Request for Technology from the OSF

[Dave Henry]

[Please excuse the wide cross-posting. Just passing this on as requested.]



The Open Software Foundation today issued its fourth Request for
Technology (RFT).  Through this RFT, OSF is soliciting technologies 
that will provide a distributed management environment and an essential
set of system management applications.

The text of the OSF Distributed Management Environment RFT and
background information about Distributed Management are included in
this message.

The RFT technical evaluation will be conducted by OSF's European
development office, in Munich West Germany.  This facility has been in
full operation since May 1989.  A Distributed Management Environment
RFT Inquiries Desk has been set up at the OSF Munich office at
+49-89-930-92199 to answer any questions concerning this RFT.





                       Request For Technology
                  Distributed Management Environment


The Open Software Foundation (OSF) is issuing a Request For Technology
(RFT) to begin the process of establishing a vendor neutral Distributed
Management Environment. This environment will provide the foundation
for the efficient, cost-effective management of open systems.

User Requirement
================

The growth of the open systems movement has changed the way people
think about computers and computer networks. Previously, users took
for granted sophisticated management facilities provided by proprietary
computer systems, and PC users relied on the simplicity of the
management tasks needed for their desktop computers.

Users need to manage an assortment of stand-alone and distributed
systems in a coherent and cost-effective way. They require a
consistent administrative approach and management tools, as well as
facilities for managing distributed systems.

The user requirements present an opportunity for the open systems
industry to work together to ease the cost and complexity of systems
administration. They present an additional chance to bring into
alignment system administration and network management technologies.
The convergence of these two technologies will provide distributed
system management.

Scope
=====

Technologies solicited in the Distributed Management Environment RFT
include management frameworks and management applications (tools and
utilities).

Management Framework
--------------------

A management framework defines and implements a conceptual model of
distributed systems management. A commonly accepted management model
consists of and defines the relationships between managed objects,
common management services, and management applications.

In this model, the entities representing the system to be managed are
called managed objects. They include system resources (such as devices
and file systems), system services (such as mail and print services),
network services (such as TCP/IP) and system users. These managed
objects are accessed via common management services.

Common management services form the basis for the secure, distributed,
and integrated management of systems, networks, and software
applications. These services could include implementations of
management communications protocols, event services, and access to
management information. These components of a management framework
provide an environment that supports management applications.




Management Applications
-----------------------

All management applications in the context of the Distributed
Management Environment make use of common management services to
implement management functions. OSF is requesting certain management
applications consisting of specific tools and utilities that cover the
basic management tasks associated with the installation and operation
of stand-alone and distributed systems in general, and OSF offerings
in particular. These include accounting, backup and restore, license
management, notification services, object monitoring and control,
print services, software installation and distribution, and user
management.

OSF will review technologies that address a distributed management
environment and can be integrated with OSF's operating system, user
environment, and distributed computing environment. Submissions that
partially address the scope of this RFT, or provide alternate
concepts, services, tools and utilities are welcome. The OSF Request
for Technology process evaluates software technologies for inclusion
in the OSF application environment.

What Is Not Covered In This RFT
===============================

At this time, OSF is not soliciting applications that manage the
physical network.

Mandatory Requirements
======================

Submitted technologies must satisfy the following mandatory
requirements.

Standards Conformity
--------------------

Implementations should be consistent and conformant with industry
accepted standards, where applicable, including relevant OSI
standards, the X/Open Portability Guide, the IEEE standard 1003.1
(POSIX) system interface specification, and the relevant documents of
the OSI/Network Management Forum (OSI/NMF) and the Internet Advisory
Board (IAB). Implementations should be written in ANSI-C.

The application programming interface must support applications 
written in ANSI-C and must not preclude other language bindings. 

Portability
-----------

Implementations must be portable across a wide range of hardware
platforms, and be easily ported to additional network interfaces.

Documentation
-------------

Documentation must be written in English. Submissions must include a
documentation plan defining documentation deliverables, efforts
involved, and deadlines for delivery.




Validation and Testing Support
------------------------------

Submissions must include a plan for development of validation suites,
efforts involved, and deadlines for delivery. Submissions shall also
include provisions for automated testing and quality assurance
definitions for software acceptance.

