Patent ID: 8041671

Claim:
A method for providing a homogeneous view of a distributed common information model (CIM) within a heterogeneous virtual system environment, the virtual system environment includes a plurality of local and remote host systems, a number of the local and remote host systems each comprising a CIM Object Model (CIMOM) and a CIM repository of provider applications, the method comprising: selecting one of the CIMOMs to serve as a single access point to the plurality of CIMOMs within the virtual system environment for all client requests, the client requests originating from a plurality of different distributors; configuring provider applications of the selected CIMOM to communicate with non-selected CIMOMs in the virtual system environment, the configuring including: using at least one of a discovery process and a registration process to identify all of the local and remote host systems in the virtual system environment; and providing access points between the provider applications of the selected CIMOM and the local and remote hosts; and in response to a client request, the selected CIMOM uses the access points to the local and remote host systems to retrieve, aggregate, and forward the information to a client application of the client request as a homogeneous view; wherein the method further comprising: periodically checking the registered remote CIMOMs for continued availability; and removing the access points to the registered remote CIMOMs upon determining that the registered remote CIMOMs are no longer available.