Exploring Storage Management Efficiencies and Provisioning - Understanding IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center and IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center with Advanced Provisioning

Chapter 7. Workflows 161

7.3 Terminology

Table 7-1 highlights many of the terms used in the world of IBM Tivoli

Provisioning Manager which will be helpful in grasping a full understanding of

how the automation works and how workflows are built.

Table 7-1 IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager terminology

Term Definition

Workflows

Within Tivoli Provisioning Manager, systems and their components

are represented by Data Center Model (DCM) objects. DCM

Objects are instances of DCM device types. For each DCM device

type, a set of attributes and a set of logical device operations are

defined. Logical device operations invoke workflows. Each

operation can be a basic operation on a device, an invocation of

another workflow, or an invocation of another logical device

operation on the same or on another device. The basic operations

of these workflows control devices associated with that type of

system in a system type specific way. A workflow is a

representation of the set of steps that must be followed in a data

center environment to carry out a provisioning operation. A

workflow can also be nested in other workflows. In this way,

workflows make it possible to create a library of processes that can

meet any data center process requirement. When a workflow is

run, the steps are carried out one after the other until the final step

is finished and the workflow has completed.

Elemental

Workflows

(also known as

Building Blocks

or Low Level

Workflows)

Elemental workflow is a term used to describe very simple IBM

Tivoli Provisioning Manager storage workflows that invoke only a

single action via an API. These are basic workflows that don’t

leverage the great power of the IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager

workflow engine. However they do provide IBM Tivoli Provisioning

Manager workflow access to basic storage functions and can also

be used as building blocks in more complex workflows or your own

custom workflows.

Action

(also known as

Atomic Function)

An action is a storage management operation encapsulated within

a single API call (and implemented as a Java plug-in). These are

often single, discrete management steps but they could also

involve multiple management steps (but still within a single Java

plug-in so they are invoked as an atomic functional unit).