Product Readiness
-----------------

Submissions shall be demonstrable to the OSF staff on request and 
must be ready for commercial shipment in the first half of 1991. 

Reasonable and Equitable Licensing Terms
----------------------------------------

The submitter must have the authority to grant OSF a license under
reasonable terms to use, modify, and sublicense the submitted
technologies in source and object code form and documentation in
machine-readable and printed form.

Key Evaluation Criteria
=======================

Submissions addressing a management framework should provide a
comprehensive set of services from which management applications may
be constructed in a heterogeneous environment. They should be designed
in a modular fashion to work with other system and networking
services. The Distributed Management Environment tools and utilities
should be designed for easy integration with other applications and
services. Submissions should be extensible and allow easy use and
management of systems.

Qualifying submissions will be evaluated on

*	Coherence and extensibility of the underlying management 
	framework
*	Scalability over a range of machine types, resource volumes, and 
	network sizes 
*	Reliability in providing operation without loss of data or 
	excessive downtime
*	Security in allowing only authorized access to information and 
	services
*	Behavior in case of failure or overloading
*	Provision for diagnostics, error detection, and recovery
*	Diversity of supported machine architectures, networks, and 
	operating system environments
*	Conformity to relevant international and industry standards
*	Provision for automated testing and quality metrics
*	Quality and completeness of specifications, product 
	documentation, and test suites
*	Completeness of validation suites to ensure integrity of 
	implementation against specification
*	Adherence to good software engineering practices
*	Support of national languages.

Consideration also will be given to other criteria such as technology 
maturity and innovation. Additional criteria will be determined by the 
OSF membership and made available to submitters. 




Evaluation Process and Milestones
=================================

Letters of Intent to Respond are due September 21, 1990.
--------------------------------------------------------
The first step is a brief Letter of Intent to Respond (not to exceed 
15 pages), which should include: 

*	An Executive Summary of the proposal (1 to 3 pages)
*	An overview of the technology architecture
*	A discussion of the basic design philosophy
*	A list of core services and applications provided by the 
	submission
*	A statement of your willingness to license the described 
	technologies openly.

After the Letters of Intent have been received, OSF will distribute
copies of the Executive Summaries and OSF's preliminary evaluation
criteria to technology submitters and the OSF membership. OSF
encourages submitters to review the Executive Summaries and identify
areas in which their technologies complement other submissions.

All submitters are invited to participate in a workshop to review the
preliminary evaluation criteria. This workshop is currently planned
for the first week of October and will be held in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.

An initial Technology Review meeting will be held during the Fall OSF
member meeting (November 5-7, 1990) in Boston, Massachusetts.
Submitters of qualifying technologies will be invited to present their
technologies to the OSF membership at this meeting.

Full Submissions are due December 15, 1990.
-------------------------------------------
A completed submission must contain the items listed below.

*	A response to each mandatory requirement.
*	A discussion of the technology relative to the key evaluation 
	criteria.
*	A copy of relevant functional and interface specifications, 
	including the user interface, the programming interface, the protocol 
	specification, and sample application source that demonstrates use of 
	the technology.
*	A discussion of the appropriate technical issues for each service 
	such as management data representation, management information 
	storage, management interfaces and protocols, and problem detection 
	and recovery.
*	Outline of proposed license and business terms. Final terms and 
	conditions will be negotiated during the selection phase of the RFT.
*	Any other materials that the submitter deems relevant to this 
	evaluation process.

Confidential information is not being solicited at this time. When
examination of confidential material becomes necessary, appropriate
non-disclosure arrangements will be made with the organization
involved. Source code for the proposed technology should not be
submitted but must be available for inspection by OSF staff on
request.




The OSF RFT process necessitates that technology submission materials
be distributed broadly for review. Technology submitters agree to
distribute copies of their proposal to OSF members, other technology
submitters, relevant standards organizations, and other interested and
informed organizations as directed by OSF.

Review Process
==============

OSF will select technologies qualifying for detailed evaluation based
on their conformance to the Mandatory Requirements of the RFT.
Submitters of qualifying technology will be given an opportunity to
present their material to the OSF membership at the initial OSF Member
Technology Review meeting. 
This meeting is planned for November 5-7, 1990.

Following this Member Technology Review, OSF staff will evaluate the
candidate technologies. This evaluation might include examination of
source code, test suites, and documentation of the submission.

