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Tom LaStrange is the lead engineer of the graphical user interface
group for SunSoft's Java Management API (JMAPI) development.
JavaSoft developed a management Applet for the Jeeves server with JMAPI.
Tom described the architecture of JMAPI and had diagrams showing the components
and the interfaces between them.
They make extensive use of the Remote
Method Invocation (RMI) classes to communicate between management components.
Their Admin View Module (AVM) has a set of GUI components (possibly
outsourced) that build on AWT. It also includes Semantic Objects - basically
a representation of the entity that is being managed. Cisco
has developed a Router Semantic Object that can be extended to manage any
kind of router either hardware or software or any combination. I take this
to be the equivalent of a standard MIB in the SNMP world.
It also contains its own help system that allows third party registration
of help files corresponding to the management applets. This help system
will be based on HTML and Java applets and will be freely available.
He also talked about a component (not discussed on the web page) called
Admin Runtime Module (ARM). These appear to be the equivalent of SNMP Agents
(written in Java). They achieve scalability by having intermediate servers
consolidating managed entities.
Even though these "Agents" are written in Java, they don't
move from machine to machine, although there is a way to update your Java
"firmware" with newer versions. Some router vendors are putting
Java chips in to do the management and even operation of their routers.
Security concerns are to be addressed with the next version of Java
(1.1). They interface to a database on the back end using a non-Java
Data Base Connectivity (JDBC)
interface. They will eventually have a JDBC driver interface and will test
it with Oracle, Sybase, and a less expensive database. The interface (based
on Managed Objects) to the database will remain the same.
The JMAPI will go into beta this fall and ship by the end of the year.
The JMAPI and all the class libraries will be available for free and some
of the AVM components may make it into the standard JavaSoft JDK releases.
You can find more information on Java Management APIs from:
Solstice
Workshop,
JMAPI Overview, and
Tom's Slides
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