How tools of management windows are implemented includes

Use of personal devices for work, as well as employees working outside the office, may be changing how your organization manages devices. Certain parts of your organization might require deep, granular control over devices, while other parts might seek lighter, scenario-based management that empowers the modern workforce. Windows 10 offers the flexibility to respond to these changing requirements, and can easily be deployed in a mixed environment. You can shift the percentage of Windows 10 devices gradually, following the normal upgrade schedules used in your organization.

Your organization might have considered bringing in Windows 10 devices and downgrading them to Windows 7 until everything is in place for a formal upgrade process. While this may appear to save costs due to standardization, greater savings can come from avoiding the downgrade and immediately taking advantage of the cost reductions Windows 10 can provide. Because Windows 10 devices can be managed using the same processes and technology as other previous Windows versions, it’s easy for versions to coexist.

Your organization can support various operating systems across a wide range of device types, and manage them through a common set of tools such as Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, Microsoft Intune, or other third-party products. This “managed diversity” enables you to empower your users to benefit from the productivity enhancements available on their new Windows 10 devices (including rich touch and ink support), while still maintaining your standards for security and manageability. It can help you and your organization benefit from Windows 10 much faster.

This six-minute video demonstrates how users can bring in a new retail device and be up and working with their personalized settings and a managed experience in a few minutes, without being on the corporate network. It also demonstrates how IT can apply policies and configurations to ensure device compliance.

The video demonstrates the configuration process using the classic Azure portal, which is retired. Customers should use the new Azure portal. Learn how use the new Azure portal to perform tasks that you used to do in the classic Azure portal.

This topic offers guidance on strategies for deploying and managing Windows 10, including deploying Windows 10 in a mixed environment. The topic covers management options plus the four stages of the device lifecycle:

Reviewing the management options with Windows 10

Windows 10 offers a range of management options, as shown in the following diagram:

As indicated in the diagram, Microsoft continues to provide support for deep manageability and security through technologies like Group Policy, Active Directory, and Microsoft Configuration Manager. It also delivers a “mobile-first, cloud-first” approach of simplified, modern management using cloud-based device management solutions such as Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS). Future Windows innovations, delivered through Windows as a Service, are complemented by cloud services like Microsoft Intune, Azure Active Directory, Azure Information Protection, Office 365, and the Microsoft Store for Business.

Deployment and Provisioning

With Windows 10, you can continue to use traditional OS deployment, but you can also “manage out of the box.” To transform new devices into fully-configured, fully-managed devices, you can:

Avoid reimaging by using dynamic provisioning, enabled by a cloud-based device management services such as Microsoft Autopilot or Microsoft Intune.

Create self-contained provisioning packages built with the Windows Configuration Designer.

Use traditional imaging techniques such as deploying custom images using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.

You have multiple options for upgrading to Windows 10. For existing devices running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you can use the robust in-place upgrade process for a fast, reliable move to Windows 10 while automatically preserving all the existing apps, data, and settings. This can mean significantly lower deployment costs, as well as improved productivity as end users can be immediately productive – everything is right where they left it. Of course, you can also use a traditional wipe-and-load approach if you prefer, using the same tools that you use today with Windows 7.

Identity and Authentication

You can use Windows 10 and services like Azure Active Directory in new ways for cloud-based identity, authentication, and management. You can offer your users the ability to “bring your own device” (BYOD) or to “choose your own device” (CYOD) from a selection you make available. At the same time, you might be managing PCs and tablets that must be domain-joined because of specific applications or resources that are used on them.

You can envision user and device management as falling into these two categories:

Corporate (CYOD) or personal (BYOD) devices used by mobile users for SaaS apps such as Office 365. With Windows 10, your employees can self-provision their devices:

For corporate devices, they can set up corporate access with Azure AD Join. When you offer them Azure AD Join with automatic Intune MDM enrollment, they can bring devices into a corporate-managed state in one step, all from the cloud.
Azure AD Join is also a great solution for temporary staff, partners, or other part-time employees. These accounts can be kept separate from the on-premises AD domain but still access needed corporate resources.

Likewise, for personal devices, employees can use a new, simplified BYOD experience to add their work account to Windows, then access work resources on the device.

Domain joined PCs and tablets used for traditional applications and access to important resources. These may be traditional applications and resources that require authentication or accessing highly sensitive or classified resources on-premises. With Windows 10, if you have an on-premises Active Directory domain that’s integrated with Azure AD, when employee devices are joined, they automatically register with Azure AD. This provides:

Single sign-on to cloud and on-premises resources from everywhere

Conditional access to corporate resources based on the health or configuration of the device

Domain joined PCs and tablets can continue to be managed with the Configuration Manager client or Group Policy.

For more information about how Windows 10 and Azure AD optimize access to work resources across a mix of devices and scenarios, see Using Windows 10 devices in your workplace.

As you review the roles in your organization, you can use the following generalized decision tree to begin to identify users or devices that require domain join. Consider switching the remaining users to Azure AD.

Settings and Configuration

Your configuration requirements are defined by multiple factors, including the level of management needed, the devices and data managed, and your industry requirements. Meanwhile, employees are frequently concerned about IT applying strict policies to their personal devices, but they still want access to corporate email and documents. With Windows 10, you can create a consistent set of configurations across PCs, tablets, and phones through the common MDM layer.В

MDM: MDM gives you a way to configure settings that achieve your administrative intent without exposing every possible setting. (In contrast, Group Policy exposes fine-grained settings that you control individually.) One benefit of MDM is that it enables you to apply broader privacy, security, and application management settings through lighter and more efficient tools. MDM also allows you to target Internet-connected devices to manage policies without using GP that requires on-premises domain-joined devices. This makes MDM the best choice for devices that are constantly on the go.

Group Policy and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager: Your organization might still need to manage domain joined computers at a granular level such as Internet Explorer’s 1,500 configurable Group Policy settings. If so, Group Policy and Configuration Manager continue to be excellent management choices:

Group Policy is the best way to granularly configure domain joined Windows PCs and tablets connected to the corporate network using Windows-based tools. Microsoft continues to add Group Policy settings with each new version of Windows.

Configuration Manager remains the recommended solution for granular configuration with robust software deployment, Windows updates, and OS deployment.

Updating and Servicing

With Windows as a Service, your IT department no longer needs to perform complex imaging (wipe-and-load) processes with each new Windows release. Whether on current branch (CB) or current branch for business (CBB), devices receive the latest feature and quality updates through simple – often automatic – patching processes. For more information, see Windows 10 deployment scenarios.

MDM with Intune provide tools for applying Windows updates to client computers in your organization. ConfigurationВ Manager allows rich management and tracking capabilities of these updates, including maintenance windows and automatic deployment rules.