OSF expects to publicly announce the selected technologies along with
the selection rationale in the first half of 1991. The OSF Distributed
Management Environment technologies may be generally available by the
end of 1991. The specific dates will depend on the number and
complexity of technologies received.

As with all RFT processes, OSF may combine elements of submissions to
create a consistent, complete offering. OSF will make selections only
if suitable technology is available.

How to Submit
=============

Send submissions to:

Open Software Foundation
ATTN: RFT Inquiries Desk
Stefan-George-Ring 29 			
D-8000 Munich 81
Germany

Questions concerning this RFT should be directed to:
Open Software Foundation,
DME RFT Inquiries Desk
Tel.: +49-89-930-92199		Internet: rft-info at osf.org
Fax.: +49-89-930-92104		Eunet:    rft-info at osf.de




===========================




         OSF Distributed Management Environment Backgrounder


One of the promises of open systems is a reduction in the complexity
and cost of managing systems in a multi-vendor environment.

The Distributed Management Environment RFT from the Open Software
Foundation (OSF) begins the process of establishing technologies to
fulfill this promise. In this RFT, OSF is soliciting proposals and
technologies to define and implement a Distributed Management
Environment, which will provide an extensible framework to unify
system, network, and application management.  The major goals are to
simplify the steps needed to manage stand-alone and distributed
systems, and to provide a solid foundation for the future development
of management applications.

The OSF distributed management environment will provide a number of
benefits for end users and system administrators, independent software
vendors, and system vendors.

For the end user or system administrator, the distributed management 
environment

*	Improves the reliability and availability of systems and networks
*	Increases the portability of user skills between different 
	platforms
* 	Reduces the skill level required to perform management tasks
*	Reduces the time, training and associated costs required to 
	perform management tasks 
*	Provides centralized management of distributed systems
*	Extends the interoperability of open systems utilizing common 
	management services.

For independent software vendors, a distributed management environment

* 	Provides tools for the simplified development of portable 
	applications, comparable in sophistication to those found in 
	proprietary systems
*	Creates an expanded market for management applications
*	Provides for the development of management applications that 
	manage stand-alone and distributed systems.

For system vendors, the distributed management environment 

*	Provides a consistent management environment for 
	heterogeneous systems
*	Reduces development and maintenance costs associated with 
	system management applications.

What is a Distributed Management Environment?
=============================================

A distributed management environment integrates the management of
systems, networks and user applications. A major objective of OSF's
Distributed Management Environment RFT is to identify a comprehensive
management framework or conceptual model of management, allowing
consistent management of systems ranging from stand-alone systems to
systems in a distributed environment.  OSF's high standards for
extensibility, maintainability and adaptability require such a common
framework, supported by appropriate tools.




The following is an example of the components of a conceptual
management environment model. This is not necessarily the model that
must be reflected in an RFT submission.


    
    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                           Human Interface                         |
    |                       (graphical / nongraphical)                  |
    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
API =====================================================================
    +---------------+ +---------------+ +---------------+ +-------------+ 
    |  Management   | |  Management   | |  Management   | | Management  | 
    |  Application  | |  Application  | |  Application  | | Application | 
    +---------------+ +---------------+ +---------------+ +-------------+
API =====================================================================
    +---------------------------------------+ +-------------------------+    
    |                Common                 | |       Management        |
    |               Management              | |      Informantion       |
    |                Services               | |        Storage          |
    +---------------------------------------+ +-------------------------+
API =====================================================================
        +---------+       +---------+        +---------+      +---------+
        |         |       |         |        |         |      |         |
      +---------+ |     +---------+ |      +---------+ |    +---------+ |
      |         |-+     |         |-+      |         |-+    |         |-+
    +---------+ |     +---------+ |      +---------+ |    +---------+ |
    | Managed |-+     | Managed |-+      | Managed |-+    | Managed |-+ 
    | Objects |       | Objects |        | Objects |      | Objects | 
    +---------+       +---------+        +---------+      +---------+      


Human Interface
---------------

A human interface for a management application can be a simple
command-line type, screen-oriented, or graphical interface. The human
interface should be consistent among all management applications, and
integrated into the management framework.

