Data services are managed by a three-tiered system. The lowest tier comprises
management facade software running on each machine that converts a platform-dependent
interface written with the low-level kernel routines that actually implements the
data services to platform-independent method calls. The middle tier is a set of
federated Java beans that communicate with the management facades and with the
upper tier of the system. The upper tier of the inventive system comprises presentation
programs that can be directly manipulated by management personnel to view and control
the system.