CIM_SettingData, usage patterns, etc.

John Dennis jdennis at redhat.com
Mon Mar 4 23:58:16 UTC 2013


Several related questions here:

As a CIM newbie I've been able to find the specs, the schemas, the 
tutorials, existing implementations, etc. Many of these resources have 
tremendous detail but usually it's on entities in isolation (e.g. the 
classes) or discussions at a very abstract level with no practical 
examples. What I've had a heck of a time finding is "patterns of usage". 
In other words given the existing model and it's available classes how 
do you assemble the disparate pieces according to best practice to 
arrive at a solution that is consistent with how CIM experts expect CIM 
to be used? I'm wondering if there are resources that discuss the 
"practical how-to of CIM modeling", if so could someone point me that 
information?

Here is a good example of where I have a hole in my understanding.

I need to model a service. That service has configuration parameters. My 
understanding is I need to do the following:

* Derive a class from CIM_Service (or one if it's subclasses)

* Derive a class from CIM_SettingData that encapsulates the 
configuration parameters for the service.

* Derive a class from CIM_Capabilities that enumerates what can be set 
in the matching SettingData class.

The service will instantiate a SettingData instance and set an 
association between the service and SettingData, this represents the 
current configuration parameters. Is this correct?

Now lets say someone wants to modify the configuration parameters for 
the service. How do they do it? It seems as if one needs to instantiate 
a SettingData instance with the desired parameters and pass that to the 
service. Is that correct?

If so it would seem there are two ways to accomplish that.

1) Define a method on the service which accepts a reference to a 
SettingData instance.

   a. Does the provider examine the SettingData and only update
      the non-null parameters?

   b. Does the provider replace the existing association between
      the service and it's SettingData with the new reference?

2) Define an association class that binds the SettingData to the service 
(but how would the service provider know this association was formed?)

Summary:

How does one set the configuration parameters for a service? Is it via 
an instance of a SettingData class and if so how?

Addendum:

I found numerous SettingData classes and a number of Capability classes 
in various schemas but what I couldn't find was any mention of these 
classes get used in practice. It also seems as if SettingData can be 
used in a variety of different ways (e.g. patterns) but I wasn't able to 
figure out what those patterns were. Can somebody elucidate those 
patterns or point me to resources that explain them?

Thanks so much for your help,

John


-- 
John Dennis <jdennis at redhat.com>

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