Management Applications
------------------------

These individual applications are used to perform management tasks.
Management applications shield the user from the detailed steps
necessary to perform management tasks, and ensure the integrity of
management data. Security administration, user registry, file system
configuration, and print spooler management are examples of management
applications. These applications manage objects through the use of
clear and concise interfaces to common management services.

Common Management Services
--------------------------

Common management services support the coherent management framework
by presenting programming interfaces used by management applications
and managed objects. They include management communication services,
event services, naming and location services, and queuing services.
The common management services simplify the development of portable
management applications.




Management Information Storage Services
---------------------------------------

Common management information storage services allow management
applications and managed objects to manipulate management information.
These services are presented through a programming interface.

Managed Objects
---------------

A managed object is a representation of a resource within the
computing environment from a management point of view. An example of a
system resource is a file system, which is represented and managed by
its associated managed object. Other examples of resources include
devices, print and mail systems, users, and end-user application
software. To make management applications portable, extensible, and
adaptable, a general interface to the managed objects is necessary.

How does the Distributed Management Environment relate to OSF's offerings?
==========================================================================

To date, OSF has not defined an overall management framework for its
technology offerings. The technologies selected from the Distributed
Management Environment RFT will provide this framework. All current
and future OSF offerings will be integrated into the distributed
management environment.

How does the Distributed Management Environment relate to standards?
====================================================================

OSF will comply with relevant standards in its selection of
distributed management environment technology. Work on management
issues in ISO, the OSI/Network Management Forum (OSI/NMF), the
Internet Advisory Board (IAB), X/Open, POSIX, and other institutions
is in progress. Members of these organizations will be invited to
assist OSF in the evaluation and selection process. OSF also will work
together with these groups, acting as a catalyst to accelerate and
harmonize the emerging standards.

What are the possible outcomes of the Distributed Management Environment RFT?
=============================================================================

OSF's membership has indicated that distributed management for
systems, networks, and applications is urgently needed. OSF is issuing
this RFT to address this important industry need. If suitable
technology is not available, OSF may narrow the scope, change the time
frame, or defer decision at this time.

OSF is a trademark of the Open Software Foundation.

*****************************************************

Open Software Foundation      email:  newsnug at osf.org
11 Cambridge Center           phone:  617-621-8700
Cambridge, MA   02142         fax:    617-621-0631
c/o OSF Electronic Bulletin

Comments to the editor can be sent to:

                newsnug at osf.org

E-mail additions and changes can be sent to:

              bulletin-request at osf.org
*****************************************************

Please note:  The OSF Electronic Bulletin and the OSF 
Electronic Flash are only distributed through electronic 
mail.  







                       Request For Technology
                  Distributed Management Environment


The Open Software Foundation (OSF) is issuing a Request For Technology
(RFT) to begin the process of establishing a vendor neutral Distributed
Management Environment. This environment will provide the foundation
for the efficient, cost-effective management of open systems.

User Requirement
================

The growth of the open systems movement has changed the way people
think about computers and computer networks. Previously, users took
for granted sophisticated management facilities provided by proprietary
computer systems, and PC users relied on the simplicity of the
management tasks needed for their desktop computers.

Users need to manage an assortment of stand-alone and distributed
systems in a coherent and cost-effective way. They require a
consistent administrative approach and management tools, as well as
facilities for managing distributed systems.

The user requirements present an opportunity for the open systems
industry to work together to ease the cost and complexity of systems
administration. They present an additional chance to bring into
alignment system administration and network management technologies.
The convergence of these two technologies will provide distributed
system management.

Scope
=====

Technologies solicited in the Distributed Management Environment RFT
include management frameworks and management applications (tools and
utilities).

Management Framework
--------------------

A management framework defines and implements a conceptual model of
distributed systems management. A commonly accepted management model
consists of and defines the relationships between managed objects,
common management services, and management applications.

In this model, the entities representing the system to be managed are
called managed objects. They include system resources (such as devices
and file systems), system services (such as mail and print services),
network services (such as TCP/IP) and system users. These managed
objects are accessed via common management services.

Common management services form the basis for the secure, distributed,
and integrated management of systems, networks, and software
applications. These services could include implementations of
management communications protocols, event services, and access to
management information. These components of a management framework
provide an environment that supports management applications.




