Automating Applications Management in the Enterprise using DMTF Information Models

Most enterprises today are heavily if not completely dependent on systems for the running of the business. Applications that automate business operations are mostly based on distributed, component based architectures where advances in server side component models have considerably simplified development. The simplicity of constructing these applications has resulted in an increased complexity on the operational side of managing the component tapestry. The increase in operational complexity has reached a point where it is no longer feasible for humans to manage the applications and infrastructure required to run an enterprise. The initial steps to provide self managing application environments are now being taken – a paradigm known as “autonomic computing” is in it’s infancy of evolution. DMTF specifications that are currently being developed for management of distributed applications form the basis for some of this work. There have been numerous proposed models of how one achieves self management. In this paper, we formulate the research problems and basis for “lights out” management of enterprise application environments. We also illustrate our approach with a way of managing simple web applications based on Java Servlets.