The Desktop Management Interface (DMI) generates a standard framework for managing and tracking

component Circuit Component may refer to: •Are devices that perform functions when they are connected in a circuit. In engineering, science, and technology Generic systems * System components, an entity with discrete structure, such as an assem ...

s in a desktop, notebook or server computer, by

abstracting An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding, or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose. When used, an abstract always ...

these components from the software that manages them. The development of DMI, 2.0 version June 24, 1998, marked the first move by the

Distributed Management Task Force Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit industry standards organization that creates open manageability standards spanning diverse emerging and traditional IT infrastructures including cloud, virtualization, network, s ...

(DMTF) into desktop-management standards. Before the introduction of DMI, no standardized source of information could provide details about components in a

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tech ...

. Due to the rapid development of DMTF technologies, such as Common Information Model (CIM), the DMTF defined an "End of Life" process for DMI, which ended on March 31, 2005. From 1999,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

required OEMs and BIOS vendors to support the DMI interface/data-set in order to have Microsoft certification.

DMI and SMBIOS

DMI exposes system data (including the

System Management BIOS In computing, the System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) specification defines data structures (and access methods) that can be used to read management information produced by the BIOS of a computer. This eliminates the need for the operating system to ...

(SMBIOS) data) to management software, but the two specifications function independently. DMI is commonly confused with SMBIOS, which was actually called DMIBIOS in its first revisions.

Optional additional services: MIF data and MIF routines

When software queries a memory-resident agent that resides in the background, it responds by sending data in MIFs (

Management Information Format Management Information Format (MIF file) is a format used to describe a hardware or software component. MIF files are used by DMI to report system configuration information. Although MIF is a system-independent format, it is used primarily by W ...

) or activating MIF routines. Static data in a MIF would contain items such as model ID, serial number, memory- and port-addresses. A MIF routine could read memory and report its contents.

DMI and SNMP

DMI can co-exist with

SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet Standard protocol for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on IP networks and for modifying that information to change device behaviour. Devices that typically ...

and other management protocols. For example, when an SNMP query arrives, DMI can fill out the SNMP

MIB The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

with data from its MIF. A single workstation or server can serve as a proxy agent that would contain the SNMP module and service an entire

LAN Lan or LAN may also refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in sp ...

segment of DMI-capable machines.

References

External links

* Th
DMI home page
links to repositories of DMI-related information including specifications, support-tools, and the Product Registry of DMI-certified products.
Linux man page for dmidecode

Large collection of decoded DMI tables for various computer models
DMTF standards Network management {{compu-network-stub BIOS

DMI and SMBIOS

Optional additional services: MIF data and MIF routines

DMI and SNMP

See also

References

Further reading

External links