1. Distributed System Administration From “The Continuing Evolution of Distributed Systems Management” by Westerinen and Bumpus (DMTF) Week-7

2. History – In the Beginning… • Centralised systems • Isolated • Data exchanged by media backup eg decks of punched cards or reels of Magnetic Tape • System management was centralised and performed during off-peak times

3. 1970’s – Minicomputer based distributed systems • Isolated systems • Used by individual departments • Single function systems • Inventory, word processing Point-of-Sale, etc… • Supported by manufacturer specialists • Vendor unique (incompatible) technology

4. 1980’s: PCs and local DataBases • Novelties: owned by individuals/departments • Initially self-contained and isolated • Later, information extracted from central databases was integrated into speadsheets and local PC applications • Required ad-hoc synchronisation to support mission-critical business applications

5. PCs and System Management • Now data centres had to manage mainframe and departmental data centres as well as large numbers of geographically dispersed desktop PCs • Distributed system management was: • Software upgrades • Configuration management • Software/Hardware Inventory

6. LANs: 3-tier Distributed Systems • New Technology – New challenges • Shared software and hardware • Data on shared fileservers • Configuration management was easier • 3-Tier Data:Procedure architecture • Mainframe FileServer PC • Client-Server applications appear

7. LANs: 3-tier Distributed Systems • Entirely new area of Management • Synchronised application upgrades • Tools to monitor/locate performance and other network problems • Networks became more complex • Bridges/switches/routers: Enterprise WANs

8. Managing 3-tier Enterprise system • Enterprise network management • Became increasingly more difficult • Required large engineering staff to service and operate equipment

9. Network management with SNMP • Appearance of standards (ASN.1, SNMP, SMI) • Adopted by Network system vendors • Software agents in hardware for remote access to component instrumentation • Easy way for management applications to monitor and analyse network

10. 1990s: Desktop SysAdmin: DMI • PC vendors needed instrumentation • Could not be achieved using SNMP • Desktop Management Interface (DMTF)a single service providing access to instrumentation in multiple components • Also allowed dynamic addition, removal and query of component descriptions(unlike SNMP where this was pre-compiled)

11. Distributed systems using HTML • another step in evolution of distributed systems • Web used for • Internet- product and sales support • Intranet- corporate information • Computing model changed from Client/Server to Browser/Application

12. Distributed systems using HTML • New possibilities for integration and platform independence • Central management of web servers • Distributed Services model • Many different applications • Hosted on many servers • Running on physically different computers • Created need for reliable, efficient web infrastructures & Distributed mgmt.

13. Vendor Integration of System Management services • Web-based systems: combinations of network and system technologies • Understanding and management requires integration of information • Management tools became platforms with various “snap-in” components • No standard for “snap-in” • Vendors began including web interfaces in networked devices

14. Common Information Model • Integration of management information requires definition of concepts and semantics for managed components • CIM also defines interfaces for and relationships between components • “End-to-End” management • General and Reusable concepts

15. Common Information Model • Complex system represented easily • Uses classes and sub-classes to model systems and component parts • May also define logical entities and services provided

16. Common Information Model

17. CIM - Schema [Abstract, Version ("2.7.0"), Description ( "ManagedElement is an abstract class that provides a common superclass" "(or top of the inheritance tree) for the non-association classes in the CIM Schema.") ] class CIM_ManagedElement { [MaxLen (64), Description ( "The Caption property is a short textual description (one-" "line string) of the object.") ] string Caption; [Description ( "The Description property provides a textual description of " "the object.") ] string Description; [Description ( "A user-friendly name for the object. This property allows " "each instance to define a user-friendly name IN ADDITION TO its " "key properties/identity data, and description information.\n" "Note that ManagedSystemElement's Name property is also defined " "as a user-friendly name. But, it is often subclassed to be a " "Key. It is not reasonable that the same property can convey " "both identity and a user friendly name, without inconsistencies. " "Where Name exists and is not a Key (such as for instances of " "LogicalDevice), the same information MAY be present in both " "the Name and ElementName properties.") ] string ElementName; }; CPE5013 (c) Monash University

18. Web-Based Enterprise Management“CIM over HTML” • CIM defines data…. • WBEM also defines common protocol (HTTP) and encoding (XML) • Object manager infrastructure (from CORBA) • known as “CIM Server” • Many implementations available

19. Directory Enabled Networks • Uses CIM as the data storage model • Uses LDAP for message exchange and directory repository • Provides centralised repository of management, object location and configuration info for computing and networking hardware

20. CIM/WBEM & DMI Management Infrastructures

21. Distributed Management Trends • Focus on • business solutions • transparent delivery of services • Requires integrated dynamic, rather than isolated static management(eg multi-vendor, not single-vendor solution) • Systems, software and networks managed together in integrated way • Include business knowledge (policies) in management infrastructure

22. Management: an Integrated Service • Perform usual management tasks: • Acquire inventory data • Transmit notification of events • Maintain statistics and metrics • Read/Write configuration parameters • But using a common mechanismie. Management port and Business port

23. Management: an Integrated Service

24. Distributed Management Alliances • Modern network management includes • Common semantics and models • Integrated business and management services • Many standards organisations need to cooperate on distributed functions • Storage Network Industry Association • Global Grid Forum (OGSI) • Distributed Management Task Force (CIM,WBEM) • W3C (OASIS)

25. Distributed Management Alliances

26. Finally…. • New world of management is evolving • Need to reduce cost through interoperable services • Being addressed by vendors and customers participating in formation of standards for business and management abstractions and services