Dell™ OpenManage™ Client Instrumentation Version 7.4 User's Guide
The following list defines or identifies technical terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used in this guide.
ASF
Abbreviation for Alert Standard Format—Defines remote control and alerting interfaces for operating system absent environments.
BIOS
Acronym for basic input/output system. BIOS refers to the software code run by a system when first powered on. The primary function of BIOS is to prepare the system so that other software programs stored on various media (such as hard drives, floppies, and CDs) can load, execute, and assume control of the system. This process is known as booting up.
BIOS can also be said to be a coded program embedded on a chip that
recognizes and controls various devices that make up the system.
CIM
Acronym for Common Information Model – the CIM Schema is a conceptual schema that defines how the managed elements in an IT environment (for instance Computers or Storage Area Networks) are represented as a common set of objects and relationships between them. CIM is extensible in order to allow product specific extensions to the common definition of these managed elements. CIM uses a model based upon UML to define the CIM Schema.
CIMOM
Acronym for CIM Object Manager. The WMI management infrastructure includes the CIM Object Manager, which is the interface and manipulation point for CIM objects and information. It acts as a facilitator in gathering information and manipulating object properties. The CIMOM stores data in an area called the WMI repository.
CLI
Abbreviation for command line interface. A CLI displays a prompt, the user types a command on the keyboard and terminates the command (usually with the Enter key), and the system executes the command, providing textual output.
CMOS
CMOS which stands for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, is a major class of integrated circuits. CMOS chips include microprocessor, microcontroller, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits. The central characteristic of the technology is that it only uses significant power when its transistors are switching between on and off states. Consequently, CMOS devices use little power and do not produce as much heat as other forms of logic. CMOS also allows a high density of logic functions on a chip.
COM
Acronym for Component Object Model which is a Microsoft® platform for software componentry. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in any programming language that supports the technology. The term COM is often used in the software development world as an umbrella term that encompasses the OLE, OLE Automation, ActiveX, COM+ and DCOM technologies. Although it has been implemented on several platforms, it is primarily used with Microsoft Windows®.
DCOM
Acronym for Distributed Component Object Model which is a Microsoft proprietary technology for software components distributed across several networked systems to communicate with each other. It extends Microsoft's COM, and provides the communication substrate under Microsoft's COM+ application server infrastructure.
device driver
A program that allows the operating system or some other program to interface correctly with a peripheral device, such as a printer. Some device drivers—such as network drivers—must be loaded from the config.sys file (with a device= statement) or as memory-resident programs (usually from the autoexec.bat file). Others—such as video drivers—must load when you start the program for which they were designed.
DLL
Acronym for Dynamic Link Library which is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. These libraries usually have the file extension DLL, OCX (for libraries containing ActiveX controls), or DRV (for legacy system drivers). The file formats for DLLs are the same as for Windows EXE files—Portable Executable (PE) for 32-bit Windows, and New Executable (NE) for 16-bit Windows. As with EXEs, DLLs can contain code, data, and resources, in any combination.
In the broader sense of the term, any data file with the same file format can be called a resource DLL. Examples of such DLLs include icon libraries, sometimes having the extension ICL, and font files, having the extensions FON and FOT.
DMI
The Desktop Management Interface (DMI) generates a standard framework for managing and tracking components in a desktop, notebook or server computer. Essentially, to the user, it is a table provided by the personal computer BIOS which can be parsed and which gives information about the BIOS and the system in a standardized way. Previously, such complete information was not available from a standardized source in the PC.
Due to the rapid advancement of DMTF technologies, such as Common Information Model (CIM), the DMTF defined an "End of Life" process for its Desktop Management Interface (DMI), which ended 03/31/2005.
DMTF
Abbreviation for Distributed Management Task Force (formerly "Desktop Management Task Force"). DMTF is a standards organisation that develops and maintains standards for systems management of IT environments in enterprises and the Internet. These standards allow building systems management infrastructure components in a platform-independent and technology-neutral way. They provide for systems management interoperability between IT products of different producers, without costly transformations and adaptations.
