Frontmatter

©October 1997, The Open Group All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

This specification is published by The Open Group under the terms of its joint publication agreement with the Object Management Group (OMG).

The OMG Document Reference is formal/97-09-32.

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Preface

The Open Group

The Open Group is the leading vendor-neutral, international consortium for buyers and suppliers of technology. Its mission is to cause the development of a viable global information infrastructure that is ubiquitous, trusted, reliable, and as easy-to-use as the telephone. The essential functionality embedded in this infrastructure is what we term the IT DialTone. The Open Group creates an environment where all elements involved in technology development can cooperate to deliver less costly and more flexible IT solutions.

Formed in 1996 by the merger of the X/Open Company Ltd. (founded in 1984) and the Open Software Foundation (founded in 1988), The Open Group is supported by most of the world's largest user organizations, information systems vendors, and software suppliers. By combining the strengths of open systems specifications and a proven branding scheme with collaborative technology development and advanced research, The Open Group is well positioned to meet its new mission, as well as to assist user organizations, vendors, and suppliers in the development and implementation of products supporting the adoption and proliferation of systems which conform to standard specifications.

With more than 200 member companies, The Open Group helps the IT industry to advance technologically while managing the change caused by innovation. It does this by:

• consolidating, prioritizing, and communicating customer requirements to vendors

• conducting research and development with industry, academia, and government agencies to deliver innovation and economy through projects associated with its Research Institute

• managing cost-effective development efforts that accelerate consistent multi-vendor deployment of technology in response to customer requirements

• adopting, integrating, and publishing industry standard specifications that provide an essential set of blueprints for building open information systems and integrating new technology as it becomes available

• licensing and promoting the Open Brand, represented by the "X" mark, that designates vendor products which conform to Open Group Product Standards

• promoting the benefits of the IT DialTone to customers, vendors, and the public.

The Open Group operates in all phases of the open systems technology lifecycle including innovation, market adoption, product development, and proliferation. Presently, it focuses on seven strategic areas: open systems application platform development, architecture, distributed systems management, interoperability, distributed computing environment, security, and the information superhighway. The Open Group is also responsible for the management of the UNIX trademark on behalf of the industry.

The Development of Product Standards

This process includes the identification of requirements for open systems and, now, the IT DialTone, development of CAE and Preliminary Specifications through an industry consensus review and adoption procedure (in parallel with formal standards work), and the development of tests and conformance criteria.

This leads to the preparation of a Product Standard which is the name used for the documentation that records the conformance requirements (and other information) to which a vendor may register a product. There are currently two forms of Product Standard, namely the Profile Definition and the Component Definition, although these will eventually be merged into one.

The "X" mark is used by vendors to demonstrate that their products conform to the relevant Product Standard. By use of the Open Brand they guarantee, through the X/Open Trade Mark Licence Agreement (TMLA), to maintain their products in conformance with the Product Standard so that the product works, will continue to work, and that any problems will be fixed by the vendor.

Open Group Publications

The Open Group publishes a wide range of technical documentation, the main part of which is focused on specification development and product documentation, but which also includes Guides, Snapshots, Technical Studies, Branding and Testing documentation, industry surveys, and business titles.

There are several types of specification:

• CAE Specifications

  CAE (Common Applications Environment) Specifications are the stable specifications that form the basis for our Product Standards, which are used to develop X/Open branded systems. These specifications are intended to be used widely within the industry for product development and procurement purposes.

  Anyone developing products that implement a CAE Specification can enjoy the benefits of a single, widely supported industry standard. Where appropriate, they can demonstrate product compliance through the Open Brand. CAE Specifications are published as soon as they are developed, so enabling vendors to proceed with development of conformant products without delay.
  

• Preliminary Specifications

  Preliminary Specifications usually address an emerging area of technology and consequently are not yet supported by multiple sources of stable conformant implementations. They are published for the purpose of validation through implementation of products. A Preliminary Specification is not a draft specification; rather, it is as stable as can be achieved, through applying The Open Group's rigorous development and review procedures.

  Preliminary Specifications are analogous to the trial-use standards issued by formal standards organizations, and developers are encouraged to develop products on the basis of them. However, experience through implementation work may result in significant (possibly upwardly incompatible) changes before its progression to becoming a CAE Specification. While the intent is to progress Preliminary Specifications to corresponding CAE Specifications, the ability to do so depends on consensus among Open Group members.
  

• Consortium and Technology Specifications

  The Open Group publishes specifications on behalf of industry consortia. For example, it publishes the NMF SPIRIT procurement specifications on behalf of the Network Management Forum. It also publishes Technology Specifications relating to OSF/1, DCE, OSF/Motif, and CDE.

  Technology Specifications (formerly AES Specifications) are often candidates for consensus review, and may be adopted as CAE Specifications, in which case the relevant Technology Specification is superseded by a CAE Specification.

In addition, The Open Group publishes:

• Product Documentation

  This includes product documentation-programmer's guides, user manuals, and so on-relating to the Pre-structured Technology Projects (PSTs), such as DCE and CDE. It also includes the Single UNIX Documentation, designed for use as common product documentation for the whole industry.

• Guides

  These provide information that is useful in the evaluation, procurement, development, or management of open systems, particularly those that relate to the CAE Specifications. The Open Group Guides are advisory, not normative, and should not be referenced for purposes of specifying or claiming conformance to a Product Standard.