Next steps

There are a variety of steps you can take to begin the process of modernizing device management in your organization:

Assess current management practices, and look for investments you might make today. Which of your current practices need to stay the same, and which can you change? Specifically, what elements of traditional management do you need to retain and where can you modernize? Whether you take steps to minimize custom imaging, re-evaluate settings management, or reassesses authentication and compliance, the benefits can be immediate. You can use the MDM Migration Analysis Tool (MMAT) to help determine which Group Policies are set for a target user/computer and cross-reference them against the list of available MDM policies.

Assess the different use cases and management needs in your environment. Are there groups of devices that could benefit from lighter, simplified management? BYOD devices, for example, are natural candidates for cloud-based management. Users or devices handling more highly regulated data might require an on-premises Active Directory domain for authentication. Configuration Manager and EMS provide you the flexibility to stage implementation of modern management scenarios while targeting different devices the way that best suits your business needs.

Review the decision trees in this article. With the different options in Windows 10, plus Configuration Manager and Enterprise Mobility + Security, you have the flexibility to handle imaging, authentication, settings, and management tools for any scenario.

Optimize your existing investments. On the road from traditional on-premises management to modern cloud-based management, take advantage of the flexible, hybrid architecture of Configuration Manager and Intune. Starting with Configuration Manager 1710, co-management enables you to concurrently manage Windows 10 devices by using both Configuration Manager and Intune. See these topics for details:

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Windows System Resource Manager Overview

Applies To: Windows Server 2012

You can use Windows System Resource Manager to allocate processor and memory resources to applications, users, Remote Desktop Services sessions, and Internet Information Services (IIS) application pools.

With Windows System Resource Manager for the Windows ServerВ® 2012 operating system, you can manage server processor and memory usage with standard or custom resource policies. Managing your resources can help ensure that all the services provided by a single server are available on an equal basis or that your resources will always be available to high-priority applications, services, or users.

Windows System Resource Manager only manages processor resources when the combined processor load is greater than 70 percent. This means that it does not actively limit the resources that can be used by each consumer when processor load is low. When there is contention for processor resources, resource allocation policies help ensure minimum resource availability based on the management profile that you define.

Role/Feature description

You can use Windows System Resource Manager to:

Manage system resources (processor and memory) with preconfigured policies, or create custom policies that allocate resources per process, per user, per Remote Desktop Services session, or per Internet Information Services (IIS) application pool.

Use calendar rules to apply different policies at different times without manual intervention or reconfiguration.

Automatically select resource policies that are based on server properties and events (such as cluster events or conditions) or changes to installed physical memory or number of processors.

Collect resource usage data locally or in a custom SQL database. Resource usage data from multiple servers can be consolidated on a single computer running Windows System Resource Manager.

Create a computer group to help organize Remote Desktop Session Host servers that you want to manage. Policies can easily be exported or modified for an entire computer group.

Practical applications

Because Windows ServerВ 2008В R2 is designed to give as many resources as possible to non-operating system tasks, a server running a single role usually does not require resource management. However, when multiple applications and services are installed on a single server, they are not aware of competing processes. An unmanaged application or service will typically use all available resources to complete a task. Thus, it is important to use a tool such as Windows System Resource Manager to manage system resources on multipurpose servers. Using Windows System Resource Manager provides two key benefits:

More services can run on a single server because service availability can be improved through dynamically managed resources.

High-priority users or system administrators can access the system even during times of maximum resource load.

Methods of resource management

Windows System Resource Manager includes five built-in resource management policies that you can use to quickly implement management. In addition, you can create custom resource management policies to meet your specific needs.

Built-in resource management policies

You can enable built-in resource management policies by selecting the type of policy to use. No further configuration is required.

When the Equal_Per_Process resource allocation policy is managing the system, each running process is given equal treatment. For example, if a server that is running ten processes reaches 70 percent processor utilization, Windows System Resource Manager will limit each process to using 10 percent of the processor resources while they are in contention. Note that resources not used by low utilization processes will be allocated to other processes.

When the Equal_Per_User resource allocation policy is managing the system, processes are grouped according to the user account that is running them, and each of these process groups is given equal treatment. For example, if four users are running processes on the server, each user will be allocated 25 percent of the system resources to complete those processes. A user running a single application is allocated the same resources as a user running several applications. This policy is especially useful for application servers.

When the Equal_Per_Session resource allocation policy is managing the system, resources are allocated on an equal basis for each session connected to the system. This policy is for use with RD Session Host servers.

Equal per IIS application pool

When the Equal_Per_IISAppPool resource allocation policy is managing the system, each running IIS application pool is given equal treatment, and applications that are not in an IIS application pool can only use resources that are not being consumed by IIS application pools.

Weighted Remote Sessions

When the Weighted_Remote_Sessions resource allocation policy is managing the system, the processes are grouped according to the priority assigned with the user account. For example, if three users are remotely connected, the user assigned Premium priority will receive highest priority access to the CPU, the user assigned Standard priority will receive second priority to the CPU, and the user assigned Basic priority will receive lowest priority to the CPU. This policy is for use with RD Session Host servers.

When Weighted_Remote_Sessions is set as the managing policy, system management is delegated to the Windows Server 2012 scheduler, and Windows System Resource Manager only profiles the system. Setting or removing Weighted_Remote_Sessions as the managing policy requires a restart of the computer imposed by the kernel.

Custom resource management

You can use custom resource management methods to identify resource users and allocate resources to them based on your own criteria.

Process matching criteria

Enable you to select services or applications to be managed by resource allocation policy rules. You can choose by file name or command, or you can specify users or groups. For example, you could create a process matching criterion that applies management to the application iexplore.exe when it is run by the user Administrator.

Resource allocation policies

Allocate processor and memory resources to processes that are specified by the process matching criteria that you create.

Exclude applications, services, users, or groups from management by Windows System Resource Manager.

Note

You can also use command-line path matching in a resource allocation policy to exclude an application from management by only that policy.

Use a calendar interface to control one-time events or recurring changes to resource allocation. Different resource allocation policies can be active at different times of day, on different days of the week, or according to other scheduling paradigms.

Conditional policy application

Automatically switch resource allocation policies in response to certain system events (such as installing new memory or additional processors, starting or stopping a node, or changing the availability of a resource group in a cluster).

Removed or deprecated functionality

Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) is deprecated beginning with Windows ServerВ® 2012. You should begin planning now to use alternate methods for any applications, code, or scenarios that depend on this feature. Windows System Resource ManagerВ is an administrative tool that controls how CPU and memory resources are allocated. For more information, see. Deprecated Features for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

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Looking for Knowledge Management Software?

Knowledge Management

This is a knowledge management site covering the theories, frameworks, models, tools, and supporting disciplines that are relevant to both the student and the practitioner. The goal of this site is to provide a comprehensive overview of knowledge management by examining its objectives, scope, strategy, best practices, knowledge management tools, and so on. The site is structured very much like a textbook, with introductory concepts at the top, more subject-specific discussions in the latter half.

