Ed. Note: This post was authored by Jon Hass, System Management Architect and Distinguished Engineer, Dell
Today, we are delighted to announce that the Redfish 1.0 specification, which I first wrote about in September, has now been published by DMTF. Redfish is a server management API standard targeted at data centers that enables improved management simplicity, consistency, scalability and security. Designed to meet end user expectations for simple and interoperable management of modern scalable platform hardware, Redfish takes advantage of widely-used web technologies to minimize the learning curve and help system administrators become more effective.
We know news about emerging industry standards doesn’t always have everyone jumping out of their seats, but trust us, this is exciting and important news for the industry and the customers we support. Let’s talk about some of the specifics. The hypermedia design of Redfish is aligned with well-established cloud APIs. It follows CRUD and RESTful design principles and incorporates meta-data conventions established in the Open Data Protocol standard for enhanced self-description. This means that system administrators will find Redfish familiar and easy to implement. For example, assets instrumented with the Redfish standard are accessible with a standard web browser and can be interacted with by adding a REST browser plugin. Python, Java and other JSON friendly processing environments have tool ecosystems that are ideal for Redfish integration. What’s more, Redfish is self-describing, allowing generic OData-enabled clients like Microsoft PowerShell and Excel Power Query to interact directly with a Redfish service. And Redfish delivers this functionality on a “bare metal” server; no operating system or cumbersome agents are required.
Though Redfish has only just been published, it has already sparked significant interest among our customers. I’m proud to report that Dell is fully committed to Redfish and will be enabling our PowerEdge servers and other product lines with embedded Redfish Services in the near future.
But Redfish 1.0 is only the beginning. Dell and other industry leaders are already engaging with DMTF Scalable Platform Management Forum (SPMF) on future enhancements to the Redfish standard. I invite you to join this discussion in the DMTF’s Scalable Platform Management Forum or provide feedback through the DMTF submission portal. Comments and requirements from Redfish consumers are welcome and needed to help the SPMF prioritize capabilities in the upcoming next versions.
Learn more at http://www.dmtf.org/join/spmf, and if you’re going to be joining us at Dell World this October, please be sure to say hello!
