Determining the parent of the new class

A new class is declared as a subclass of an existing ICIM class. The key is to determine which class should be the parent class. This determination is based on several factors:

• How you want to search and report on the new class

• Functional similarities to existing elements in topology

• The events, attributes, and relationships the new class needs to inherit

  For example, suppose a class that represents a printer needs to be added to the model. A printer is a physical element, similar to a router, switch, or host. Therefore, the printer class can be defined as a subclass of UnitaryComputerSystem, which is the parent class of routers, switches, and hosts. The printer class inherits all of the attributes, relationships, and events of the UnitaryComputerClass class.

  Note:

  The IP Manager counts the instances of the ICIM_UnitaryComputerSystem. If this is a problem for you, you can inherit from either ICIM_System or ICIM_ComputerSystem. However, if you inherit from either ICIM_System or ICIM_ComputerSystem you will have to add your new class into the appropriate dxa to transfer the topology to the Global Manager. Chapter 3, “Exercise 2 - Adding an Attribute to the Router Class,” provides information about adding a class and its associated attributes to dxa files.