After you have determined all of the attributes that apply to your component, you must define the groups into which these attributes will be organized. When you are defining the groups and attributes for the component, consider how the component will be used. The groups you define should be conceptually distinct from each other and should pertain to a manageable aspect of your component, whether that is a physical or logical element of the component.

If your component is a software product, you might want to define your groups according to the functions a user can perform with the product. A word-processing program, for example, might require groups that describe the editing function, the spell-checker, the drawing tools, and the printing function.

If your component is a hardware product, such as a LAN adapter card, you might want to relate your groups more closely to the physical aspects of the device. In the case of a LAN adapter card, the defined groups could describe such things as the port adapter statistics, the adapter hardware, and the operational state of the adapter.

Keep the following points in mind when defining your component's groups:

• Whenever possible, use the standard MIF files and groups specified by the DMTF, instead of creating private, non-standard groups. Using these common groups allows more management applications to manage your component. The standard groups that are available are defined in the following standard MIF files maintained by the DMTF:

  • Network Interface Card (NIC) MIF
    
  • Desktop System MIF
    
  • Large Mailroom Operation (LMO) MIF
    
  • Printer MIF
    
  • Software MIF
  Note: When you use a standard group, change only the attribute value for any attributes in the group. For those attributes that you do not use, specify the Unsupported keyword for the value. Do not change any other items in the standard attributes, such as attribute ID or attribute type, and do not renumber the attributes within a standard group.

Consult existing proprietary MIF files or groups for ideas about how to model difficult aspects of your component. You might find that another component's MIF file has addressed a similar problem.

Keep the number of attributes in a group to 20 or fewer, if possible. Small groups are easier to manage, and their modular design makes them easier for you to reuse than a few large groups. Even only one or two attributes in a group is reasonable, as long as the grouping is still logical.

Define your groups to be reusable. Although you are creating a MIF file for a single component, you might be able to use the defined groups in MIF files for other components you design.

Allow for different views of the same data by providing both standard public groups of attributes and private, individual groups of attributes. For instance, both the external fax-modem and the internal built-in modem can be described by the modem group, but each would need an individual group to describe characteristics that do not apply in the standard group.