Looking for a
Knowledge Management solution?

Introducing Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is essentially about getting the right knowledge to the right person at the right time. This in itself may not seem so complex, but it implies a strong tie to corporate strategy, understanding of where and in what forms knowledge exists, creating processes that span organizational functions, and ensuring that initiatives are accepted and supported by organizational members. Knowledge management may also include new knowledge creation, or it may solely focus on knowledge sharing, storage, and refinement. For a more comprehensive discussion and definition, see my knowledge management definition.

It is important to remember that knowledge management is not about managing knowledge for knowledge’s sake. The overall objective is to create value and leverage and refine the firm’s knowledge assets to meet organizational goals.

Implementing knowledge management thus has several dimensions including:

In the past, failed initiatives were often due to an excessive focus on primitive knowledge management tools and systems, at the expense of other areas. While it is still true that KM is about people and human interaction, KM systems have come a long way and have evolved from being an optional part of KM to a critical component. Today, such systems can allow for the capture of unstructured thoughts and ideas, can create virtual conferencing allowing close contact between people from different parts of the world, and so on. This issue will also be addressed throughout the site, and particularly in the knowledge management strategy section.

At this point, the articles presented on this site focus on the first five dimensions. For now at least, the political dimension is beyond the scope of this site.

Throughout the site, I will explain and discuss known theories, occasionally contributing with some of my own frameworks. I will also discuss the potential role of knowledge management systems from a broad perspective, and in the section on KM tools I will provide specific advice on this topic. I have tried to organize the site as logically as possible, moving from a general introduction to knowledge and KM to introducing key subjects like organizational memory, learning, and culture. The later sections discuss several models and frameworks as well as knowledge management initiatives, strategy, and systems, before finally presenting an overview of various tools and techniques.
If you’re thinking of implementing a knowledge base for your organization, we strongly recommend using Helpjuice knowledge base software as your platform

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8 Steps to Implementing a Knowledge Management Program at Your Organization

A winning knowledge management program increases staff productivity, product and service quality, and deliverable consistency by capitalizing on intellectual and knowledge-based assets. However, implementation can be a challenge.

Eager to reap the benefits, many organizations leap into a knowledge management solution (e.g. document management, data mining, blogging, and community forums) without first considering the objectives they wish to fulfill or how the organization will adopt and follow best practices for managing its knowledge assets long term.

The key to long-term success is a more measured and phased approach.

5 Core Considerations for a Knowledge Management Program

A successful knowledge management program will consider these five areas:

Prepare for Implementation Challenges

Implementing a knowledge management program is no easy feat. Even with the best planning, prepare to encounter and work around obstacles.

Some common challenges you may want to prepare for include:

8 Steps to Knowledge Management Implementation

This eight-step approach will help you plan for common challenges, minimize the risks, and maximize the rewards.

This approach was developed based on tried-and-true activities for implementing any new organizational program. The early steps emphasize strategy, planning and requirements gathering; the later steps focus on execution and continual improvement.

Step 1: Establish Knowledge Management Program Objectives

Before selecting a tool, defining a process, and developing workflows, envision and articulate the ideal end state. To establish the appropriate program objectives, identify and document the business problems that need resolution and the business drivers that will provide momentum and justification for the implementation.

Document both short-term and long-term objectives that address the business problems and support the business drivers. Short-term objectives should seek to provide validation that the program is on the right path while long-term objectives will help to create and communicate the big picture.

Step 2: Prepare for Change

Knowledge management is more than just an application of technology — it’s a culture change. Employees will likely have to rethink the way they share the knowledge they develop and possess.

One common hurdle to increasing knowledge sharing is that companies primarily reward individual performance. This practice promotes a «knowledge is power» behavior that contradicts a knowledge-sharing, knowledge-driven culture.

Successfully implementing a new knowledge management program may require changes within the organization’s norms and shared values; changes that some people might resist or even attempt to quash. To minimize the negative impact, prepare to manage cultural change.

Recruit knowledge-management champions throughout the organization who will encourage knowledge sharing behaviors within their departments and provide valuable feedback to the implementation team.

Step 3: Define a High-Level Process as a Foundation

Laying out a high-level knowledge management process is a key step for effective implementation. Beginning with a high-level process will help you progressively develop and hone detailed procedures throughout steps four, five, and six. Keep in mind: the people who will be the users and contributors of knowledge should be part of this conversation. The fully developed process should be finalized and approved prior to step seven (implementation).

Organizations that overlook or loosely define the knowledge management process will not realize the full potential of their knowledge management objectives. How knowledge is identified, captured, categorized and disseminated will be ad hoc at best. Common knowledge management best practices to consider in your plan include: knowledge strategy, creation, identification, classification, capture, validation, transfer, maintenance, archival, measurement and reporting.

Step 4: Determine and Prioritize Technology Needs

It’s time to assess what kind of technology will enhance and automate your knowledge management related activities. You can determine and prioritize your knowledge management technology needs based on your program objectives established in step one and the process controls and criteria you defined in step three.

The marketplace for knowledge management solutions is vast and diverse; it is imperative to know the primary providers, understand the cost and benefit of each type of technology, and figure out how each solution could help—or hinder—you from reaching your objectives.

Gain an understanding of what employees use today and what is working and not working for them. Don’t be too quick to purchase a new technology without first determining if your existing technologies are already meeting your needs. You can also wait to make costly technology decisions after the knowledge management program is well underway if there is broad support and a need for enhanced computing and automation.

Step 5: Assess Current State

After you have established your program objectives, prepared for cultural changes, defined a high-level process, and determined and prioritized your technology needs, you can assess the current state of knowledge management within your organization.

The assessment should cover the five core knowledge management components: people, processes, technology, structure and culture. A typical assessment should provide an overview of the current state, the gaps between the current and desired states, and the recommendations for closing those gaps.

These recommendations will be the foundation for the roadmap in step six.

Step 6: Build a Knowledge Management Implementation Roadmap

With the current-state assessment in hand, it is time to build the implementation roadmap for your knowledge management program. But before going too far, you should re-confirm senior leadership’s support and commitment, as well as the funding to implement and maintain the knowledge management program. Without these prerequisites, your efforts will be futile. Having solid evidence of your organization’s shortcomings, via the assessment, should drive the urgency rate up.

Having a strategy on how to overcome the shortcomings will be critical in gaining leadership’s support and getting the funding you will need. This strategy can be presented as a roadmap of related projects, each addressing specific gaps identified by the assessment. The roadmap can span months and years and illustrate key milestones and dependencies. A good roadmap will yield some short-term wins in the first step of projects, which will bolster support for subsequent steps.

