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Storage Management Initiative – Specification
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<h2 id="basic-concepts">Basic concepts</h2> <p>SMI-S defines <a href="/facts/Common_Information_Model_(computing)/B8MTC0kh">CIM</a> management profiles for storage systems. The entire SMI Specification is categorized in profiles and subprofiles. A profile describes the behavioral aspects of an autonomous, self-contained management domain. SMI-S includes profiles for <a href="/facts/Disk_array/rucs0NjV">Arrays</a>, <a href="/facts/Network_switch/CnvmhNYT">Switches</a>, Storage Virtualizers, Volume Management and several other management domains. In DMTF parlance, an SMI-S provider is an implementation for a specific profile or set of profiles. A subprofile describes a part of a management domain, and can be a common part in more than one profile. </p><p>At a very basic level, SMI-S entities are divided into two categories: </p> <ul><li>Clients are management software applications that can reside virtually anywhere within a network, provided they have a communications link (either within the data path or outside the data path) to providers.</li> <li>Servers are the devices under management. Servers can be disk arrays, virtualization engines, host bus adapters, switches, tape drives, etc.</li></ul> <h2 id="smi-s-timeline">SMI-S timeline</h2> <ul><li>2000 – Collection of computer storage industry leaders led by Roger Reich begins building an interoperable management backbone for storage and storage networks (named Bluefin) in a small consortia called the Partner Development Process.</li> <li>2002 – Bluefin donated by the consortia to the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and later renamed to Storage Management Initiative – Specification or SMI-S. SMI-S 1.0 publicly announced by the SNIA.</li> <li>2003 – The Storage Management Initiative launches formal industry wide specification development, interoperability testing and demonstrations programs, as well as <a href="/facts/Conformance_testing/gGMpWI3q">conformance testing</a> systems and certifications. Work proceeds in the SNIA SMI Technical Steering Committee and related TWGs.</li> <li>2004 – SMI-S 1.0.2 becomes an <a href="/facts/American_National_Standards_Institute/p3d1TQCb">ANSI</a> standard. Initial development of SMI-S 1.1.0 started.</li> <li>2005 – SMI-S 1.0.2 submitted to <a href="/facts/International_Organization_for_Standardization/IacYR7Yg">ISO</a>.</li> <li>2006 – SMI-S 1.0.3 accepted as an ISO standard. SMI-S 1.1.0 published as a SNIA Technical Position.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> Working Drafts developed for SMI-S 1.2.0.</li> <li>2007 – SMI-S 1.2.0 published as a SNIA Technical Position.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> Working Drafts developed for SMI-S 1.3.0 and SMI-S 1.4.0.</li> <li>2008 – SMI-S 1.1.1 published as an ANSI standard <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> and submitted to ISO for consideration as an ISO standard. SMI-S 1.3.0 published as a SNIA Technical Position.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a></li> <li>2009 – SMI-S 1.4.0 published as a SNIA Technical Position. <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> Working Drafts developed for SMI-S 1.5.0.</li> <li>2010 – SMI-S 1.5.0 published as a SNIA Technical Position.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> Working Drafts developed for SMI-S 1.6.0.</li> <li>2011 – SMI-S 1.1.1 published as an ISO standard, ISO/IEC 24775:2011.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> SMI-S 1.3.0 published as an ANSI standard: INCITS 388-2011.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> Development continues on SMI-S 1.6.0 and 1.6.1 in SNIA Technical Work Groups. Discussions are being conducted re a possible SMI-S V2.0.</li> <li>2012 – <a href="http://snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi">SMI-S 1.6.0</a> published as a SNIA Technical Position.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> Five interoperability plugfests held.</li> <li>2013 – Working Drafts developed for SMI-S 1.6.1. Five interoperability plugfests held, include one international plugfest (US and China).</li> <li>2014 – Eight books that comprise SMI-S 1.5.0 published as an ISO standard: <i>Information technology -- Storage management</i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> SNIA SMI-S 1.6.1 Rev 5 published as a SNIA Technical Position.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> Working Drafts developed for SMI-S 1.7.0 Rev 1. Six interoperability plugfests held, including two international plugfests (US and China).</li> <li>2015 – Working Drafts developed for SMI-S 1.7.0. Six interoperability plugfests held, including one in China.</li> <li>2016 – SMI-S 1.7.0 Rev 5 is published as a SNIA Technical Position. <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> Multiple interoperability plugfests held.</li> <li>2018 – SMI-S 1.8.0 Rev 3 is published as a SNIA Technical Position.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> Multiple interoperability plugfests held.