December 3-6, 2007, Santa Clara Marriott, Santa Clara, CA

Python CIM Providers with

PyWBEM
Bart Whiteley
 Agenda

• Motivation
• Design Goals
• Benefits
• Architecture
• Interface Details
• Demonstration
• References
 Motivation

• Current provider interfaces (CIMOM-specific C++,

CMPI, CIMPLE, ...) expose too many details of the
WBEM operations.
• Current provider interfaces require too much boilerplate
code.
• Providers required more build management effort than
they should.
• Inspired by the ease and power of the PyWBEM client
API.
• Leverage the dynamic nature of Python.
 Design Goals

• Don't require provider writers to do anything that the

provider interface could do for them.
• Ease of development.
• Ease of deployment.
• Leverage PyWBEM objects.
– PyWBEM objects can be passed directly from PyWBEM client
to python provider interface.
• Consistency with PyWBEM client API.
– “Upcall” CIMOM handle matches pywbem.WBEMConnection.
• CIMOM neutral.
• Reduce operations.
• Reduce parameters.
 Benefits

• Easy to debug. • Reduced LOC

• Provider writers can – Process Provider
focus on solving the • C++: 3600
problem of • CMPI: 3338
instrumentation.
• Python: 800
• Greatly reduced time to
– File System Provider
market.
• C++: 2900
• Less opportunity for error.
• CMPI: 1383 (subset
of classes/features)
• CIMPLE: 1230 +
8650 generated
• Python: 440
 Architecture Diagram

CIMOM
(OpenWBEM or Pegasus)

Provider Managers C++ CMPI Python

Python Runtime

pywbem/cim_provider.py

C++ Provider CMPI Provider Python Provider

C++ Provider CMPI Provider Python Provider
C++ Provider CMPI Provider Python Provider
 Architecture

• Implemented as a provider manager for OpenWBEM

and Pegasus.
• Converts native CIMOM objects to PyWBEM objects.
• Loads Python modules (the providers).
• Provides “upcall” CIMOM handle and other CIMOM
services to providers through Python extensions.
• Python abstraction layer (cim_provider.py) maps
WBEM operations from CIMOM to simplified, more
friendly Python provider interface.
 Interface Concepts

• Combine similar operations into one method.

– EnumerateInstanceNames, EnumerateInstances -->
enum_instances().
– Associators, AssociatorNames, References, ReferenceNames
--> references().
– CreateInstance, ModifyInstance --> set_instance()
• Pass to the provider a “model” of the object(s) the
provider should return.
– The model is completed as much as possible by the interface.
– The model conveys more information, such as PropertyList.
• Eliminate the need for providers to dispatch extrinsic
methods.
 'model' Parameter

• A pywbem.CIMInstance passed to instance and association

methods.
• Attributes:
– path – A pywbem.CIMInstanceName representing the ObjectPath of the
instance.
– classname – The name of the class.
– properties – A case-insensitive dictionary containing the properties.
• Methods:
– update_existing(<mapping>) -- Update the values of properties, iff the
properties are already present in the instance.
• Behaves like a Python dictionary.
– model['propname'] returns/assigns the property value.
– model.properties['propname'] returns/assigns the
pywbem.CIMProperty instance.
 'model' continued.

• Properties in the model correspond to the PropertyList parameter

from the request, if present.
– If a property is not present in the model, no need to compute and set the
property value on the instance.
– update_existing() method is useful for this.
• Providers can chose to ignore the PropertyList information, and
set all of the properties.
– The provider interface will filter for you.
– This is configurable.
• In the case of get_instance, Key properties are set before calling
into the provider.
• The provider should update the model, and return or yield it,
depending on the method.
 pywbem.CIMProvider Class

• Python base class for • CIMProvider methods:

Instance, Association, – __init__()
and Method providers. – get_instance()
• A single subclass of – enum_instances()
pywbem.CIMProvider
can service multiple CIM – set_instance()
classes. – delete_instance()
• A single Python provider – references()
module can contain – Extrinsic methods.
multiple subclasses of
pywbem.CIMProvider.

11
 get_instance

def get_instance(self, env, model, cim_class):

• Return the requested pywbem.CIMInstance.
• If the model does not correspond to a valid instance, raise
pywbem.CIMError(pywbem.CIM_ERR_NOT_FOUND).
• Otherwise, set additional properties on the model, and
return the model.
• Keyword arguments:
– env – Provider environment
– model – A template of the pywbem.CIMInstance to be returned. The
key properties are set corresponding to the requested instance. If
the request included a PropertyList, only properties in the
PropertyList are present in the model.
– cim_class – A pywbem.CIMClass representing the CIM class whose
instance is requested.
 enum_instances

def enum_instances(self, env, model, cim_class,

keys_only):
• Python generator used to enumerate instances.
• For each instance, update the properties on the model,
then yield the model.
• Keyword arguments:
– env – Provider Environment.
– model – A template of the pywbem.CIMInstances to be
generated. Similar to get_instance.
– keys_only – True if request was EnumerateInstanceNames.
False if request was EnumerateInstances.
– cim_class – A pywbem.CIMClass representing the CIM class whose
instance is requested.
 set_instance

def set_instance(self, env, instance, previous_instance,

cim_class):
• Create or Modify an instance, or raise a
pywbem.CIMError with an appropriate
pywbem.CIM_ERR_*.
• Keyword arguments:
– env – Provider environment.
– instance – A pywbem.CIMInstance representing the new
instance.
– previous_instance – None if doing a CreateInstance,
otherwise the pywbem.CIMInstance representing the old
instance prior to modification.
– cim_class – A pywbem.CIMClass representing the CIM class whose
instance is requested.
 delete_instance

def delete_instance(self, env, instance_name):

