Java Dynamic Management Kit - Release History

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Release History

• Java DMK 5.1 (June 2004)
• Java DMK 5.0 (June 2002)
• Java DMK 4.2 (December 2000)
• Java DMK 4.1 (April 2000)
• Java DMK 4.0 (December 1999)
• Java DMK 3.2 (March 1999)
• Java DMK 3.0 (November 1998)
• Java DMK 2.0 (February 1998)

Java DMK 5.1 (June 2004)

This release conforms to the Java Management Extensions (the JMX Specification), v1.2 Maintenance Release, and JMX Remote API 1.0.

Other major features added in this release:

• Two new connectors defined by JMX Remote API, based on the remote method invocation (RMI) protocol, and a new protocol called the JMX Messaging Protocol (JMXMP).
• Flexible authentication and privacy based on the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) 1.1 Specification and Transport Layer Security (TLS)
• SASL mechanisms providing authentication: SASL-PLAIN, DIGEST-MD5, CRAM-MD5, and GSSAPI/Kerberos
• SASL mechanisms providing connection privacy: DIGEST-MD5 and GSSAPI/Kerberos
• Fine-grained access control based on an authenticated client. User access is managed through the Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) and Java 2 platform Standard Edition (J2SE) Security Architecture.
• Wrapping of existing Java DMK 5.0 RMI and HTTP(S) connectors such that applications based on the standard JMX Remote API can interoperate with existing Java DMK-based applications
• Enhanced Cascading service, supporting both the JMX Remote API connectors and the legacy Java DMK connectors
• Enhanced Discovery service, allowing the discovery of Java DMK based applications using legacy connectors as well as those using the new connectors

Java DMK 5.0 (June 2002)

This release conforms to the JMX Specification v1.1 Maintenance Release, March 2002. It includes an implementation of SNMPv3, based on RFCs 2571, 2572, 2574, and 2576. Java DMK 5.0 supports SNMPv1, SNMPv2c and SNMPv3 message processing models, and provides a user-based security model (USM) covering the USM MIB, authentication (HMAC MD5 and HMAC SHA) and privacy (DES).

Other major features added in this release:

• SNMP Interfaces
• SNMP Master Agent
• SNMP Manager API Classes
• Open MBeans
• MBean Interceptors
• Serialized Forms
• Support for Multihome Interfaces

Java DMK 4.2 (December 2000)

This release also focuses on providing a complete security mechanism. Context checking in the agent application allows management requests to be filtered based upon the type of request, the data in the request and a context object provided by the manager. The context can be used to identify managers and have them provide a password.

The other major feature is the common methods between the MBean server and remote MBean server interfaces, introducing the concept of local, agent-side proxy objects. This new design allows many management components to be instantiated either in the agent or in the manager applications, thereby giving more flexibility and extensibility to management solutions.

Significant SNMP enhancements in this version extend InformRequest support to the manager API and provide complete row status support in agent MIBs.

Java DMK 4.1 (April 2000)

• Improved cascading mechanism which relies on dynamic MBeans.

• Improved discovery service for both agent and manger applications.

• A relation service which creates and maintains logical associations between registered MBeans. This service was later incorporated into JMX as well.

• A new connector for HTTP over a secure socket layer (SSL).

• An improved notification forwarding mechanism, allowing the manager application to define notification push or pull policies.

• A new heartbeat mechanism in RMI/HTTP connectors to monitor connections and initiate cleanup automatically when a connection is lost.

Java DMK 4.0 (December 1999)

Shortly afterwards, a migration guide from version 3.2 to 4.0 was published to help programmers port their applications to the JMX architecture. The JMX compatibility introduced new concepts such as standard and dynamic MBeans, the management interface and its metadata description, a generic notification mechanism, and improved dynamic loading.

This version also introduced improvements in the HTML adaptor, in HTTP and RMI connector performance, in notification forwarding through firewalls, and in the manager-side proxy objects.

The SNMP toolkit also provided new support for tables in SNMP agent MIBs.

Java DMK 3.2 (March 1999)

SNMP functionality was expanded by providing an example of an SNMP proxy, allowing agents to forward SNMP requests to other SNMP agents.

Java DMK 3.0 (November 1998)

It introduced new adaptors and access control for existing adaptors. It also provided more complete event handling in remote managers, as well as support for native libraries and signed JAR files. New functionality included the scheduling and discovery services.

Java DMK 3.0 provided SNMPv2 protocol support in the SNMP adaptor, except for InformRequest and Report commands. It also introduced the SNMP manager API to develop SNMP management applications in the Java programming language.

Java DMK 2.0 (February 1998)

This version developed the foundation of a management architecture: manageable resource beans, an agent framework, agent services and protocol adaptors, and client APIs for remote managers.