As time progresses, continue to review and evolve the roadmap based upon the changing economic conditions and business drivers. You will undoubtedly gain additional insight through the lessons learned from earlier projects that can be applied to future projects as well.

Step 7: Implementation

Implementing a knowledge management program and maturing the overall effectiveness of your organization will require significant personnel resources and funding. Be prepared for the long haul, but make sure that you’re making incremental advances and celebrate them. As long as there the value and benefits of the developing program are recognized, there should be little resistance to continue investing in knowledge management.

With that said, it’s time for the rubber to meet the road. You know what the objectives are. You have properly mitigated cultural issues. You’ve got the processes and technologies that will enable and launch your knowledge management program. You know what the gaps are and have a roadmap to tell you how to address them.

As you advance through each step of the roadmap, make sure you are realizing your short-term wins. Without them, your program may lose momentum and the support of key stakeholders.

Step 8: Measure and Improve the Knowledge Management Program

How will you know your knowledge management investments are working? You will need a way to measure your effectiveness and compare to anticipated results. If possible, establish some baseline measurements in order to capture the before shot of the organization’s performance prior to implementing the knowledge management program. Then, after implementation, trend and compare the new results to the old results to see how performance has improved.

Don’t be discouraged if the benefits are not as obvious as you would have anticipated. It will take time for the organization to become proficient with the new processes and improvements. Over time, the results should follow suit.

When deciding upon the appropriate metrics to measure your organization’s progress, establish a balanced scorecard that provides metrics in the areas of performance, quality, compliance and value. The key point behind establishing a knowledge management balanced scorecard is that it provides valuable insight into what’s working and what’s not. You can then take the necessary actions to mitigate compliance, performance, quality, and value gaps, thus improving the overall efficacy of the knowledge management program.

The Power of Knowledge Management

Implementing a complete knowledge management program takes time and resources, however, the results can be impressive. You can also minimize risk by taking a phased approach that gives beneficial returns at each step.

Organizations that have made this kind of investment in knowledge management realize tangible results quickly. They add to their top and bottom lines through faster cycle times, enhanced efficiency, better decision making and greater use of tested solutions across the enterprise.

An earlier version of this article was published in CIO Update.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) consists of a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components provide information and notification. WMI is Microsoft’s implementation of the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM) standards from the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF).

WMI allows scripting languages (such as VBScript or Windows PowerShell) to manage Microsoft Windows personal computers and servers, both locally and remotely. WMI comes preinstalled in Windows 2000 and in newer Microsoft OSes. It is available as a download for Windows NT and^[1] Windows 95 to Windows 98.^[2]

Microsoft also provides a command-line interface to WMI called Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC).^[3]

Purpose of WMI[edit]

The purpose of WMI is to define a proprietary set of environment-independent specifications which allow management information to be shared between management applications. WMI prescribes enterprise management standards and related technologies for Windows that work with existing management standards, such as Desktop Management Interface (DMI) and SNMP. WMI complements these other standards by providing a uniform model. This model represents the managed environment through which management data from any source can be accessed in a common way.

Development process[edit]

Because WMI abstracts the manageable entities with CIM and a collection of providers, the development of a provider implies several steps. The major steps can be summarized as follows:

1. Create the manageable entity model
   1. Define a model
   2. Implement the model
2. Create the WMI provider
   1. Determine the provider type to implement
   2. Determine the hosting model of the provider
   3. Create the provider template with the ATL wizard
   4. Implement the code logic in the provider
   5. Register the provider with WMI and the system
3. Test the provider
4. Create consumer sample code.

Importance of WMI providers[edit]

Since the release of the first WMI implementation during the Windows NT 4.0 SP4 era (as an out-of-band download), Microsoft has consistently added WMI providers to Windows:

• Under Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft had roughly 15 WMI providers available once WMI was installed
• When Windows 2000 was released, there were 29 WMI providers as part of the operating system installation
• With the release of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft included in the platform more than 80 WMI providers
• Windows Vista includes 13 new WMI providers,^[4] taking the number close to around 100 in all
• Windows Server 2008 includes more providers, including providers for IIS 7, PowerShell and virtualization
• Windows 10 includes 47 providers for the Mobile Device Management (MDM) service.^[5]

Many customers^[which?] have interpreted the growth in numbers of providers as a sign that WMI has become at Microsoft the «ubiquitous» management layer of Windows, even if Microsoft has never made this commitment explicit.

Because of a constant increasing exposure of management data through WMI in Windows, people in the IT systems management field started to develop scripts and automation procedures based on WMI.^{[citation needed]} Beyond the scripting needs, most leading management-software packages, such as MOM, SCCM, ADS, HP OpenView for Windows (HPOV), BMC Software or CA, Inc. are WMI-enabled and capable of consuming and providing WMI information through various User Interfaces. This enables administrators and operators not capable of scripting or programming on top of WMI to enjoy the benefits of WMI without even learning about it. However, if they want to, because WMI is scriptable, it gives them the opportunity to consume WMI information from scripts or from any WMI-aware enterprise-management software.

Features[edit]

For someone willing to develop one or many WMI providers, WMI offers many features out of the box. Here are the most important advantages:

