HP WBEM Services Software Developer's Kit for HP-UX Provider and Client Developer's Guide A.01

Introduction to WBEM, CIM, CIM Server, and Providers
Controlled Extensibility
Chapter 116
Controlled Extensibility
The hierarchical, inheritance-based nature of CIM allows it to be easily
extended to account for differences on different operating systems. For
example, there is no exact equivalent in Windows of the "mount point"
concept of UNIX platforms. Conversely, there is no consistent notion in
UNIX of the "registered user" (owner) of the operating system or other
software components. Extensions to accommodate platform-specific
differences are encouraged and must follow well-defined rules. New
classes of objects are created by defining subclasses of existing classes in
order to add new properties or to represent concepts that are unique to
the platform. The task of implementing a provider often involves
extending the CIM model by defining new classes of objects. Guidelines
for extending the model are discussed in Chapter 3, Schema Design and
Implementation.