Management Applications
-----------------------

All management applications in the context of the Distributed
Management Environment make use of common management services to
implement management functions. OSF is requesting certain management
applications consisting of specific tools and utilities that cover the
basic management tasks associated with the installation and operation
of stand-alone and distributed systems in general, and OSF offerings
in particular. These include accounting, backup and restore, license
management, notification services, object monitoring and control,
print services, software installation and distribution, and user
management.

OSF will review technologies that address a distributed management
environment and can be integrated with OSF's operating system, user
environment, and distributed computing environment. Submissions that
partially address the scope of this RFT, or provide alternate
concepts, services, tools and utilities are welcome. The OSF Request
for Technology process evaluates software technologies for inclusion
in the OSF application environment.

What Is Not Covered In This RFT
===============================

At this time, OSF is not soliciting applications that manage the
physical network.

Mandatory Requirements
======================

Submitted technologies must satisfy the following mandatory
requirements.

Standards Conformity
--------------------

Implementations should be consistent and conformant with industry
accepted standards, where applicable, including relevant OSI
standards, the X/Open Portability Guide, the IEEE standard 1003.1
(POSIX) system interface specification, and the relevant documents of
the OSI/Network Management Forum (OSI/NMF) and the Internet Advisory
Board (IAB). Implementations should be written in ANSI-C.

The application programming interface must support applications 
written in ANSI-C and must not preclude other language bindings. 

Portability
-----------

Implementations must be portable across a wide range of hardware
platforms, and be easily ported to additional network interfaces.

Documentation
-------------

Documentation must be written in English. Submissions must include a
documentation plan defining documentation deliverables, efforts
involved, and deadlines for delivery.




Validation and Testing Support
------------------------------

Submissions must include a plan for development of validation suites,
efforts involved, and deadlines for delivery. Submissions shall also
include provisions for automated testing and quality assurance
definitions for software acceptance.

Product Readiness
-----------------

Submissions shall be demonstrable to the OSF staff on request and 
must be ready for commercial shipment in the first half of 1991. 

Reasonable and Equitable Licensing Terms
----------------------------------------

The submitter must have the authority to grant OSF a license under
reasonable terms to use, modify, and sublicense the submitted
technologies in source and object code form and documentation in
machine-readable and printed form.

Key Evaluation Criteria
=======================

Submissions addressing a management framework should provide a
comprehensive set of services from which management applications may
be constructed in a heterogeneous environment. They should be designed
in a modular fashion to work with other system and networking
services. The Distributed Management Environment tools and utilities
should be designed for easy integration with other applications and
services. Submissions should be extensible and allow easy use and
management of systems.

Qualifying submissions will be evaluated on

*	Coherence and extensibility of the underlying management 
	framework
*	Scalability over a range of machine types, resource volumes, and 
	network sizes 
*	Reliability in providing operation without loss of data or 
	excessive downtime
*	Security in allowing only authorized access to information and 
	services
*	Behavior in case of failure or overloading
*	Provision for diagnostics, error detection, and recovery
*	Diversity of supported machine architectures, networks, and 
	operating system environments
*	Conformity to relevant international and industry standards
*	Provision for automated testing and quality metrics
*	Quality and completeness of specifications, product 
	documentation, and test suites
*	Completeness of validation suites to ensure integrity of 
	implementation against specification
*	Adherence to good software engineering practices
*	Support of national languages.

Consideration also will be given to other criteria such as technology 
maturity and innovation. Additional criteria will be determined by the 
OSF membership and made available to submitters. 




Evaluation Process and Milestones
=================================

Letters of Intent to Respond are due September 21, 1990.
--------------------------------------------------------
The first step is a brief Letter of Intent to Respond (not to exceed 
15 pages), which should include: 

*	An Executive Summary of the proposal (1 to 3 pages)
*	An overview of the technology architecture
*	A discussion of the basic design philosophy
*	A list of core services and applications provided by the 
	submission
*	A statement of your willingness to license the described 
	technologies openly.

After the Letters of Intent have been received, OSF will distribute
copies of the Executive Summaries and OSF's preliminary evaluation
criteria to technology submitters and the OSF membership. OSF
encourages submitters to review the Executive Summaries and identify
areas in which their technologies complement other submissions.