1. Automation interfaces:
   Because WMI comes with a set of automation interfaces ready to use, all management features supported by a WMI provider and its set of classes get the scripting support for free out-of-the box. Beyond the WMI class design and the provider development, the Microsoft development and test teams are not required to create, validate or test a scripting model as it is already available from WMI.
2. .NET Management interfaces:
   Because the System.Management namespace ^[6] relies on the existing COM/DCOM plumbing, the created WMI provider and its set of WMI classes becomes automatically available to all .NET applications independently of the language used (e.g. C#, VB.NET). Beyond the WMI class design and the provider development, like for scripting, the Microsoft development and test teams are not required to create, validate and test new assemblies to support a new namespace in the .NET Framework as this support is already available from WMI for free.
3. C/C++ COM/DCOM programming interfaces:
   Like most components in Windows, COM/DCOM programmers can leverage the features of the provider they develop at the COM/DCOM interfaces level. Like in previous environments (scripting and .NET Framework), a COM/DCOM consumer just needs to interact with the standard set of WMI COM interfaces to leverage the WMI provider capabilities and its set of supported WMI classes. To make all management information available from the native APIs, the WMI provider developer just needs to interact with a set of pre-defined WMI COM interfaces. This will make the management information available at the WMI COM level automatically. Moreover, the scripting COM interface object model is very similar to the COM/DCOM interface object model, which makes it easy for developers to be familiar with the scripting experience.
4. Remoting capabilities over DCOM and SOAP:
   More than simply offering local COM capabilities, as management is all about remoting, WMI offers the DCOM transport. In addition, SOAP transport will be available in Windows Server 2003 R2 through the WS-Management initiative led by Microsoft, Intel, Sun Microsystems and Dell. This initiative allows running any scripts remotely or to consume WMI data through a specific set of interfaces handling SOAP requests/responses. The advantage for the WMI provider developer is that when he exposes all his features through WMI, Windows Remote Management/WS-Management can in turn consume that information as well (embedded objects in WMI instances are not supported in Windows Server 2003 R2. It is however a target for Vista). All the layering to WS-Management and the mapping of the CIM data model to SOAP comes for free out of the WMI/WS-Management solution. In the event DCOM must be used, implementing DCOM requires the presence of a proxy DLL deployed on each client machine. As WMI is available in the Windows operating system since Windows 2000, these issues are eliminated.
5. Support for Queries:
   WMI offers support for WQL^[7] queries out of the box. This means that if a provider is not designed to support queries, WMI supports it by using an enumeration technique out of the provider.
6. Eventing capabilities:
   WMI offers the capability to notify a subscriber for any event it is interested in. WMI uses the WMI Query Language (WQL) to submit WQL event queries and defines the type of events to be returned. The eventing mechanism, with all related callbacks, is part of the WMI COM/DCOM and automation interfaces. Anyone writing a WMI provider can have the benefit of this functionality at no cost for his customers. It will be up to the consumer to decide how it wants to consume the management information exposed by the WMI provider and its related set of WMI classes.
7. Code template generator:
   To speed up the process of writing a WMI provider including all COM/DCOM interfaces and related definitions, the WMI team developed the WMI ATL Wizard to generate the code template implementing a provider. The code generated is based on the WMI class model initially designed by the developer. The WMI provider developer will be able to interface the pre-defined COM/DCOM interfaces for the WMI provider with its set of native APIs retrieving the management information to expose. The exercise consists in filling the “gaps” in the provider code to create the desired interfacing logic.
8. Predictability:
   Predictability is an important concern for IT professionals because it defines the capability of someone having an experience with a set of interfaces managing a Windows component to apply this knowledge right away, intuitively, to any other manageable Windows component without having relearn everything from ground up. Predictability for a customer is a real gain as it increases the Return of Investment (ROI). A person facing such a situation simply expects things to work the same way based on his previous experience. The constant increase of COM programming/scriptable interfaces has a huge impact on the predictability, as this makes it difficult for customers to automate, manage Windows and leverage their existing knowledge. WMI with CIM address this problem by always exposing the same programming object model (COM/DCOM, Automation, .NET) whatever the manageable entity is.
9. Protect existing customer investments:
   Protecting customers and partners investment motivates customers to invest in technologies. As Microsoft did invest a lot these past years in writing WMI providers, customers and partners invested in tools leveraging the WMI capabilities of Windows. Therefore, they naturally continue to exploit these capabilities instead of having to use a new set of specific interfaces for each Windows manageable component. A specific set of interfaces means having a specific set of agents or in-house developed software based on a new model or set of interfaces especially dedicated to a component or technology. By leveraging the capabilities of WMI today, customers and partners can leverage the work investment made in the past while minimizing their costs in developments, learning curves and new discoveries. This will also have a great impact on the stability and reliability of their infrastructure as they continue to leverage an existing implementation with an improved technology.
10. Provide a logical and unified administration model:
    As briefly described before in the introduction, this model is based on an industry standard called CIM defined by the DMTF (http://www.dmtf.org). The CIM class-based schema is defined by a consortium of constructors and software developers that meets the requirements of the industry. This implies that not only Microsoft leverages the WMI capabilities, but also any other third party constructors or developers write their own code to fit into the model. For instance, Intel is doing this for some of their network driver adapters and software. HP is leveraging existing WMI providers and implementing their own WMI providers in their HP Open View Enterprise Management software. IBM consumes WMI from the Tivoli management suite, MOM and SMS are also consuming and providing WMI information. Lastly, Windows XP SP2 leverages WMI to get information status from anti-virus software and firewalls.

WMI tools[edit]

Some WMI tools can also be useful during the design and development phases. These tools are:

• The MOF compiler (MOFComp.exe): The Managed Object Format (MOF) compiler parses a file containing Managed Object Format statements and adds the classes and class instances defined in the file to the CIM repository. The MOF format is a specific syntax to define CIM class representation in an ASCII file (e.g. MIB are to SNMP what MOF files are to CIM). MOFComp.exe is included in every WMI installation. Every definition existing in the CIM repository is initially defined in an MOF file. MOF files are located in %SystemRoot%System32WBEM. During the WMI setup, they are loaded in the CIM repository.
• The WMI Administrative Tools: The WMI Administrative Tools are made of four tools: WMI CIM Studio, WMI Object Browser, WMI Event Registration and WMI Event Viewer. The most important tool for a WMI provider developer is WMI CIM Studio as it helps in the initial WMI class creation in the CIM repository. It uses a web interface to display information and relies on a collection of ActiveX components installed on the system when it runs for the first time. WMI CIM Studio provides the ability to:
  • Connect to a chosen system and browse the CIM repository in any namespace available.
  • Search for classes by their name, by their descriptions or by property names.
  • Review the properties, methods and associations related to a given class.
  • See the instances available for a given class of the examined system.
  • Perform Queries in the WQL language.
  • Generate an MOF file based on selected classes.
  • Compile an MOF file to load it in the CIM repository.
• WinMgmt.exe: WinMgmt.exe is not a tool; it is the executable that implements the WMI Core service. Under the Windows NT family of operating systems, WMI runs as a service. On computers running Windows 98, Windows 95 or Windows Me, WMI runs as an application. Under the Windows NT family of operating systems, it is also possible to run this executable as an application, in which case, the executable runs in the current user context. For this, the WMI service must be stopped first. The executable supports some switches that can be useful when starting WMI as a service or as an application. WMI provider developers who may want to debug their providers essentially need to run the WMI service as an application.^[8]
• WBEMTest.exe: WBEMTest.exe is a WMI tester tool, which is delivered with WMI. This tool allows an administrator or a developer to perform most of the tasks from a graphical interface that WMI provides at the API level. Although available under all Windows NT-based operating systems, this tool is not officially supported by Microsoft. WBEMTest provides the ability to:
  • Enumerate, open, create and delete classes.
  • Enumerate, open, create and delete instances of classes.
  • Select a namespace.
  • Perform data and event queries.
  • Execute methods associated to classes or instances.
  • Execute every WMI operation asynchronously, synchronously or semi-asynchronously.

