[wsdm][UPlat] Definitions UPlat Items - Aggregated for easy review and accessibility

["Andreas Dharmawan" <andreas@westbridgetech.com>]

I scanned our UPlat email archives (reverse chronological) 
to get the latest definitions of each UPlat item from our 
discussions.

Owners/Champions, please review and send corrections. I 
will be happy to coordinate the next revision of this list
of definitions.

Thanks

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High:
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* Identification:
  - Definition(s):
    Identification is a way to represent that one element is same or 
    different than the other without necessarily looking at the 
    contents or definition of the element. Applied to Web resources 
    in general, as defined by W3C, a Uniform Resource Identifier 
    (URI) can be used to represent the identity of a Web resource. 
    Applied to Web services, every element which Web service 
    description is composed of (service, interface, endpoint, 
    location, etc.), is required to be identifiable by a URI. 
    Such URI must be unique by definition. Identity is not required 
    to be an addressable location, so a dereferencing mechanism 
    may be required to actually locate the corresponding resource.

  - Management Need(s):
    Manageable resources need to be uniquely identified for 
    the manager to tell one from the other and also to 
    consistently refer to. Therefore a standard representation of 
    a unique identity is required.

* Versioning:
  - Definition(s):
    Versions: A sequence of copies of (Functional and Manageability)
    Webservices incorporating new modifications. Each version is 
    identified by a number, following a certain specified format 
    signifying the major version number and the release number.

    Typically an increment in the major version signifies a   
    substantial increase in the function of the Webservice or a
    partial or total re-implementation.

    Whereas the release number increases each time the Webservice 
    is changed in any way and re-released.

    Versioning information must also contain change description
    that describes what has changed in a revision compared to
    the previous one.

  - Management Need(s):
    1. Version numbers are useful so that the manager can know 
       if the manageable Webservice interfaces have changed 
       (bugs have been fixed or new functions added) since she 
       obtained her copy. She could also learn whether a bug 
       report relates to the current version. 
    2. A manager of manageable resources must have the ability to
       query the available endpoints' revisions along with the
       corresponding change descriptions such that the manager
       can discern the most appropriate and compatible interface of
       a particular manageability function that her management 
       client can use.

* Attributes:
  - Definition(s):
    Schema to describe attributes of a Web service and portType 
    operations to access and set the attributes. Attributes should be 
    introspect-able at design time and runtime. Attribute is 
    synonymous with property. For manageability, a property is a name, 
    type, value triple that is part of the advertised manageability 
    interface for a resource. An attribute can be used to represent 
    configuration values, metrics, identifiers, etc.

* Metadata:
  - Definition(s):
    Attribute Metadata - schema that defines how to describe metadata 
    about attributes, operations, events, or interfaces of a Web 
    service. This metadata for attributes could include includes units, 
    volatility, modifiability. Metadata about operations may include 
    idempotency, endState. Metadata should be introspect-able at design 
    time and runtime.

    Note that metadata applies to more than just attributes. 
    Operations and events.  And interfaces.  
	
    Do we need a definition of metadata? Should it include policies?  
    WSDL documents? Is it settable? "Data about data". "Definition of 
    data that provides information about what is being managed."  
    Don't want to include metadata that is "related" to the data, 
    just the metadata that is "about" the data. Or Definitional.  

    From Dictionary.com:
    <data> /me't*-day`t*/, or combinations of /may'-/ or
    (Commonwealth) /mee'-/; /-dah`t*/ (Or "meta data") Data about
    data. In data processing, meta-data is definitional data
    that provides information about or documentation of other data
    managed within an application or environment.

    For example, meta-data would document data about data
    elements or attributes, (name, size, data type, etc) and
    data about records or data structures (length, fields,
    columns, etc) and data about data (where it is located, how it
    is associated, ownership, etc.). Meta-data may include
    descriptive information about the context, quality and
    condition, or characteristics of the data.

* Addressing:
  - Definition(s):
    Addressing is the ability to reference an identified entity 
    so that it can be accessed. In the case of a web service, 
    "being accessed" means getting hold of its WSDL description 
    and any extra information that might be needed to route 
    messages to the service.

