Integrating an online configuration checker with existing management systems: Application to CIM/WBEM environments

Runtime configuration validation is a critical requirement if we are to build reliable self-adaptive management systems. This paper presents a generic framework that includes a runtime configuration checker built upon a high-level language dedicated to the specification of configurations and validity constraints. In addition, we describe a methodology for using this framework and integrating the configuration checker with existing management systems. In particular, we show how we use the framework to enrich a CIM/WBEM management environment with automatic runtime configuration validation against a defined set of constraints guarding structural correctness and service behavior conformance. Our experiments with management models conforming to the CIM Virtual System profile show viable results demonstrating the feasibility of our approach.