• The WMI command line tool (WMIC): WMIC is a command-line tool designed to ease WMI information retrieval about a system by using some simple keywords (aliases). WMIC.exe is only available under Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. By typing “WMIC /?” from the command-line, a complete list of the switches and reserved keywords is available.
  • There is a Linux port of WMI command line tool, written in Python, based on Samba4 called ‘wmi-client’^[9]
• WBEMDump.exe: WBEMDump is a tool delivered with the Platform SDK. This command line tool comes with its own Visual C++ project. The tool can show the CIM repository classes, instances, or both. It is possible to retrieve the same information as that retrieved with WMIC. WBEMDump.exe requires more specific knowledge about WMI, as it doesn’t abstract WMI as WMIC. However, it runs under Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. It is also possible to execute methods exposed by classes or instances. Even if it is not a standard WMI tool delivered with the system installation, this tool can be quite useful for exploring the CIM repository and WMI features.
• WMIDiag.vbs: The WMI Diagnosis Tool is a VBScript downloadable from Microsoft here and is a tool for testing and validating WMI on Windows 2000 and greater. The download includes pretty thorough documentation and the tool supports numerous switches. When run, it will generate up to four text files which: list the steps taken (the LOG file), an overview of the results (REPORT file), a statistics file (in comma separated values format), and optionally a file listing of the providers registered on the machine (PROVIDERS, also in comma separated values format). The report file that is generated includes a list of the issues identified and potential ways to fix them.
• WMI Explorer: The WMI Explorer Tool is a freely available and opensource program downloadable here and is a tool for enumerating and querying WMI providers in a graphical user interface.

Wireless networking example[edit]

In the .NET Framework, the ManagementClass class represents a Common Information Model (CIM) management class. A WMI class can be a Win32_LogicalDisk in the case of a disk drive, or a Win32_Process, such as a running program like Notepad.exe.

This example shows how «MSNdis_80211_ServiceSetIdentifier» WMI class is used to find the SSID of the Wi-Fi network that the system is currently connected to in the language C#:

ManagementClass mc = new ManagementClass("root\WMI", "MSNdis_80211_ServiceSetIdentifier", null);
ManagementObjectCollection moc = mc.GetInstances();
   
foreach (ManagementObject mo in moc)
{
    string wlanCard = (string)mo["InstanceName"];
    bool active;
    if (!bool.TryParse((string)mo["Active"], out active))
    {
       active = false;
    }
    byte[] ssid = (byte[])mo["Ndis80211SsId"];
}

The «MSNdis_80211_ServiceSetIdentifier» WMI class is only supported on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

WMI driver extensions[edit]

The WMI extensions to WDM provide kernel-level instrumentation such as publishing information, configuring device settings, supplying event notification from device drivers and allowing administrators to set data security through a WMI provider known as the WDM provider. The extensions are part of the WDM architecture; however, they have broad utility and can be used with other types of drivers as well (such as SCSI and NDIS). The WMI Driver Extensions service monitors all drivers and event trace providers that are configured to publish WMI or event trace information. Instrumented hardware data is provided by way of drivers instrumented for WMI extensions for WDM. WMI extensions for WDM provide a set of Windows device driver interfaces for instrumenting data within the driver models native to Windows, so OEMs and IHVs can easily extend the instrumented data set and add value to a hardware/software solution. The WMI Driver Extensions, however, are not supported by Windows Vista and later operating systems.^[10]

See also[edit]

• Open Management Infrastructure
• ANT catalog § WISTFULTOLL

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• WMI at the Microsoft Developer Network
• CIM terminology
• WMI Overview and Background
• WMI and CIM overview
• How improved support for WMI makes PowerShell the best environment to use and script WMI
• Microsoft WMI Webcast
• WMI Code Creator

You must have heard of WMI as a part of your everyday management and technical duties, especially when you’ve tried to get information from devices connected to your computer. But what is WMI really and why is it important for a network?

Windows Management Instruments, or WMI in short, is the Microsoft version of an industry-standard called Web-Based Enterprise Management (WEBM).

This standard lays down the specifications for accessing and using management information in an enterprise environment.

Specifically, it sets the rules for accessing data from non-uniform technologies through a standardized architecture. 

WMI is the Microsoft implementation of this standard and in fact, it is an infrastructure that enables you to access data and information, regardless of the underlying device. In other words, this infrastructure is device-independent.

WEBM uses the Common Information Model (CIM) as its schema and since WMI is also a similar implementation, this also uses CIM as its schema.

This schema is well-suited for WMI because it stores data about the environment in the form of interrelated systems, each composed of a discrete set of elements.

This way, vendors have a predefined set of values that they can build on, and this is why this schema is most ideal for managing such information.

Uses of WMI

The central role of any server is to listen to the requests coming from clients and to respond appropriately.

When a client needs data or functionality from a server, it sends a request over the network.

The server, in turn, receives the request, processes it, and sends back the necessary information or error, depending on the nature of the request.

The server can also do a whole lot of other related things such as verifying the authenticity of the requester, ensuring that the client has the necessary permissions, the request is in the appropriate format, and more. 

All this means, the functionality to listen in to requests is the core requirement for a device to become a server.

This functionality can come as a part of its operating system or it can come from an installed application. In some cases, both these sources can be combined as well.

To understand this better, let’s take two servers as examples.

In the case of Microsoft Windows Server, the functionality to listen and respond to clients comes as a part of the operating system while in the case of Apache Web Server, an additional application called Apache should be installed on top of the operating system. 

WMI facilitates this communication between servers and clients. In fact, WMI is most useful to get management data from remote computers because it allows connections to be made through DCOM. The most salient feature of WMI is that it provides a uniform interface for local as well as remote applications, so the scripts or applications do not have to call a lot of other APIs. 

Also, management applications and scripts can be programmed to get data through WMI in many languages such as C++, C#, and more. You can even create your own WMI providers to add to the available set of management tasks. 

Besides, scripting languages, you can also access WMI through its own dedicated command-line interface called WMIC. This CLI is compatible with most shells, including the standard Windows command-line. All that you have to do is type WMIC followed by the parameter. 

WMI Architecture

Now that we know the uses of WMI, let’s take a look at its architecture and the different components present in it.

Here are some key components of WMI:

WMI Infrastructure

WMI infrastructure is a component of the Windows operating system and is called WMI Service (winmgmt).

In turn, this has two core components, namely, WMI Core and WMI Repository. 

WMI Service

The WMI infrastructure is implemented in the Windows operating system as a service. This WMI service sits between WMI providers and managing applications.

It automatically starts at the time of system boot. You can stop it at any time, and it will start up again when any application or script requests for access to any WMI namespace. 

WMI Repository

WMI repository is a database for storing all static data related to WMI.

Dynamic data is not stored in these repositories and the only way to retain this dynamic data is for a WMI provider to capture and retrieve it or a WMI application to log it through a WMI class. 

This repository is organized as WMI namespaces. The WMI Services creates a few repositories such as rootdefault, rootcmiv2, and rootsubscription during system startup. The remaining namespaces are created by WMI providers.

WMI Providers

WMI providers are a COM object that monitors one or more managed objects. In other words, it collects, manages, and reads data from those managed objects that it is programmed to access.