    Addressing is the ability to reference another entity. One 
    examples of where a reference is required is in a relationship 
    to refer to the entities that have an association with each other. 
    Another example is to refer to the Web service where asynchronous 
    notifications should be sent. In general, the Web service 
    exposing the manageability interfaces for a resource may need 
    a reference to the resource. Since not all resources are Web 
    services, a reference must be defined such that non-Web service 
    entities can also be referred to. The special case of referring
    to a Web service entity should refer to the WSDL for the Web
    service such that a manager can choose which Web service endpoint
    it wants to send messages.

  - Management Need(s):
    Addressing is required to provide references to other entities. 
    Other entities may include resources, Web services, WSDL documents,
    policy descriptions, as well as other documents and services. 
    Addressing defines the mechanism used to specify the reference. 
    Management using Web services requires a standard mechanism for \
    referring to other entities.

* Notification:
  TBD

* Relationship:
  - Definition(s):
    schema to describe relationships between resource types, 
    resources, interfaces, and endpoints; including portType 
    operations to get and modify the current set of relationships 
    from a participant in the relationship. Static relationships and 
    relationships between types and interfaces should be 
    introspect-able at design time and runtime. All relationships 
    should be introspect-able at runtime.

  - Management Need(s):
    - design vs. runtime.  
    - "Static relationships should be introspect-able at design time."  

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Medium above cut line:
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* Security:
  - Definition(s):
    Information/Computer Security. There are many ways to categorize
    information security, but the most common today is represented 
    by the letters C, I, A:  Confidentiality, Integrity, and 
    Authentication. Additional concepts that can be arguably kept 
    separate are: Access Control, Nonrepudiation, Availability, 
    and Privacy.

    Confidentiality: Preventing unauthorized entities from accessing
    information or resources.

    Integrity: Making sure that when authorized entities access
    information, it is either not changed or any changes are 
    detectable.

    Authentication: Making sure that entities are who/what they 
    claim to be.

    Access Control: Making sure that entities can only access 
    services, resources, or information that they are authorized 
    for.

    Nonrepudiation: Making sure the sender of a message can not deny 
    having sent the message.

    Availability: Making sure a service or resource can be accessed 
    by authorized users.  While this goes beyond security, security 
    is expected to address denial of service attacks.

    Privacy: Making sure that information on entities is used only 
    for the express purposes allowed.

  - Management Need(s):
    Resources have to be manageable in a secure way (see definition 
    of security). Security is composable on top of the manageability 
    exposed via Web services, similar to securing any other 
    capability of a resource exposed via a Web service. For example, 
    access to a manageability operation can be granted to only 
    clients that present "manager's identity" in a request message.

    Security must be manageable, preferably via Web services. 
    For example, identity or access assertion can be verified by 
    issuing a request to a security Web service.

* Registration/Discovery:
  - Definition(s):
    Registration is a method of advertising an existence of an element 
    so that it can be discovered. Discovery is a method of locating an 
    existing element so that it can be used or operated. Discovery 
    can be based on a selection criteria or simply a name or identity 
    of an element. Location is a method of obtaining an address of an 
    element. 

    For example, location may mean translating an identity of an 
    element into an address of an existing useable element. In the 
    Web services sense, registration, discovery and location can be 
    represented by a set of operations and schema which may be 
    implemented by a Registry. A Web service can register itself or 
    can be registered by a third party by sending a request to the 
    Registry. A Web service can be discovered by sending a request 
    to the Registry. The Registry can return the description of a 
    Web service with location address included in a description or 
    it may return the location address directly.

  - Management Need(s): 
    1. Manageable resources have to be discoverable by the managers. 
    2. Manageable resources exposed via Web services can be registered, 
       discovered and located via a Registry.

* Policy:
  - Definition(s):
    1. is a course of action, guiding principle, or procedure 
       considered expedient, prudent, or advantageous for a given 
       condition or event. 
    2. describes a broad range of service requirements, preferences, 
       and capabilities. 
    3. provides a set of requirements to a manageable resources 
       in a specific context.

    There are various policies that can be specified to a manageable 
    resources (Webservice functional and manageability endpoints) via 
    MUWS such as: authentication, access control, privacy, non-
    repudiation, service level agreement, quality of service, 
    routing, content inspection, auditing, etc. policies.

