A directory-hosted network management information model: A CIM/DEN implementation

The building of network-wide network management applications is a largely unaccomplished goal of the communications industry. Currently, two complementary and converging efforts are under way — the Common Information Model (CIM) and the directory enabled networks (DEN) initiatives, now both under the auspices of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). The former defines object-modeling formalisms for specifying a network information model as well as a set of base schemas. The latter defines a model schema that is intended for storage using directory software technology. This paper describes a prototype software implementation of a DEN/CIM system. The prototype produces a Java
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implementation of an information model generated from any schema description presented in CIM's formal modeling language, the managed object format (MOF) syntax. The expected users of this system are modeler components, which communicate with managed devices via the simple network management protocol (SNMP), and client components, which perform application functionality by operating on model objects obtained from a directory.