These providers can be implemented through the operating system or through programming languages such as C++ and Visual Basic, and they are accessible through the command-line interface. 

There are many built-in WMI providers in Windows such as Active Directory, Boot Configuration Data, Distributed File System, and more. 

The role of WMI providers is to respond to queries from management applications and programmed scripts.

Managed objects

Managed objects are logical and physical components that are managed through WMI. It can be a hardware or a software component, but it has to be an instance of the WMI class. Managed objects can include processors, servers, applications, operating systems, memory, network-attached equipment, and services.

WMI Consumer

WMI consumers, as the name suggests, is the application or script that interacts with the WMI infrastructure. These applications can run queries, provider methods, or even subscribe to events. 

WMI API

This API provides access to the WMI infrastructure for any application that wants to use WMI. The response to these APIs goes through classes, instances, and methods.

Latest version of WMI

The latest version of WMI is called Windows Management Infrastructure, or MI, in short. This latest version is fully compatible with the previous versions and comes with more features and advantages such as tighter integration with PowerShell, lower development time, and more.

Thus, these are some of the fundamental concepts of WMI. We hope they help you to better understand this architecture and appreciate its role in your client-server communication model. 

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

The promises of WMI ”Microsoft’s implementation of the WEB Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) standard ”finally materialized in Windows Server 2003. Not only did Microsoft add WMI providers to almost all OS components , it also provided a Command Line Interface (CLI) called WMIC. This section introduces WMI and provides an overview of the features of Windows Server 2003 WMI providers.

To browse the WMI schema, I recommend you do not use the Windows Server 2003 built-in tool (WBEMTest.exe), but rather install the WMI SDK (Software Developer’s Kit) downloaded from Microsoft (make sure you get SDK version 1.5 minimum). The SDK comes with two great tools: Common Information Model (CIM) Studio and WMI Object Browser. CIM Studio allows browsing of any WMI schema metadata; all that is needed is the initial namespace and you get the following:

• Classes with properties and methods

• Schema information including inheritance

• Data type and associations

Whereas CIM Studio is a metadata browser (only allows access to the schema), WMI Object Browser provides access to data. All object instances in a namespace can be accessed. It is possible to see values, update values, and execute methods. The interfaces are nearly identical between the two tools.

Most examples in this section will relate to Microsoft Cluster, but the examples can be easily modified to deal with almost any WMI providers.

WMI Architecture

Just as it takes two to tango, it takes three to make WMI useful! The three required elements are

• OS support : This is an available add-on for Windows NT 4.0 and built in to Windows 2000 and newer .

• Providers : Converts the data between native and WMI Application Programming Interface (API) and data structures. Most of the providers are new with Windows Server 2003.

• Applications and/or UIs : Applications are mostly left to a third-party; however, WMIC provides a simple user CLI in Windows Server 2003.

Obviously, this description is simplified, but it shows that the WMI providers are key elements that provide WMI with its richness. WMI does not limit providers to OS components; for example, Exchange 2000 ships with WMI providers. Over time, more products will ship with providers.

Exploring the WMI Providers

As previously mentioned, a WMI provider is a software layer that converts (thunk is the Microsoft term ) between Windows native and the WMI standard format. For example, when WMIC is used to collect cluster information, the cluster WMI provider converts the request between the WMI format and the native ClusApi. A WMI call can actually involve multiple native calls, and WMI object properties might or might not exist in the native environment.

The definitive and complete description for each WMI provider is available on MSDN. However, for a simple introduction to what is available on your server, look at your server in the directory %WinDir%system32wbem for files with the extension Managed Object Format (.mof). Each of those files describes providers in a C-like format. You will be able to find:

• The purpose for the provider, which is usually obvious from the file name . For example, the file ClusWMI.MOF for the Microsoft Cluster provider.

• The namespace location in the schema for the provider. For example, in the file DSProv.MOF:

   Instance of __Namespace {   Name = "LDAP"; }; #pragma namespace("\.rootdirectoryLDAP") 

• The object’s properties and methods. For example, in the file TsCfgWmi.MOF:

   class Win32_TerminalServiceSetting : CIM_Setting {   [key,read] string ServerName;   [read] uint32 TerminalServerMode;   [read] uint32 LicensingType;   [read] string LicensingName;   [read] string LicensingDescription;   [read,write] uint32 ActiveDesktop;   [read,write] uint32 UserPermission;   [read] uint32 DeleteTempFolders;   [read] uint32 UseTempFolders;   [read] uint32 AllowTSConnections;   [read] uint32 SingleSession;   [read] string ProfilePath;   [read] string HomeDirectory;   [read] uint32 Help;   [read,write] string Logons;   [read] string DirectConnectLicenseServers;   [Implemented] uint32 AddDirectConnectLicenseServer([In] string LicenseServerName);   [Implemented] uint32 DeleteDirectConnectLicenseServer([In] string LicenseServerName);   [Implemented] uint32 ChangeMode([In] uint32 LicensingType);   [Implemented] uint32 SetAllowTSConnections([In] uint32 AllowTSConnections);   [Implemented] uint32 SetSingleSession([In] uint32 SingleSession);   [Implemented] uint32 SetProfilePath([In] string ProfilePath);   [Implemented] uint32 SetHomeDirectory([In] string HomeDirectory);   [Implemented] uint32 SetPolicyPropertyName([In] string PropertyName,[In] boolean Value); }; 

• A description of each property or method. For example, in DNSProv.MOF:

   string ContainerName;     [Key, Propagated ("MicrosoftDNS_Domain.Name" ): ToSubClass,         Read: ToSubClass,     Description("This string represents the Fully Qualified Domain Name of "         "the Domain which contains this Resource Record. This property "         "may contain the strings, "..Cache" or "..RootHints", if the "         "DNS' internal cache or Root Hints (respectively) contain this "         "Resource Record." ): ToSubClass     ] 

You can also learn more about the WMI providers on your server by browsing. You can browse the schema using the CIM Studio (the GUI from the WMI SDK mentioned previously). For example Figures 10.10 through 10.14 show what information is available from the cluster provider.

Figure 10.10. Initial display of the CIM Studio.

Figure 10.14. Association class.

Figure 10.11. Object hierarchy.

Figure 10.12. Class properties.

Figure 10.13. Class methods.

The default namespace is \RootCIMv2 . When accessing objects, the path only needs to be specified if the objects are not stored in the default path . Most classes in the form Win32_<something> are stored in the default namespace. Objects such as cluster or LDAP are stored in their own namespace.

WMI Access from Scripts

WMI does not restrict the choice of programming language. Most developers will use a highly optimized language like C or C++. However, when doing simple management, it is possible to use WMI with minimum development effort or expertise using Windows Scripting Host (WSH). WMI can be scripted from any scripting language, but in this chapter Visual Basic Script (VBScript) is used to provide coding examples.

