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CIM specifies how management information about logical and physical objects on a managed network is stored in management information databases. CIM attempts to provide a consistent and unified view of information so that it can be retrieved by any CIM-compliant network management systems. CIM is part of the WBEM (Web-based Enterprise Management) initiative, which is being defined by the majority of major network vendors and managed by the DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force). The DMTF also manages WBEM. Note that CIM was originally called HMMS (Hypermedia Management Schema).

According to the DMTF, CIM consists of the CIM specification and the CIM schema:

• The CIM specification describes the language, naming, Meta Schema, and mapping techniques to other management models such as SNMP MIBs, and DMTF MIFs.


• The Meta Schema is a formal definition of the model. It defines the terms used to express the model and their usage and semantics.

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