CIM Reference Guide

12 Introduction
The Dell-defined classes are not defined in the official schema by the DMTF,
the industry group that defines the standards for CIM, and hence do not have
parent classes. CIM_Dependency does not have a parent class because it is a
relationship or association between two managed system elements.
Parent Classes
Most classes in the dccim32 provider document both a Class Name and a
Parent Class property. The parent class is the class from which any given class
inherits its core properties. For example, the CIM_Controller class has the
CIM_LogicalDevice class as its parent, and has various types of
controllers (CIM_ParallelController, CIM_SerialController) as
its children.
Classes That Describe Relationships
Classes that derive from CIM_Dependency have CIM_Dependency as
their parent class, but they are documented in terms of antecedent and
dependent elements in a relationship rather than in terms of common
properties. Consider the following relationship between two
CIM_ManagedSystemElements:
The CIM_PackageCurrentSensor class monitors an entire physical
package, such as all the components contained in a given system chassis. The
CIM_PhysicalPackage class is dependent on the
CIM_PackageCurrentSensor class for this monitoring function.
Dell-Defined Classes
Server Administrator has extended some CIM classes and has created new
classes to assist in managing systems and their components. In the diagrams
that appear in the documentation for each class, those classes created and
populated by Dell are designated by the gold (lighter gray) triangle icon.
Antecedent
CIM_PackageCurrentSensor
Dependent CIM_PhysicalPackage