Server/Desktop
At the heart of the data center and today's enterprise, server and desktop systems require effective management as the key to uptime, availability – and ultimately controlling costs. From remote servers in the data center to PCs throughout the enterprise, the DMTF delivers the leading standards that form the basis of hardware management.
For all server and desktop systems, the DMTF's Common Information Model (CIM)
and Web-Based Enterprise
Management (WBEM) standards play a key role, delivering a common way to
describe and exchange management information. Additional DMTF standards that
address hardware and storage include:
Servers
SMASH – The DMTF’s Systems
Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH) is a suite of
specifications that enables simple and intuitive management of heterogeneous
servers in the data center. SMASH can be used independent of machine state,
operating system state, server system topology or access method, and
facilitates local and remote management of server hardware in both
Out-of-Service and Out-of-Band management environments.
PCs/Notebooks
ASF – The Alert Standard
Format (ASF) specification defines remote control and alerting interfaces
that address clients' OS-absent environments.
SMBIOS - The System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) Specification addresses how motherboard and system vendors present management information about their products in a standard format, by extending the BIOS interface on x86 architecture systems. The information allows generic instrumentation to deliver this information to management applications, eliminating the need for error prone operations like probing system hardware for presence detection.
DMI - The DMTF’s Desktop Management Interface (DMI) was the industry’s first desktop management standard, giving component vendors - for the first time - a consistent and non-proprietary way to make their products manageable. Due to the rapid advancement of more advanced DMTF technologies, such as CIM, the DMTF no longer supports DMI, though the specification is still available on the DMTF Web site.
Related Links
Server Management Command Line Protocol Architecture Whitepaper (DSP2001 - PDF)
Learning Center – Find DMTF
Standards Briefs on hardware specifications, as well as relevant White
Papers and other information, in the Learning Center.