• Delete the specified instance, or raise a
pywbem.CIM_Error with an appropriate
pywbem.CIM_ERR_*.
• Keyword arguments:
– env – Provider environment
– instance_name – A pywbem.CIMInstanceName representing
the instance to be deleted.
 references

def references(self, env, object_name, model, assoc_class,

result_class_name, role, result_role, keys_only):
• Handles all association operations (Associators,
AssociatorNames, References, ReferenceNames).
• Python generator that yields instances of pywbem.CIMInstance
representing CIM instances of the association class.
• Keyword arguments:
– env – Provider environment
– object_name – The target object
– model – A template of the pywbem.CIMInstance to be returned.
– result_class_name, role, result_role – See DSP0200.
– keys_only – True if handling ReferenceNames.
– assoc_class – A pywbem.CIMClass representing the CIM
association class whose instance is requested.
 Method Providers

• Providers don't need to dispatch methods.

• Just implement a python method matching the
signature of the CIM method.
– Method name is prefixed with “cim_method_”
– Method IN parameters are prefixed with “param_”
• Return a 2-tuple containing the return value, and a
dictionary with the OUT parameters.
 Method Provider Example

• MOF:
uint32 RequestStateChange([IN] RequestedState,
[IN(false), OUT] CIM_ConcreteJob REF Job,
[IN] datetime TimeoutPeriod);
• Python:
def cim_method_requeststatechange(self, env,
object_name, method, param_requestedstate,
param_timeoutperiod):
– object_name – A pywbem.CIMInstanceName or
pywbem.CIMClassName indicating the target object.
– method – A pywbem.CIMMethod representing the CIM method
definition.
– param_requestedstate and param_timeoutperiod are the IN
parameters.
– Return a 2-tuple containing the return value (pywbem.Uint32) and
the dictionary
{'job':pywbem.CIMInstanceName('CIM_ConcreteJob', ...)}
 Module Functions

• Required:
– get_providers(env)
• Returns a dictionary mapping CIM class names to instaces of Python
provider classes.
• Optional:
– init(env)
• Optional. First method called.
– shutdown(env)
• Called when the provider is unloaded.
– can_unload(env)
• Return True if the provider can be unloaded.
– Indication related methods.
• handle_indication, consume_indication, activate_filter, deactivate_filter.
• Not covered in this presentation.
 Provider Environment

• The first parameter passed to most functions or

methods.
• Contains CIMOM services made available to providers.
• env.get_logger()
– Return a logger object.
• env.get_cimom_handle()
– Return an “upcall” CIMOM handle.
– “Upcall” CIMOM handle interface resembles WBEM
operations (DSP0200).
– “Upcall” CIMOM handle interface is compatible with
pywbem.WBEMConnection.
 Provider Environment Example

logger = env.get_logger()
logger.log_debug('Debug Info')
ch = env.get_cimom_handle()
other_inst = ch.GetInstance(inst_path,
LocalOnly=False, IncludeQualifiers=False,
IncludeClassOrigin=False)
 Code Generation

• Writes much of the provider for you.

• Generated code is specific to the CIM class being instrumented.
– Intrinsic method stubs determined by the nature of the class.
– Property names and types.
– Extrinsic methods
• Method names.
• Parameter names and types.
• Return types.
• Promotes consistent patterns across providers.
• Comments in the code teach how to write Python providers.
• Code generation is optional. (compare CIMPLE)
• Greatly reduces ramp-up time.
– Just follow the instructions and fill in the blanks.
 codegen

codegen(cim_class)
• cim_class is a pywbem.CIMClass
– Make sure it has all of the properties, methods, and qualifiers.
• Returns a 2-tuple containing:
– Syntactically correct Python provider module code, ready to
run (though it won't do much).
– Provider registration MOF.
 Debugging

• Provider manager checks the timestamp of provider

modules, and reloads if timestamp is newer.
– Effortless to try the latest changes to provider code.
• Errors from providers, including syntax errors, are sent
as stack traces to the client application.
• Debugging becomes quick and easy.
– Nothing to rebuild.
– Nothing to reinstall.
 Demonstration

A live demo that includes:

• Generating provider module code using pywbem.codegen.
• Implementing the instance-related methods and extrinsic
methods.
• Deploying and using the provider.
• Similar to the QuickStart Guide on the wiki.
– http://pywbem.wiki.sourceforge.net/Provider+QuickStart
 Summary

• The easiest way to write and maintain providers.

• Simplified interface.
• Easy debugging.
• Easy deployment.
• CIMOM neutral.
 References

• http://pywbem.sourceforge.net/
• http://pywbem.wiki.sourceforge.net/
• http://pywbem.wiki.sourceforge.net/Provider+QuickStart
• http://omc.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/omc/pybase/trunk/
• http://omc.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/omc/pyprofiles/
• http://www.dmtf.org/standards/published_documents/DSP200.html
• http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/