</li> <li>2019 – SMI-S 1.8.0 Rev 4 is published as a SNIA Technical Position.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a> Multiple interoperability plugfests held.</li> <li>2020 – SMI-S 1.8.0 Rev 5 is published as a SNIA Technical Position.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18"><sup>18</sup></a> Multiple interoperability plugfests held.</li></ul> <h2 id="open-source-projects">Open source projects</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://www.snia.org/pywbem">pywbem</a> - An open source library written in Python. It provides storage management software developers and system administrators with an easy-to-use method of accessing Common Information Model (CIM) objects and operations in Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) servers, such as those found in SMI-S and other CIM-based environments.</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/pywbem/pywbem">pywbem GitHub Library</a> - A repository of pywbem projects on GitHub.</li> <li><a href="http://pywbem.github.io/">pywbem Documentation</a> - An overview of pywbem projects, community issues and feature requests.</li> <li><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/storageim/">StorageIM</a> SMI-S monitor client for SMI-enabled Arrays, Switches, HBAs and Storage Libraries.</li> <li><a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/sblim/index.php?title=Main_Page">SBLIM</a> Umbrella project for a collection of systems management tools to enable WBEM on Linux.</li></ul> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Common_Information_Model_(computing)/B8MTC0kh">CIM</a> — Common Information Model</li> <li><a href="/facts/Web-Based_Enterprise_Management/3lzqbFqq">WBEM</a> — Web-Based Enterprise Management</li> <li><a href="/facts/Storage_Networking_Industry_Association/nWXbIQI2">SNIA</a> — Storage Networking Industry Association</li> <li><a href="https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610600.aspx">SCVMM</a> System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager</li> <li>Storage Management Initiative Specification (<a href="http://www.snia.org/smis">SMI-S</a>) – SNIA SMI-S website</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://www.snia.org/forums/smi/tech_programs/smis_home/">Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S)</a> provides good material both at the overview and detail level.</li> <li><a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi">Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S)</a> Releases – Approved specifications of SMI-S.</li> <li><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&lnk=sg#!forum/smi-s-developers-group">SMI Developers Group</a> provides information to assist developers working with SMI.</li> <li><a href="http://www.snia.org/forums/smi/tech_programs/lab_program/">Storage Management Lab Program (SM Lab)</a> provides information about the program that runs SMI-S interoperability plugfests.</li> <li><a href="https://www.snia.org/smi-ctp">SMI-S Conformance Testing Program (SMI-S CTP)</a> describes how SNIA validates that a member company's products (software or hardware) conform to a specific version of SMI-S.</li> <li><a href="http://www.dmtf.org/standards/published_documents">DMTF Standard Publications</a> contains a list of published DMTF standards.</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>ISO/IEC 24775:2011, ISO. <a href="http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=55234" target="_blank">http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=55234</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>CTP Test Statistics, Tech programs, SNIA. <a href="https://www.snia.org/ctp/general_info/providerreleases" target="_blank">https://www.snia.org/ctp/general_info/providerreleases</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>INCITS 388-2008, ANSI. <a href="http://webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetail.aspx?sku=ANSI+INCITS+388-2008" target="_blank">http://webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetail.aspx?sku=ANSI+INCITS+388-2008</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>ISO/IEC 24775:2011, ISO. <a href="http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=55234" target="_blank">http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=55234</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>INCITS 388-2011, ANSI. <a href="http://webstore.ansi.org/FindStandards.aspx?SearchString=INCITS+388&SearchOption=0&PageNum=0&SearchTermsArray=null%7cINCITS+388%7cnull" target="_blank">http://webstore.ansi.org/FindStandards.aspx?SearchString=INCITS+388&SearchOption=0&PageNum=0&SearchTermsArray=null%7cINCITS+388%7cnull</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>ISO/IEC 24775-1:2014 through ISO/IEC 24775-8:2014 <a href="https://www.iso.org/standard/55234.html" target="_blank">https://www.iso.org/standard/55234.html</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:18"><p>SNIA SMI-S Releases, Current standards, SNIA. <a href="http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/" target="_blank">http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/</a> <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>