Tag: SMI-S

SMI-S Storage Management Quick Start Guide Series Kicks-Off

Mike Walker Leave a comment

Twenty-year SNIA veteran Mike Walker has created a series of videos titled “SMI-S Quick Start Guides” that provides developers using the SMI-S storage management specification instructions on how to find useful information in a SMI-S server using the python-based PyWBEM open source tool.

“Using the PyWBEM tool, I created a set of mock SMI-S 1.8 servers which I have shared with the world on GitHub,” said Walker. “I also created a set of PDFs called ‘Quick Start Guides’ and a series of videos demonstrating some of the most recent capabilities of the SMI-S 1.8 specification. Storage equipment vendors and management software vendors seeking to address the day-to-day tasks of the IT environment can use this information to work with SMI-S 1.8.”

The first two videos of this series now available on the SNIA Video YouTube channel are listed below. Be sure to check back or subscribe to the SNIA Video YouTube channel for future video installments.

• A short trailer explaining the content you can expect to see in the series here.
• A SNIA SMI-S Storage Management Spec. Mockups, Installation and Setup video here.

The Quick Start Guide PDFs and a set of mock WBEM servers that support SMI-S 1.8 storage management servers can be found on GitHub here. You can also learn more about PyWBEM here.

About the SMI-S Storage Management Specification

SMI-S was first approved as an ISO standard in 2002. Today, it has been implemented in over 1,350 storage products that provide access to common storage management functions and features.
During its lifetime, several versions of the SMI-S standard have been approved by ISO. The current international standard for SMI-S was based on SMI-S v1.5, which was completed in 2011, submitted for ISO approval in 2012, and formally adopted in 2014 as the latest revision of ISO/IEC 24775.

SMI-S 1.8 rev 5 was sent to ISO as an update to ISO/IEC 24775 and is expected to become an internationally recognized standard in the first half of 2021. SMI-S 1.8 rev 5 is the recommended and final version of the specification as no further updates are planned.

Subscribe to the SNIA Matters Newsletter here to stay up-to-date on all SNIA announcements and be one of the first to learn the ISO approval status of the SMI-S 1.8 rev 5 storage specification.

A SNIA Superpower: PAS submitter to ISO

Don Deel Leave a comment

SNIA’s Technical Council is one of the crown jewels of the organization. Made up of a group of acknowledged storage experts, the Technical Council oversees and manages SNIA Technical Work Groups, reviews architectures submitted by work groups, and is SNIA’s technical liaison to standards organizations.

One of the Council’s superpowers is its ISO JTC-1 designation as an ARO and a PAS submitter. What does that actually mean? It’s a very big deal!

SNIA is only one of 13 organizations worldwide that have the PAS submission capability, putting it in exclusive company. The list includes:

“Traditionally, ISO standards can only reference one another. By approving SNIA as an Approved Reference Organization (ARO), JTC1 is acknowledging SNIA’s rigorous development process and technical credibility. This allows the documents that SNIA develops to be used to underpin other ISO standards,” said Arnold Jones, Technical Council Managing Director, SNIA. “In addition, SNIA has satisfied the extensive criteria to become a Publicly Available Standard (PAS) submitter.”

ISO is an independent, international organization with a membership of 165 national standards bodies. It is the international standards organization. When a SNIA standard becomes ISO-approved, virtually every country in the world has access to it along with confidence it will work well with solutions in the marketplace.

ISO/IEC JTC 1 is a joint technical committee of ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Its purpose is to develop, maintain and promote standards in the fields of information technology and Information and Communications Technology.

Specifications developed by a PAS Submitter can use a streamlined approval process within ISO, assuring that recent, advanced technology moves from industry consensus to international standard as quickly and efficiently as possible.

SNIA was reaffirmed as a PAS submitter by ISO in 2018 for another five-year term, with its status in effect until September 2023.

SMI-S Storage Management Specification

The Storage Management Initiative-Specification (SMI-S) provides a real-world example of how a PAS submission works within SNIA.

SMI-S was first approved as an ISO standard in 2002. Today, it has been implemented in over 1,350 storage products that provides access to common storage management functions and features.

During its lifetime, the SMI-S standard has been approved by ISO many times. The current international standard for SMI-S was based on SMI-S v1.5, which was completed in 2011, submitted for ISO approval in 2012, and formally adopted in 2014 as the latest revision of ISO/IEC 24775.

SMI-S 1.8 was recently sent to ISO as an update to ISO/IEC 24775. SNIA believes SMI-S 1.8 rev 5 is the very best version of the specification and should be adopted worldwide. As a PAS submission, it will become an international standard much more quickly. Published by SNIA as a standard in March, 2020, it was submitted to ISO in May and began a 90-day ballot in August. If all goes as expected, SMI-S v1.8 will be approved as ISO/IEC 24775:2020 by the end of the year – less than a year after its publication as a SNIA architecture.

Subscribe to the SNIA Matters Newsletter here to stay up-to-date on all SNIA announcements and be one of the first to learn the status of the SMI-S 1.8 rev 5 storage specification.

Want to learn more about ISO and PAS? You might find the following links useful:

 

Understanding the Power of SNIA’s Storage Management Initiative

Don Deel Leave a comment

By Don Deel, SNIA SMI Governing Board Chair

The SNIA Storage Management Initiative (SMI) uses many acronyms that can cause confusion. SMI? That’s the name of the Initiative! SMI-S? That’s a storage management specification. CTP? That stands for Conformance Test Program, but soon there will be two! One already exists for SMI-S and the other is being developed for SNIA Swordfish. Swordfish is a storage management specification that doesn’t have an acronym.

So other than come up with confusing acronyms, what does the SMI do? The SMI is an active group with a mission to unify the storage industry to develop and standardize interoperable storage management technologies. The SMI supports the development of storage management solutions that are based upon standard interfaces instead of proprietary interfaces. This helps lower costs, makes integration efforts easier and provides increased reliability, security and manageability. Read More