  - Management Need(s):
    MUWS must leverage as much as existing Webservices 
    specifications and technologies in applying policies to the
    manageable resources. MUWS should endorse a list of such
    specifications and technologies, and should specify the 
    compatibility and interoperability requirements (i.e. must meet
    WS-I).

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Low:
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* Collection:
  - Definition(s):
    A collection is an entity which acts as a proxy to zero or more 
    other entities. A manager can send a single request to a 
    collection where the result is that zero or more members of the 
    collection are acted upon as specified in the request. The 
    members of a collection are managed entities in their own right 
    and have their own management interfaces. The result of a 
    manager sending a single request to a collection must be the 
    same as a manager sending a separate message to each of the 
    selected members of the collection individually. It is not 
    necessary that the collection actually send separate messages 
    to each of its members, only that the result to the members 
    is the same. A collection provides a mechanism to perform the 
    same action on many managed entities at once, and acts 
    as one scalability mechanism in a management system.

  - Management Need(s):
    As the number of managed resources grows, it becomes more 
    important for a management system to provide a mechanism to 
    allow a manager to perform the same action on many resources
    at once. For instance, with a collection a manager can query 
    for the state of all resources in the collection at once 
    rather than one at a time. Also, it is possible for a 
    collection to reset the state of metrics for the resources 
    in the collection using a single request. A collection 
    provides the ability for a management system to scale much 
    better than a system not supporting collections. Also, there 
    are cases where the exact membership of a group is better 
    known by an entity, such as a collection, that may be closer 
    to the group than a manager. This allows the manager to defer 
    to the collection to determine the exact entities to act upon.

* (Work)Flow:
  - Definition(s):
    the capability to describe a sequence of web services 
    interactions, where each interaction is fully or partially 
    determined by the sequence description and the result of 
    previous interactions in that sequence.

* Negotiation: 
  - Definition(s):
    Negotiation is the act or process of arranging for or bringing 
    about through conference, discussion, and compromise. For Web 
    services, negotiation refers to the process of coming to agreement 
    on the advertised aspects of a service (e.g., quality of service).

  - Management Need(s):
    Negotiation of QoS for a manageability interface seems far off 
    in the distance from the current work of this group.

* Relationship Service:
  - Definition(s):
    A relationship repository or registry which may be responsible 
    for creating, inventorying, tracking, and validating 
    relationships. This service is not a participant in the 
    relationships. If relationships are rule based, then it would 
    also be responsible for altering relationship members based on 
    the rules. This would include portType operations for querying, 
    adding,  finding, and validating relationships. This service 
    would build on the Relationships schema above.

* Logging: 
  - Definition(s):
    Logging is the action in which message producers generate log 
    artifacts, i.e., atomic expressions of diagnostic information, 
    that may or may not be used at a later time by other, 
    independent, message consumers. Secure logging is required for 
    audit trails needed to fulfill judiciary and organizational 
    policy requirements, to reconcile security related 
    inconsistencies, and to provide for forensic evidence both 
    after the fact and real-time. 

* Policy Decision Point:
  - Definition(s):
    A program with a repository that stores and calculates various 
    (overlapping) policies that can be applied to various 
    (associated) manageable resources.

* Policy Enforcement Point:
  - Definition(s):
    A program that enforces various set of policies on (associated)
    various manageable resources.

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TBD:
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* Lifecycle: 
  - Definition(s):
    Lifecycle is a set of states that a resource can be in and the 
    valid transitions between those states.  A resource goes 
    through a set of states and transitions throughout its life.  
    Lifecycle provides the capability to manage the actual 
    operational state of a resource, operations to influence a change 
    in the state of a resources, and events indicating when a 
    state change has occurred.  An application or management tool 
    uses the lifecycle information for a resource to better manage 
    that resource.  

    For example, valid operations or valid property values of a 
    resource may be determined through introspection of a resource's 
    state to aid the application or management tool in doing 
    those actions only in the state in which those actions are valid. 
    This is important in autonomic systems where actions taken do not
    expect exceptions to be thrown.

* Name Resolution:
  TBD