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BS ISO IEC 24775 — Storage Management (SMI-S) Standard Series
Information technology — Storage management (BS ISO/IEC 24775, i.e. SNIA SMI-S, 2014 series)
📐 BS ISO/IEC 24775 is the British Standards Institution’s adoption of ISO/IEC 24775, “Information technology — Storage management”, whose technical content is the SNIA SMI-S (Storage Management Initiative Specification). The series defines a standard management interface based on the Common Information Model (CIM) and Web Services (WS-SMI)/HTTP, so that storage arrays, switches, and hosts from different vendors can be discovered, monitored, and configured under one common management model. It is maintained by Technical Committee ICT/-/1 (Information systems co-ordination). The 2014 series comprises eight parts, published as ISO/IEC standards from October 2014.
💡 Without SMI-S, storage management would rely on each vendor’s private API; with SMI-S, a single management application can manage “blocks, files, fabrics, and media libraries” across vendors in a SAN/LAN — the cornerstone of unified management in the storage world.
1. Series Overview and the SMI-S Architecture 📌
The core idea of SMI-S is to abstract the storage environment into a manageable object model: arrays, volumes, zones, target ports, initiators, tape drives, media libraries, and so on are all represented as standardised CIM classes and exposed to management applications through a standard protocol. Part 1 (Overview) explains the composition, terminology, and use of the series; Part 2 (Common architecture) defines the common architecture: the CIM infrastructure, object-model organisation, discovery mechanism, and the service-capabilities model; Part 3 (Common profiles) gives the common profiles and behaviour conventions that cut across all device types.
⚠️ SMI-S is a “management-plane” standard, not a “data-plane” standard: it manages discovery, monitoring, and configuration of storage resources, but does not specify data I/O protocols (such as SCSI, FC, iSCSI). Distinguishing “management interface” from “data path” is the key to understanding this series.
2. Series Composition and Key Points 🔧
| Part | Subject | Key Content | Readability |
|---|---|---|---|
| BS ISO/IEC 24775-1 | Overview | Overview: series composition, terminology, and the SMI-S landscape | Readable |
| BS ISO/IEC 24775-2 | Common architecture | Common architecture: CIM infrastructure, object model, discovery, and capabilities model | Readable |
| BS ISO/IEC 24775-3 | Common profiles | Common profiles: shared configuration and behaviour across device types (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 24775-4 | Block devices | Block devices: arrays, volumes, RAID, and block profiles (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 24775-5 | File systems | File systems: NAS and file-storage management (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 24775-6 | Fabric | Storage fabric: FC switches, zoning, and port management (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 24775-7 | Host elements | Host elements: host agents, initiators, and server-side management (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
| BS ISO/IEC 24775-8 | Media libraries | Media libraries: tape libraries, drives, and media management (scanned, summarised from public-domain knowledge) | Scanned |
🚨 Scanned-version note: Parts 3 to 8 are derived from scanned originals. The descriptions in this article are written from public-domain knowledge; the official BSI published version takes precedence for profiles and class definitions.
3. Key Technical Requirements: Common Architecture and Profiles 🔥
The common architecture defined in Part 2 is the technical core of SMI-S, including:
- CIM-based model: all storage objects are expressed as Common Information Model (CIM, a DMTF standard) classes, associations, and properties; SMI-S constrains the storage extensions to CIM via the requirements of “profiles”;
- Discovery: a management application discovers SMI-S service providers through SLP (Service Location Protocol) or a meta-protocol, and enumerates the objects they manage;
- Capabilities: each device describes the operations it supports (create volume, establish zone mapping, etc.) through its capabilities, letting the management application adapt to different vendors.
Parts 4 to 8 instantiate the common architecture into profiles for specific device types: block devices (arrays and volumes), file systems (NAS), storage fabric (switches), host elements (initiators and host agents), and media libraries (tape libraries). Through these profiles, a single management application can perform monitoring, capacity planning, and configuration changes across a heterogeneous storage environment.
✅ For storage administrators, the practical value of SMI-S is “unified control”: one management tool can discover and manage arrays, switches, and tape libraries from different vendors, reducing the number and learning cost of dedicated management software and enabling consistent capacity and health monitoring in multi-vendor environments.
4. Engineering Practice 🛠️
- 🔍 Storage discovery and asset inventory: after deploying SMI-S providers, the management platform automatically discovers arrays, volumes, switches, and tape libraries, forming an enterprise storage-asset inventory.
- 🔧 Unified monitoring: collect capacity, performance, and health state through the standard interface, feeding a unified operations platform (for example in coordination with SNMP and log systems).
- 📊 Automated configuration: use the capabilities model to write automation scripts (create volumes, establish LUN mapping, configure zones), reducing manual-operation risk.
- 📋 Vendor-neutral procurement: require devices to support the SMI-S standard interface in tenders and selection, avoiding lock-in to a single vendor’s management ecosystem.
5. Frequently Asked Questions ❓
❓ Q: What is the relationship between BS ISO/IEC 24775 and SNIA SMI-S?
A: The technical content of 24775 is SMI-S. SNIA submitted SMI-S to ISO/IEC to become an international standard, and BSI adopted it as a British standard (BS ISO/IEC 24775). The three have identical technical content; only the publishing bodies differ.
A: The technical content of 24775 is SMI-S. SNIA submitted SMI-S to ISO/IEC to become an international standard, and BSI adopted it as a British standard (BS ISO/IEC 24775). The three have identical technical content; only the publishing bodies differ.
❓ Q: Can SMI-S read and write storage data directly?
A: No. SMI-S is a management interface for discovering, monitoring, and configuring storage resources; data I/O is performed by data-path protocols such as SCSI, FC, iSCSI, or NFS. The two are independent but complementary.
A: No. SMI-S is a management interface for discovering, monitoring, and configuring storage resources; data I/O is performed by data-path protocols such as SCSI, FC, iSCSI, or NFS. The two are independent but complementary.
❓ Q: Why are Parts 1 and 2 readable while the rest are scanned?
A: This reflects the availability of the source material. Parts 3 to 8 are scanned originals; this article summarises their subjects and key points from public-domain knowledge, and the specific profiles and class definitions should follow the official BSI published version.
A: This reflects the availability of the source material. Parts 3 to 8 are scanned originals; this article summarises their subjects and key points from public-domain knowledge, and the specific profiles and class definitions should follow the official BSI published version.
🔍 Q: What technical background is needed to implement SMI-S?
A: You need to understand the CIM object model, WS-Management/HTTP or SLP discovery, and basic storage concepts (LUN, RAID, zoning, tape libraries). Implementation centres on connecting vendor SMI-S providers to a management platform.
A: You need to understand the CIM object model, WS-Management/HTTP or SLP discovery, and basic storage concepts (LUN, RAID, zoning, tape libraries). Implementation centres on connecting vendor SMI-S providers to a management platform.