DOS
Acronym for Disk Operating System.
firmware
Software (programs or data) that has been written onto read-only memory (ROM). Firmware can boot and operate a device. Each controller containsfirmware that helps provide the controller's functionality.
MAC Address
Acronym for Media Access Control address which is an unique identifier attached to most forms of networking equipment. Most layer 2 network protocols use one of the following three numbering spaces managed by the IEEE: MAC-48, EUI-48, and EUI-64 which are designed to be globally unique.
Magic Packet
In early implementations of Remote Wake-up, the server could be started from a power-off state by sending a Magic Packet. A Magic Packet is an Ethernet packet that contains an adapter's MAC address repeated 16 times in the data field. When an adapter receives a Magic Packet containing its own MAC address, it activates the server's power. This enables network administrators to perform off-hours maintenance at remote locations.
MOF
There are potentially many ways in which CIM management information could be represented to exchange information. The CIM Specification defines a language based on the Interface Definition Language (IDL) called Managed Object Format (MOF).
MOF is the standard language used to define elements of CIM. The MOF language specifies syntax for defining CIM classes and instances. Compilation of MOF files provides developers and administrators with a simple and fast technique for modifying the CIM Repository.
OMCC
Acronym for Dell™ OpenManage™ Client Connector. OMCC is a one-to-one management console for local and remote system administration. It is a client management application that allows the user to view and configure OMCI properties and perform remote management functions such as shutdown and BIOS updates.
RAID
Acronym for redundant array of independent disks. In computing, RAID is a system which uses multiple hard drives to share or replicate data among the drives. Depending on the version chosen, the benefit of RAID is one or more of increased data integrity, fault-tolerance and throughput or capacity compared to single drives.
SMART
Acronym for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology, which is a monitoring system for system hard disks to detect and report on various indicators of reliability, in the hope of anticipating failures. SMART warns an user or the system administrator of an impending drive failure while time remains to take preventive action, such as copying the data to a replacement device.
SMBIOS
Acronym for System Management BIOS which is a specification to lay out data structures (and access methods) in a BIOS, which allows an user or an application to store and retrieve information specifically about the PC in question.
WBEM
Acronym for Web Based Enterprise Management. Defines protocols for the interaction between systems management infrastructure components implementing CIM, a concept of DMTF management profiles that allows defining the behavior of the elements defined in the CIM Schema, the CIM Query Language (CQL) and other specifications needed for the interoperability of CIM infrastructure.
WDM
Acronym for the Windows Driver Model in computing. Also known as the Win32 Driver Model, the Windows Driver Model defined a unified driver model for the Windows 98 and Windows 2000 line by standardizing requirements and reducing the amount of code that needed to be written. WDM drivers will not run on operating systems earlier than Windows 98 or Windows 2000 and is designed to be forward-compatible but not backward-compatible.
For example, a WDM driver written for Windows 2000 will load and function under Windows XP, but cannot take advantage of any new WDM features that were introduced in Windows XP. A WDM driver written for Windows XP will not load under Windows 2000.
WfM
Acronym for the Intel® Wired for Management standard. WfM technology was used in client-side hardware (including circuitry, memory, power supplies and network interface cards) and management software applications. It defines a baseline set of requirements for managing hardware, including requirements for instrumentation, remote wake-up, power management, and service boot capability. It enables centralized system management, including inventory, fix/repair, configuration, and diagnostics, and provides for off-hours maintenance to minimize downtime. WfM includes support for DMI and allows a technician to diagnose and upgrade a remote system while the user of that system continues working on other tasks. It also allows software upgrades in the background or during scheduled hours.
WMI
Acronym for Windows Management Instrumentation which is a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components can provide information and notification. WMI is Microsoft's implementation of the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) Standard from the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF).
WMI allows scripting languages like VBScript to manage Microsoft Windows personal computers and servers, both locally and remotely.
