Alex, as you know, inside the OGF working group OCCI (stands for Open Cloud Computing Interface) we are trying to define the guidelines for SLA in clouds. With this aim I tried to modularize the complex issue of SLA as-a-whole into a few sub-problems. Per se the SLA topic extends from the definition of legal details to performance measurement: definitely too much for a single document that wants to give precise guidelines. So I started by extracting the resource monitoring sub-problem. Such functionality is present in many aspects of distributed computing, and exhibits a sufficiently simple (and sufficiently understood) interface with other components. In our perspective the specification of the monitoring infrastructure does not include neither the indication of relevant metrics, nor the technology used to retrieve them: we focus on the arrangement of sensors attached to resources, that may accept as "plugins" specific measurement tools, as well as measurement aggregators and publishing supports. In DMTF IS0102 there are sparse references to such a monitoring infrastructure, and its role is explicitly addressed (for instance in section 7.8). While reading your document "TR178 Enabling e2e Cloud SLA Management" the topic is covered in better detail. While defining the tightly related topic of metrics (in sect. 3.4 of version 0.3), you notice the importance of defining how metrics are used, and on the existence of a reliable infrastructure for resource monitoring that ensures comparable results. In section 4.3 you state that a *well defined service* must give the consumer some access to monitoring facilities, with an interface mediated from a TM Forum document. The interest for an agreed definition of the monitoring infrastructure is implicit in a number of *future work recommendations* in your document (sect. 6): Recommendation 4 asks the inclusion of the description of the *container of service metrics* as a part of the Service Template, Recommendation 6 indicates the definition of metrics as a continuous effort, and thus mandates a flexible infrastructure for their management. This given, I consider you are probably interested in the working draft about the resource monitoring infrastructure I have recently proposed to the OGF-OCCI working group. The purpose of the document, in the spirit of OCCI, is to define an interface to the resource monitoring infrastructure. The interface follows a restful approach, and gives the way to create, configure and discover resource monitoring entities. I hope that the ideas contained in the document are helpful for your task, and I will be pleased to receive any comment about the document (that you find in attachment) from your community. Faithfully, Augusto 2012/10/11 Alex Zhdankin <azhdanki@cisco.com>

*Submitter's message* Colleagues,

This document was jointly developed and submitted by TM Forum for comments and further input. Please, review this Technical report and provide any comments you may have. The topic of SLA management in Cloud environment is directly related to the work we are doing in several groups, including CMWG, NSMWG and SVPC, so, please take a look and comment.

Thank you and Regards,

Alex.

-- Mr. Alex Zhdankin *Document Name*: TR_178_V2012-0921_V0-3.docx<http://members.dmtf.org/apps/org/workgroup/nsmwg/document.php?document_id=68634> ------------------------------ *Description* This document adresses the issues of End-to-End SLA management in the Cloud ecosystem. The goal of this Technical Report is to enable people in different communities to develop Cloud SLAs and SLA metrics such that associated systems can be joined to facilitate end-to-end SLA management of a single cloud or multi-cloud environment. This Technical Report (TR178), while organized by the TM Forum, takes an outside-in look by reviewing existing relevant industry work (DMTF, OGF, NIST, ITU-T, ISMA, OASIS and other), as well as the TM Forum Frameworx, SLA management Handbook and Cloud SLA Application Notes. It then recommends a set of business considerations and architecture design principles that are required to support end-to-end Cloud SLA Management with the aim to facilitate discussion regarding SLA consistency across Cloud Deployment Models and Services Models. Download Latest Revision<http://members.dmtf.org/apps/org/workgroup/nsmwg/download.php/68634/latest/TR_178_V2012-0921_V0-3.docx> ------------------------------ *Submitter*: Mr. Alex Zhdankin *Group*: Network Services Management Working Group *Folder*: TMF alliance *Date submitted*: 2012-10-11 06:10:37

-- Augusto Ciuffoletti Dipartimento di Informatica Università di Pisa 56100 - Pisa (Italy)