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Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) : Introduction To WMI in Configuration Manager 2012

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31 views

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) : Introduction To WMI in Configuration Manager 2012

wmi structure

Uploaded by

krishna
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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WBEM was developed by the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF).

The two main


goals motivating the DMTF to create WMEB are:
■■ To standardize the publication of management data
■■ To provide a standard method for accessing management information
To standardize the publication of management data, the DMTF adopted a standardized
data model called the Common Information Model (CIM). CIM is an object-oriented schema
for describing a system’s management objects. It offers one extensible data description
mechanism for all enterprise systems, network devices, and other management tools such as
applications, peripherals, and databases. CIM supports data inheritance and associations and
is independent of any execution environment or programming language model.
Previously, administrators had to use customized API calls and software designed specifi-
cally for each environment that they wanted to access management data from. WBEM pro-
vides one method for accessing management data that originates from disparate sources.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)


WMI provides a uniform interface for any local or remote applications or scripts that obtain
management data from a computer system, a network, or an enterprise. The uniform inter-
face is designed such that WMI client applications and scripts do not have to call a wide vari-
ety of operating system APIs. Many APIs cannot be called by automation clients like scripts or
Visual Basic applications. Other APIs do not make calls to remote computers. Figure 1-1 shows
the WMI architecture.

Managed objects and WMI providers


A WMI provider is a COM object that monitors one or more managed objects for WMI. A
managed object is a logical or physical enterprise component, such as a hard disk drive, net-
work adapter, database system, operating system, process, or service.
Similar to a driver, a provider supplies WMI with data from a managed object and handles
messages from WMI to the managed object. WMI providers consist of a DLL file and a Man-
aged Object Format (MOF) file that defines the classes for which the provider returns data
and performs operations. Providers, like WMI C++ applications, use the COM API for WMI.
For example, the preinstalled Registry provider, which accesses data in the system registry,
has one WMI class, StdRegProv, with many methods but no properties. Other preinstalled pro-
viders, such as the Win32 provider, usually have classes with many properties but few methods,
such as Win32_Process or Win32_LogicalDisk. The Registry provider DLL file, Stdprov.dll, con-
tains the code that dynamically returns data when requested by client scripts or applications.
For X86 versions of Windows, WMI MOF and DLL files are located in %WINDIR%\
System32\Wbem. For x64 versions of Windows, these files are located in %WINDIR%\Sys-
WOW64\Wbem together with the WMI Command-Line Tools, such as Winmgmt.exe and
Mofcomp.exe. Provider classes, such as Win32_LogicalDisk, are defined in MOF files, and then
compiled into the WMI repository at system startup.

4 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to WMI in Configuration Manager 2012


FIGURE 1-1  WMI architecture.

WMI infrastructure
The WMI infrastructure is a Microsoft Windows operating system component. The WMI infra-
structure is implemented by the WMI service (winmgmt) and includes the WMI core and the
WMI repository.
The WMI repository is organized by WMI namespaces. The WMI service creates some
namespaces such as root\default, root\cimv2, and root\subscription at system startup and
preinstalls a default set of class definitions, including the Win32 classes, the WMI system
classes, and others. The remaining namespaces found on a system are created by providers
for other parts of the operating system or products.
The WMI service acts as an intermediary between the providers, management applica-
tions, and the WMI repository. Only static data about objects is stored in the repository, such
as the classes defined by providers. WMI obtains most data dynamically from the provider
when a client requests it. You also can set up subscriptions to receive event notifications from
a provider.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) CHAPTER 1 5

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