Object Data Manager is a database management system

Database management system

A database management system is a software package with computer programs that control the creation, maintenance, and use of a database. It allows organizations to conveniently develop databases for various applications by database administrators and other specialists. A database is an integrated...

 and device configuration integrated into IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

's AIX operating system

AIX operating system

AIX AIX AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive, pronounced "a i ex" is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms...

. The ODM is unique to AIX compared to other UNIX

Unix

Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...

 operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

s. Data being managed by ODM is stored and maintained as objects

Object (computer science)

In computer science, an object is any entity that can be manipulated by the commands of a programming language, such as a value, variable, function, or data structure...

 with associated attributes

Attribute (computing)

In computing, an attribute is a specification that defines a property of an object, element, or file. It may also refer to or set the specific value for a given instance of such....

. Interaction of C programming language

C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....

 applications with ODM is performed via application programming interface

Application programming interface

An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...

 (API) library; shell script

Shell script

A shell script is a script written for the shell, or command line interpreter, of an operating system. It is often considered a simple domain-specific programming language...

s and users are provided with command-line utilities such us odmshow, odmadd, odmchange and odmdelete to deal with it.

Example of information stored in the ODM database are:

• Network
  Computer network
  A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
  
   configuration
• Logical volume management
  Logical volume management
  In computer storage, logical volume management or LVM provides a method of allocating space on mass-storage devices that is more flexible than conventional partitioning schemes...
  
   configuration
• Installed software information
• Devices that AIX has drivers for
• Logical devices or software drivers
• Physical hardware device installed
• Menus, screens and commands that SMIT
  SMIT
  The AIX System Management Interface Tool is an interactive tool bundled with AIX which provides a menu-based alternative to the command line for managing and maintaining the AIX operating system.-Features:*Two modes of operation...
  
  uses

External links

• ODM programming documentation at IBM