A framework for building more flexible and powerful management tools for use in today's complex data centers.
Under SOMA, all important management operations are implemented as services (such as for retrieving device status, for device control, for changing configuration settings and for provisioning). Each service is a software component with a formally defined, message-based, request-response interface. The business logic behind each interface is hidden from users. Messages are in XML and are passed among services running within a device via a management services bus (MSB). Programming a management application or an agent is relatively easy because all available management functionality is exposed via consistent interfaces, and most services are highly reusable.
A central ingredient in SOMA is the concept of a management services bus (MSB). The MSB provides a common communication infrastructure in which all applications are converted and deployed as run-time services. Furthermore, the MSB enables universal translation and communication between any two SOMA management services, letting IT data centers support new hardware and software within their existing management environment, protect their previous investment and still unite their operations under a unified framework.
When new services are required, implementers can write new code or encapsulate and integrate commercial or open source legacy-management code: Either way, the code is hidden behind formal service interfaces. Used this way, SOMA unifies what otherwise would be disparate management solutions.
Services provide simple or complex functionality. A simple service might, for example, return a device's current temperature settings or fan speeds, and a more complex service might perform complex diagnostics requiring the correlation of information from multiple sensors and internal event logs. Services can cooperate with one another, and more sophisticated services can be formed by layering atop lower-level services. A vendor can, for example, provide management agents for an entire gamut of routers, from low-end to high-end, by picking appropriate services from a services library.
SOMA services can be used to construct management agents, proxy agents, management appliances or applications. Because SOMA does not dictate the type of client application that must be used, GUI, Web, or even fully automated applications requiring no human intervention can be used. Such client applications typically invoke services remotely via management protocols.
The client applications are connected to the MSB via protocol adapters that call for services. A given appliance or agent must support at least one protocol adapter, but often will support several. SOMA services running on management appliances or agents might themselves need other protocol adapters to interact with the hardware or software elements they are responsible for.
Being able to support many management protocols is a huge advantage: It ensures, for example, that a newer device with a SOMA agent can be managed by legacy management applications or frameworks via older protocols (such as SNMP), or by newer applications via newer protocols.
With SOMA, a device vendor could future-proof his device by making it able support Web-services-oriented management protocols, such as Common Information Model-XML, WS-Management and Web Services Distributed Management. (The newer protocols natively support XML-based request formats and require less mediation work by their respective adapters.)
From: SOMA: Service-oriented management architecture, Network World Tech Update, 03/02/07.
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