Marco Casassa Mont

Flipper R&D project is about researching and developing a model-based diagnostic solution for complex systems.

A systems management software prototype has been implemented to deal with the management of networked systems consisting of devices like workstations, UNIX and Netware servers, PC' s, printers, routers, etc. Designed and developed at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Flipper uses a set of models written in the (proprietary) Flipper Modelling Language (FML) which describe the managed system and are used to automate the management tasks. The architecture of Flipper consists of the following elements:

• Compiler: It compiles the models and stores their internal representations in the model store.

• Access Module: It is used to interact with the external world and could support queries, actions and event notifications. Access modules have been provided to interact with the managed system usingsome existing management protocols (e.g., SNMP, DMI).

• Object Store: It maintains managed object type information.

• Fact Store: It contains the information / facts gathered about the managed system.

• Inference Engine: It performs inferencing based on the knowledge maintained inside the model, fact and object stores and also the data obtained through access modules.