A transport neutral technique allows an object manager to communicate with a
CIM
repository using any of a variety of protocols. The object manager software is
independent of the transport mechanism used and need not be changed if the transport
mechanism changes. A computer system to be managed includes a CIM object manager
and any number of provider APIs that provide resource information about the computer
system. A CIM repository stores classes and instances used by the object manager.
A remote application computer runs a software management application that communicates
with the object manager of the computer system using a local client API. A Repository
API of the object manager includes an interface definition defining all methods
called by the object manager. Also included is a protocol-specific class that implements
the interface definition; there is a protocol-specific class for each protocol
desired to be supported. Each class implements methods using a specific protocol.
A factory class is executed when the object manager invokes a method call passing
in a desired protocol parameter. The factory class creates a protocol-specific
object of one of the protocol-specific classes depending on the protocol parameter.
The object is returned to the object manager which executes one of its protocol-specific
methods thus allowing communication to a repository using a protocol independent
of the object manager.