All submitters are invited to participate in a workshop to review the
preliminary evaluation criteria. This workshop is currently planned
for the first week of October and will be held in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.

An initial Technology Review meeting will be held during the Fall OSF
member meeting (November 5-7, 1990) in Boston, Massachusetts.
Submitters of qualifying technologies will be invited to present their
technologies to the OSF membership at this meeting.

Full Submissions are due December 15, 1990.
-------------------------------------------
A completed submission must contain the items listed below.

*	A response to each mandatory requirement.
*	A discussion of the technology relative to the key evaluation 
	criteria.
*	A copy of relevant functional and interface specifications, 
	including the user interface, the programming interface, the protocol 
	specification, and sample application source that demonstrates use of 
	the technology.
*	A discussion of the appropriate technical issues for each service 
	such as management data representation, management information 
	storage, management interfaces and protocols, and problem detection 
	and recovery.
*	Outline of proposed license and business terms. Final terms and 
	conditions will be negotiated during the selection phase of the RFT.
*	Any other materials that the submitter deems relevant to this 
	evaluation process.

Confidential information is not being solicited at this time. When
examination of confidential material becomes necessary, appropriate
non-disclosure arrangements will be made with the organization
involved. Source code for the proposed technology should not be
submitted but must be available for inspection by OSF staff on
request.




The OSF RFT process necessitates that technology submission materials
be distributed broadly for review. Technology submitters agree to
distribute copies of their proposal to OSF members, other technology
submitters, relevant standards organizations, and other interested and
informed organizations as directed by OSF.

Review Process
==============

OSF will select technologies qualifying for detailed evaluation based
on their conformance to the Mandatory Requirements of the RFT.
Submitters of qualifying technology will be given an opportunity to
present their material to the OSF membership at the initial OSF Member
Technology Review meeting. 
This meeting is planned for November 5-7, 1990.

Following this Member Technology Review, OSF staff will evaluate the
candidate technologies. This evaluation might include examination of
source code, test suites, and documentation of the submission.

OSF expects to publicly announce the selected technologies along with
the selection rationale in the first half of 1991. The OSF Distributed
Management Environment technologies may be generally available by the
end of 1991. The specific dates will depend on the number and
complexity of technologies received.

As with all RFT processes, OSF may combine elements of submissions to
create a consistent, complete offering. OSF will make selections only
if suitable technology is available.

How to Submit
=============

Send submissions to:

Open Software Foundation
ATTN: RFT Inquiries Desk
Stefan-George-Ring 29 			
D-8000 Munich 81
Germany

Questions concerning this RFT should be directed to:
Open Software Foundation,
DME RFT Inquiries Desk
Tel.: +49-89-930-92199		Internet: rft-info at osf.org
Fax.: +49-89-930-92104		Eunet:  rft-info at osf.de




===========================




         OSF Distributed Management Environment Backgrounder


One of the promises of open systems is a reduction in the complexity
and cost of managing systems in a multi-vendor environment.

The Distributed Management Environment RFT from the Open Software
Foundation (OSF) begins the process of establishing technologies to
fulfill this promise. In this RFT, OSF is soliciting proposals and
technologies to define and implement a Distributed Management
Environment, which will provide an extensible framework to unify
system, network, and application management.  The major goals are to
simplify the steps needed to manage stand-alone and distributed
systems, and to provide a solid foundation for the future development
of management applications.

The OSF distributed management environment will provide a number of
benefits for end users and system administrators, independent software
vendors, and system vendors.

For the end user or system administrator, the distributed management 
environment

*	Improves the reliability and availability of systems and networks
*	Increases the portability of user skills between different 
	platforms
* 	Reduces the skill level required to perform management tasks
*	Reduces the time, training and associated costs required to 
	perform management tasks 
*	Provides centralized management of distributed systems
*	Extends the interoperability of open systems utilizing common 
	management services.

For independent software vendors, a distributed management environment

* 	Provides tools for the simplified development of portable 
	applications, comparable in sophistication to those found in 
	proprietary systems
*	Creates an expanded market for management applications
*	Provides for the development of management applications that 
	manage stand-alone and distributed systems.

For system vendors, the distributed management environment 

*	Provides a consistent management environment for 
	heterogeneous systems
*	Reduces development and maintenance costs associated with 
	system management applications.

