The Desktop Management Task Force – dedicated to standardising the management of personal computers across networks – has distributed the first draft of its application programming interface specifications. Currently only the 40 or so Task Force participants have been sent copies, but after a series of consultations and revisions, a public reference document should be ready by next March’s InterOp show. The initial draft sketches out the essentials of the Desktop Management Interface, which is split into two parts. The Component Interface is designed to give software and hardware manufactures a relatively simple way to make their products manageable, and is general enough to suit a wide range of components from video boards to mass storage devices. The other half of the interface is Common Management Interface – the interface that network management stations see. Currently the Task Force is developing Simple Network Management Protocol and CMOL Common Management Information Protocol Over Link Layer Control-based implementations. These should, eventually, enable existing management stations to display network maps right down to individually connected personal computers. The group formed only in May, so it can be seen that it has worked exceptionally fast. The Desktop Management Task Force also announced that it has teamed up with yet another group – the Distributed Support Information Standards Group – which is busily defining the object definitions needed for desktop management. The new group comprises Bell Atlantic Business Systems Services Inc, Digital Equipment Corp, HaL Computer Systems Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, ICL Plc, Microsoft Corp, Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA and Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and DEC are in fact common to the two groups, so that it is no surprise that they are getting together. In effect, the Support Standards group is working on the best way to define and store the management information while the Desktop Management gang will address itself to how to access it.