• Technical Studies

  Technical Studies present results of analyses performed on subjects of interest in areas relevant to The Open Group's Technical Program. They are intended to communicate the findings to the outside world so as to stimulate discussion and activity in other bodies and the industry in general.

Versions and Issues of Specifications

As with all live documents, CAE Specifications require revision to align with new developments and associated international standards. To distinguish between revised specifications which are fully backwards compatible and those which are not:

• A new Version indicates there is no change to the definitive information contained in the previous publication of that title, but additions/extensions are included. As such, it replaces the previous publication.

• A new Issue indicates there is substantive change to the definitive information contained in the previous publication of that title, and there may also be additions/extensions. As such, both previous and new documents are maintained as current publications.

Corrigenda

Readers should note that Corrigenda may apply to any publication. Corrigenda information is published on the World-Wide Web at http://www.opengroup.org/public/pubs.

Ordering Information

Full catalogue and ordering information on all Open Group publications is available on the World-Wide Web at http://www.opengroup.org/public/pubs.

This Document

It defines a framework (object request broker and management facilities) to allow the development of applications that will significantly decrease the effort required to administer distributed systems. The framework is based upon an industry-standard object request broker (implementations of CORBA 1.2) and Object Service Specifications.

In addition, a set of management facilities are defined that allow management-specific interfaces to be common across environments, allowing the development of heterogeneous, interoperable applications. These management facilities are key to building a foundation such that systems management applications and objects may be defined and built that span multiple vendors' framework implementations.

Audience

It is assumed that the reader of this specification is familiar with the work of the Object Management Group (OMG). Specifically, this should include the Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and Specification (see reference CORBA), and the Object Management Architecture (see reference OMAG).

Structure

• Chapter 1 explains the scope and purpose of this specification, and identifies its relationship to the OMH Object Model and to other systems ,anagement issues.

• Chapter 2 describes the architectural framework of the specification.

• Chapter 3 provides the specification of the Management Facilities.

• Chapter 4 describes the command line interfaces that allow the services to be invoked from within shell scripts.

• Appendix A provides IDL interface definitions that can be compiled for the systems management interfaces defined in this specification.

• Appendix B provides an inheritance diagram for the Common Management Facilities described in this specification.

A Glossary and Index are also provided.

Typographical Conventions

• Bold font is used in text for options to commands, filenames, keywords, type names, data structures and their members, language-independent names, and symbols that are specific to the management services interfaces in this specification.

• Italic strings are used for emphasis or to identify the first instance of a word requiring definition. Italics in text also denote:

  • Function parameters, or variable names

  • Environment variables

  • Utility names

  • External variables.

• The notation [ABCD] is used to identify a return value ABCD, including if this is an error value.

• Syntax and IDL code examples are shown in Helvetica Bold font.

Trademarks

OMG® and Object Management® are registered trademarks of the Object Management Group, Inc.

Motif®, OSF/1®, and UNIX® are registered trademarks and the IT DialTone^TM;, The Open Group^TM;, and the "X Device"^TM; are trademarks of The Open Group.

Acknowledgements

This XCMF CAE Specification from The Open Group is fully aligned with the OMG's XCMF Specification.

Referenced Documents

CORBA 1.2

CAE Specification, July 1994, The Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and Specification (ISBN: 1-85912-044-X, C432), in conjunction with the Object Management Group (OMG).

DTP

Guide, February 1996,, Distributed Transaction Processing: Reference Model, Version 3 (ISBN: 1-85912-170-5, G504).

Internationalisation Guide

Guide, July 1993, Internationalisation Guide, Version 2 (ISBN: 1-859120-02-4, G304).

OMAG

OMG (Object Management Group) Object Management Architecture Guide (OMA Guide), Version 2.0, September 1992. Published by OMG, 492 Old Connecticut Path, Framingham, MA 01701, USA.

OMGOM

OMG (Object Management Group) Object Model (OM). Included as Chapter 4 of reference OMAG, but being separately revised at the time of publication of this Common Management Facilities Volume 1 Preliminary Specification.

COS, Volume 1

Preliminary Specification, July 1994, Common Object Services, Volume 1 (ISBN: 1-85912-482-2, P432), in conjunction with the Object Management Group (OMG).

RDSMF

UNIX International System Management Working Group, Requirements for the Distributed System Management Framework, April 20, 1991.

XA

CAE Specification, December 1991, Distributed Transaction Processing: The XA Specification (ISBN: 1-872630-24-3, C193).

XPG3

X/Open Specification, 1988, 1989, February 1992 (ISBN: 1-872630-43-X, T921); this specification was formerly X/Open Portability Guide, seven volumes, January 1989 (ISBN: 0-13-685819-8, XO/XPG/89/000).

XPG3 Overview

X/Open Portability Guide, February 1992, XPG3 Portability Guide Overview, Issue 3 (ISBN: 1-872630-44-8, X200).

XPG4

X/Open Systems and Branded Products: XPG4, October 1994 (ISBN: 1-872630-52-9, X924).

XPG4, Version 2

The X/Open Branding Programme, How to Brand - What to Buy, February 1995 (ISBN: 1-85912-084-9, X951).

XPS

Snapshot, 1991, Systems Management: Problem Statement (XO/SNAP/91/010 or S110).

XRM

Guide, August 1993, Systems Management: Reference Model (ISBN: 1-85912-05-9, G207).