What is a Distributed Management Environment?
=============================================

A distributed management environment integrates the management of
systems, networks and user applications. A major objective of OSF's
Distributed Management Environment RFT is to identify a comprehensive
management framework or conceptual model of management, allowing
consistent management of systems ranging from stand-alone systems to
systems in a distributed environment.  OSF's high standards for
extensibility, maintainability and adaptability require such a common
framework, supported by appropriate tools.




The following is an example of the components of a conceptual
management environment model. This is not necessarily the model that
must be reflected in an RFT submission.


    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |                           Human Interface                         |
    |                       (graphical / nongraphical)                  |
    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
API =====================================================================
    +---------------+ +---------------+ +---------------+ +-------------+ 
    |  Management   | |  Management   | |  Management   | | Management  | 
    |  Application  | |  Application  | |  Application  | | Application | 
    +---------------+ +---------------+ +---------------+ +-------------+
API =====================================================================
    +---------------------------------------+ +-------------------------+    
    |                Common                 | |       Management        |
    |               Management              | |      Informantion       |
    |                Services               | |        Storage          |
    +---------------------------------------+ +-------------------------+
API =====================================================================
        +---------+       +---------+        +---------+      +---------+
        |         |       |         |        |         |      |         |
      +---------+ |     +---------+ |      +---------+ |    +---------+ |
      |         |-+     |         |-+      |         |-+    |         |-+
    +---------+ |     +---------+ |      +---------+ |    +---------+ |
    | Managed |-+     | Managed |-+      | Managed |-+    | Managed |-+ 
    | Objects |       | Objects |        | Objects |      | Objects | 
    +---------+       +---------+        +---------+      +---------+      


Human Interface
---------------

A human interface for a management application can be a simple
command-line type, screen-oriented, or graphical interface. The human
interface should be consistent among all management applications, and
integrated into the management framework.

Management Applications
------------------------

These individual applications are used to perform management tasks.
Management applications shield the user from the detailed steps
necessary to perform management tasks, and ensure the integrity of
management data. Security administration, user registry, file system
configuration, and print spooler management are examples of management
applications. These applications manage objects through the use of
clear and concise interfaces to common management services.

Common Management Services
--------------------------

Common management services support the coherent management framework
by presenting programming interfaces used by management applications
and managed objects. They include management communication services,
event services, naming and location services, and queuing services.
The common management services simplify the development of portable
management applications.




Management Information Storage Services
---------------------------------------

Common management information storage services allow management
applications and managed objects to manipulate management information.
These services are presented through a programming interface.

Managed Objects
---------------

A managed object is a representation of a resource within the
computing environment from a management point of view. An example of a
system resource is a file system, which is represented and managed by
its associated managed object. Other examples of resources include
devices, print and mail systems, users, and end-user application
software. To make management applications portable, extensible, and
adaptable, a general interface to the managed objects is necessary.

How does the Distributed Management Environment relate to OSF's offerings?
===========================================================================

To date, OSF has not defined an overall management framework for its
technology offerings. The technologies selected from the Distributed
Management Environment RFT will provide this framework. All current
and future OSF offerings will be integrated into the distributed
management environment.

How does the Distributed Management Environment relate to standards?
====================================================================

OSF will comply with relevant standards in its selection of
distributed management environment technology. Work on management
issues in ISO, the OSI/Network Management Forum (OSI/NMF), the
Internet Advisory Board (IAB), X/Open, POSIX, and other institutions
is in progress. Members of these organizations will be invited to
assist OSF in the evaluation and selection process. OSF also will work
together with these groups, acting as a catalyst to accelerate and
harmonize the emerging standards.

What are the possible outcomes of the Distributed Management Environment RFT?
=============================================================================

OSF's membership has indicated that distributed management for
systems, networks, and applications is urgently needed. OSF is issuing
this RFT to address this important industry need. If suitable
technology is not available, OSF may narrow the scope, change the time
frame, or defer decision at this time.

OSF is a trademark of the Open Software Foundation.

Dave Henry		 | "Take the wheel -- I'm going out on top."
Open Software Foundation | DISCLAIMER: If you don't want something heard,
Cambridge, MA		 | 		do not say it.
+1 617 621 8719		 | beast at osf{.osf}.org	uunet!osf!beast