1, a web browser user interface allows users to
communicate with a management server or with managed devices over an
intranet. In addition to communicating with the web browser and managed
devices, the management server also facilitates web
access to Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or Desktop
Management Interface (DMI) elements managed, respectively, by SNMP or
DMI agents. Thus, the management server provides a single reference point
for data from all devices connected to a computer system, using
its connection with the web browser to display device data to the user.
WBEM$SERVER is the name of the the management server provided with the Management
Agents for OpenVMS.
Web agents use SNMP and TCP/IP to allow
management servers running on various platforms, including
OpenVMS, Windows NT, and Tru64 UNIX, to communicate with
manageable components and peripheral devices.
Web agents use
common web-enabling components to provide registration, discovery, HTTP
communications, and a home page for the managed devices. Web agents can
send information directly to the management server to be relayed to
the browser, or they can create
an HTML file to communicate directly with a browser.
The Management Agents for OpenVMS provides web agents for
system, storage, and network components.
Systems Insight Manager
Systems Insight Manager, an example of a management
server, is a web-based interface that allows you to:
- Look across a heterogeneous computing services
environment
- Access information about devices connected to the
network
Using Systems Insight Manager, you can obtain
information about the configuration of systems and their components or
peripherals.
To participate in WBEM, Systems Insight Manager must be able
to recognize the operating environment of the managed device. The
operating environment must communicate device information to the WBEM
network, and also receive and execute instructions sent from managed
devices. The operating environments use web agents to communicate
information about devices by means of standard communication protocols.
Devices -- and their operating environments -- provide information about
hardware and software status using a data model, such as the Common
Information Model (CIM) or a Management Information Base (MIB) and
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Consider the data model to be
a database of objects (with attributes and values) that represent the
manageable components of a device. Systems Insight Manager uses
its standard protocol to poll a device for such data, and presents the
data to the user in a consistent format.
One feature of Systems Insight Manager is
autodiscovery. Any web-enabled Management Agent can
discover any other Management Agent on the network. You can also
choose to configure a system so that it does not participate in
autodiscovery.
Management Agents for OpenVMS
Management Agents for OpenVMS is an example of a Systems Insight Manager web
agent and also provides a means of communication between OpenVMS devices
and the web browser. The relationship of Systems Insight Manager and the
Management Agents for OpenVMS is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 - Architecture of the Management Agents for
OpenVMS
As shown in Figure 2, the Management Agents for OpenVMS consists of the
following components:
- A management server, WBEM$SERVER
- Web-enabled SNMP subagents, which support
industry-standard MIBs
- Two additional management agents:
- DCL SHOW commands, which display information about the current status of the system and its users
- GSView, which finds GS Series Alpha servers on the network
Together, these components
communicate with managed devices on an OpenVMS system and with
Systems Insight Manager. Management Agents can also use HTTP to
communicate directly with a web browser.
In the future, an API will be published for applications developers
to write applications to communicate with web agents.
Software Kit
This release of the Management Agents for OpenVMS is a
POLYCENTER Software Installation Utility kit that contains the following
software:
- System management web server
- Several SNMP subagents that monitor the OpenVMS environment
- Command procedures to enable and disable data collection
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