are termed CIM methods. The method parameter and return type must be one of the CIM supported data types. The IN or OUT qualifier specifies the parameter type to be input or output. 6. Qualifier: Values providing additional information about classes, associa- tions, indications, methods, method parameters, properties, or references are called a CIM qualifier. A qualifier can be used only with a qualifier type definition and the data type and value must match to that of the qualifier type. Qualifiers have a name, type, value, scope, flavor, and an optional default value. The scope of a qualifier is determined by the namespace in which it is present. The qualifier type definition is unique to the namespace to which it belongs. 7. Reference: This is a special property data type declared with REF key word. Use of REF indicates that the data type is a pointer to another instance. Thus defining the role each object plays in an association is done using a reference. The role name of a class in the context of an association can be represented by the reference. 8. Association: Associations are classes having the association qualifier. A type of class or separate object that contains two or more references representing rela- tionships between two or more classes is called an association. Associations are used to establish relationship between classes without affecting any of the related classes. 9. Indication: Indications are types of classes having the indication qualifier. The active representation of the occurrence of an event that can be received by subscribing to them is called an indication. CIM indications can have properties and methods and can be arranged in a hierarchy. There are two types of indications; namely, life cycle indications and pro- cess indications. Life cycle indications deals with CIM class and instance life cycle events. Class events can be class creation, edit, or destroy and instance events can be instance creation, edit, destroy, and method invocation. Process indications deals with alert notif