Description of general stack layers

[Heather Kreger <kreger@us.ibm.com>]

trying again

Heather Kreger
STSM, Web Services Lead Architect for SWG Emerging Technologies
Author of "Java and JMX: Building Manageable Systems"
kreger@us.ibm.com
919-543-3211 (t/l 441)  cell:919-496-9572
---------------------- Forwarded by Heather Kreger/Raleigh/IBM on
08/07/2003 12:21 PM ---------------------------

Heather Kreger
08/07/2003 11:03 AM

To:    wsdm-comments@lists.oasis-open.org
cc:
From:  Heather Kreger/Raleigh/IBM@IBMUS
Subject:    Description of general stack layers


Zulah! Thanks for reminding me about this todo, I knew there was SOMETHING
I was supposed to be doing last night!

Here are the layer descriptions (Heather's words):

Description Layer - The Description layer defines the set of XML Schema and
portTypes that are necessary to describe the manageability of a resource.
These specifications are not specific to management and may be used by
other Web services.  The schemas define types and elements and portTypes
for accessing and manipulating those elements. A simple example is
Relationship. There is an XML Schema Complex type that defines standard,
common model of a relationship, e.g.source, target, role. There is a
corresponding portTypes with operations for retrieving and managing the
relationships of a resource. These specifications do not define common Web
services, but may be utilized by common Web services in their role.  For
example, a relationship manager service would use the relationships schema.

Common Web Services Layer - The ‘Common Web Services Interfaces’
specifications define the standard portTypes we need to be able to actually
DO the management once we have the resource portTypes.  These distinguished
service portTypes encapsulate important infrastructure roles. It is
possible for a resource to implement both a manageable resource role and an
infrastructure role. Registry, name-handle resolvers, relationship managers
and notification services are examples. Actual management applications
(applications that monitor, configure, etc.) are not part of this layer,
they are part of the management applications layer.

Manageability Description Layer - The ‘Manageability Description’
specifications define the collection standard portTypes and information
that manageable resources may support in order to advertise and provide
access to standard manageability capabilities. Examples of generic
manageability portTypes and XSD complex types are:  Management Identity
supporting aliasing, management notifications, and basic health reporting.
Necessary attributes and operations for access to metrics and configuration
will be defined .

The manageability description layer is the collection of schemas and
portTypes that need to be defined, but not necessarily implemented by all
manageable resources and services. The  Manageable Resource portType
specifications would need to define which generic manageability portTypes
are actually mandated.

Manageable Resources Layer - The ‘Manageable Resources’ specifications
define the portTypes to represent common, virtualized resources. A
virtualized resource is an abstracted resource can have many
implementations, such as device, system, operating system, and service. One
or more of these portTypes should be used by resource portTypes to
categorize and provide consistent, commonly understood, interoperable base
of functionality.

The collections of portTypes are composed from the normalized (granular)
elements in CIM, SNMP, RMC, composed, etc. will not be duplicated or
redefined However, new models may be developed for concepts that do not
have existing models to work from: e.g. job submission, provisioning, and
web service. The manageable resource portTypes may mix in Manageability
Description PortTypes.

The Manageable Resources specifications defines how to represent the
manageability of IT resources as WSDL documents in a manner that  supports
and leverages existing information models for those IT resources.

The ‘Manageable Web Service’ specification defines the Web Services
manageability specification. Notice that the Web service management is just
like other manageable resources and based on the same foundational Base and
Generic portTypes. This specification will define the information model for
managing Web services as resources.  It will also define the information
model for relevant Web service infrastructure components, including but not
limited to, Web Service Environment, Discovery Agency, and Intermediary.
Based on this information model, the specification will define the
Manageable Resource PortTypes for Web Services.


Policy and Agreement Descriptions Layer - The ‘Policy Descriptions’
specifications defines the common, standardized, and derivative policy
description sets that can be instantiated and reused. Policy descriptions
are used by management applications and Web service infrastructures to
guide the management of the Manageable Resource. A framework and XML schema
for describing policy is already defined by WS-Policy. The policy
description specifications will be defined based on those existing
specifications.  It should be possible for policy descriptions to accompany
a resource during deployment into an environment and affect the deployment.
It should also be possible for execution environments to process and
consult policy descriptions during runtime.  Likewise, managers should be
able to process and consult policy descriptions. Standard policy keywords
and sets for common management tasks, like metric polling and thresholding
may  need to be defined to support runtime and deployment interoperability
and portability.   Agreement Descriptions, like Service Level Agreements,
may use the Policy descriptions already defined. Examples of ways
agreements are used by a management application which monitors and reports
on service agreement compliance, Web service infrastructures which use the
agreement to guide service environment work balancing and throughput, and
accounting applications which use the agreements, and any infractions, to
generate billing.



Management Applications Layer -The ‘Management Applications’ specifications
define the management applications that leverage these other
specifications.   Standard specifications for management applications are
not defined at this time.



Manager Interfaces Layer - The ‘Manager Interfaces’ specifications define
portTypes and schemas for accessing manager functionality and management
applications. For example, portTypes to query inventory, events, status,
and monitoring applications. It is another collection of portTypes, but the
manager application may actually use manageable resource portTypes, CoWS
portTypes, or other manager portTypes, either implicitly or explicitly.
Manager portTypes may also implement CoWS portTypes. Managers OF manageable
resources are NOT required to expose these portTypes, and in many ways they
are orthogonal to the Manageable Resource portTypes. However, it is easy to
envision business processes and intelligent Web services infrastructures
that interact directly with sophisticated management systems to perform
failure compensation, resource selection, resource backup, binding
negotiation, etc



Here's the stack again for easy access...



(See attached file: layering.wsdm.073003.jpg)

Heather Kreger
STSM, Web Services Lead Architect for SWG Emerging Technologies
Author of "Java and JMX: Building Manageable Systems"
kreger@us.ibm.com
919-543-3211 (t/l 441)  cell:919-496-9572

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