Wired for Management Baseline Version 1.1a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Instrumentation
2. Service Boot (Remote New System Setup)
3. Remote Wake-Up
4. Power Management
5. Mobile Computers
6. Server Systems

1. Instrumentation

1. There appear to be discrepancies between the instrumentation requirements described in the Wired for Management (WfM) Baseline Version 1.1a and the recently published Desktop Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF) conformance requirements (http://www.dmtf.org); which set of requirements should I follow?

   For Wired for Management Baseline specification 1.1a conformance, either the requirements listed in the DMTF conformance guidelines document (Version 1.1) or the requirements listed in the Baseline specification itself are sufficient for WfM Baseline conformance. Efforts will be made in subsequent revisions of the Baseline to bring the requirements in sync with the DMTF requirements.

2. To which DMI group version number should we instrument when the DMTF and WfM Baseline specification differ?

   Implement the version of the group specified in the WfM 1.1a Baseline specification or higher.

2. Service Boot (Remote New System Setup)

1. The DMTF has defined the protocols used to carry out Service Boot (Remote New System Setup) in the WfM Baseline Version 1.1a. From low to high, the protocols are IEEE 803, IP, UDP, DHCP and TFTP. Does the DMTF define which protocols should be carried out on LAN cards and which protocols should be carried out in BIOS? Does the DMTF define the standard programming interface between LAN cards and BIOS?

   PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) is an "option ROM". As such, it may reside on the NIC or in the same flash as the BIOS. In either case, the API/call relationship between PXE and the BIOS is the same. These are defined in the WfM Baseline.

3. Remote Wake-up

None at this time.

4. Power Management

1. In the Power Management section of the WfM Baseline Version 1.1a, there is mention of a "mechanical off" switch. Please clarify what constitutes a mechanical off switch; is it a Baseline requirement?

   Mechanical Off is not required by the Baseline. For additional information on this topic, refer to the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification (available at http://www.teleport.com/~acpi/).

5. Mobile Computers

1. The Mobile section of the WfM Baseline v1.1a requires mobile systems to comply with the ACPI specification — but no ACPI-compliant operating systems are currently available.

   To give mobile systems manufacturers time to get their hardware and BIOS ACPI compliant, this requirement is being waived for mobile systems first compliance-tested before April 1, 1998. After that time, mobile platforms must conform to the ACPI specification to be WfM v1.1a-compliant. This requirement, however, is only for the platform and not the operating system.

2. The WfM Baseline requirements for mobile systems states that instrumentation must support dynamic peripherals. Does this requirement hold for operating systems that don't support hot insertion/removal of devices (for example, Windows* NT* 4.0)?

   The dynamic peripherals requirement is waived for mobile platforms that ship with operating systems which do not support dynamic attachment.

6. Server Systems

None at this time.