Getting Started

The VBS examples presented here are simple and are best executed using the CSCRIPT processor. Windows offers the choice of console-based scripting or windows-based scripting. However, only console-based scripting allows simple input and output interaction (some of the examples use the WScript.StdIn.Readline method to capture user input). To execute an example script, copy the script from this document using a simple editor like Notepad and save it using a unique file name like FOO.VBS. Then, use the console command:

 C:> cscript foo.vbs 

The biggest obstacle is simply how to get going. After the first script is available, it’s simple to use it as a template and adapt it for another purpose. The three most common syntactic examples to access objects are as follows :

• To get all instances from a class, use

   GetObject(<Schema_Path>).InstancesOf(<class_name>) 

• To select a subset of objects in a class based on a criterion, use WMI Query Language (WQL which will look very familiar to you if you have ever worked with SQL):

   GetObject( <Scema_Path> ).ExecQuery( <WQL> ) 

• To get notification of an asynchronous event, use

   ToGetObject( <Schema_Path> ).ExecNotificationQuery( <WQL> ) 

Beware that WMI returns object sets, even in the case of a set with a single object (such as a cluster, because a node can only belong to a single cluster at a time). For nonreal-time objects, loop through the object using the VBS syntax:

 FOR EACH object IN objectset NEXT 

Accessing Properties

The object properties defined in the class are accessed using the ObjectName.PropertyName syntax. For example, InterfaceType and Size are properties of the DiskDrive class and can be viewed using the following code:

 DIM oResourceSet, oResource SET oResourceSet = GetObject( "winmgmts://./root/CIMv2" ). _                     InstancesOf( "Win32_DiskDrive" ) FOR EACH oResource IN oResourceSet     WScript.Echo( "Disk " & oResource.DeviceID & " has " & _                    oResource.InterfaceType & " interface " & _                    oResource.Size & " bytes" ) NEXT SET oResourceSet = NOTHING SET oResource = NOTHING 

Using Methods

Methods are used to perform operations on objects. For example, renaming a printer requires more than changing the Name property. A method called RenamePrinter changes the name, updates the Registry, and does anything else that needs to be done. Another example involves pausing printers; the following VBS code would prompt for every printer that is running on a server and allow the user to pause it:

 DIM oPrinterSet, oPrinter CONST PAUSED=1 CONST RUNNING=0 SET oPrinterSet = GetObject( "winmgmts://./root/CIMv2" )._                    InstancesOf("Win32_Printer") FOR EACH oPrinter IN oPrinterSet     IF oPrinter.PrinterState = RUNNING THEN         Wscript.Echo( "Pause " & oPrinter.Name & "?" )         strInput = WScript.StdIn.ReadLine         strInput = UCASE( LEFT( strInput , 1 ) )         IF strInput = "Y" THEN             CALL oPrinter.Pause( )         END IF     ELSEIF oPrinter.PrinterState = PAUSED THEN         WScript.Echo( oPrinter.Name & " is paused." )     END IF NEXTSET oPrinterSet = NOTHING SET oPrinter = NOTHING 

In general, a method performs its work on the object that is used to invoke it; for example, a rename method’s only input is the new name; the old name is assumed to be the name of the current object. However, there are times when this cannot be the case. To create a new instance of an object, for example, any object in the same class can be used. So to create a new cluster resource group object, use the CreateGroup method from any ResourceGroup object.

Association Classes

An association class relates two objects. The objects can be in the same class, as in the case of MSCluster_ResourceToDependentResource or in different classes such as MSCluster_ ResourceGroupToResource . The association objects usually have only two string properties of type Reference (REF) , and each property points to an object in the respective target classes. Type REF as a pseudo-WQL format; it isn’t a true WQL query and needs to be modified to be used as a WQL query. However, it contains all the information to create a valid WQL query that will provide the desired object.

For example, one instance of MSCluster_ResourceGroupToResource has the following properties:

 ResourceGroupTo.GroupComponent [ra]                 MSCluster_ResourceGroup.Name="Cluster Group" ResourceGroupTo.PartComponent  [ra]                 MSCluster_Resource.Name="Cluster IP Address" 

The WQL is not valid because it includes the object name in the association. Turning these into valid WQL requires adding Select From at the front and replacing the period with Where and would produce:

 Select * From MSCluster_ResourceGroup Where Name="Cluster Group" Select * From MSCluster_Resource Where Name="Cluster IP Address" 

This can then be used as the argument of a WMI query:

 GetObject( "winmgmts://./root/MSCluster" ).ExecQuery( <WQL> ) 

Association classes by themselves are cumbersome to use. However, WMI provides a method to use association classes without having to actually deal with the class instances. Using the associated WMI syntax, you can retrieve the associated classes. For example, the association class MSCluster_ResourceGroupToResource links cluster resource groups to their resources. Using that class, without actually manipulating instances of it, to associate the two classes and retrieve all instances of MSCluster_Resource that belong to the cluster group requires the WMI syntax:

 ASSOCIATORS OF {MSCluster_ResourceGroup.Name='Cluster Group'} WHERE AssocClass=MSCluster_ResourceGroupToResource" 

Using this WMI feature, it becomes trivial to use association classes. For example, the following code allows the user to specify a cluster group and will return all the names of all the resources in that group along with the resource type:

 REM REM    Given a resource group name, find all the resources and REM    their types in that group using associators REM OPTION EXPLICIT ON ERROR RESUME NEXT DIM refWMIServices, oResourceSet, oResource, oResourceTypeSet DIM oResourceType, strQuery, strInput, nCount WSCript.Echo ("Enter name of the resource group to look for:" ) strInput = WScript.StdIn.ReadLine SET refWMIServices = GetObject( "winmgmts://./root/MSCluster" ) strQuery = "ASSOCIATORS OF {MSCluster_ResourceGroup='" & _             strInput & "'} WHERE AssocClass=" & _             "MSCluster_ResourceGroupToResource" SET oResourceSet = refWMIServices.ExecQuery( strQuery ) nCount = oResourceSet.Count IF Err.Number <> 0 THEN     WScript.Echo ("Group " & strInput & " was not found!" )     WsCript.Quit END IF WScript.Echo ( "Got " & nCount & " resources in " & _                 strInput & ":" ) FOR EACH oResource IN oResourceSet     WITH oResource         strQuery = "ASSOCIATORS OF {MSCluster_Resource='" & _                     .Name & "'} WHERE AssocClass=" & _                     "MSCluster_ResourceTypeToResource"         SET oResourceTypeSet = refWMIServices.ExecQuery( _                                  strQuery )         FOR EACH oResourceType IN oResourceTypeSet             WScript.Echo ( "Resource Name -> " & .Name & _                             " of type -> " & oResourceType.Name )         NEXT     END WITH NEXT SET oResourceSet = NOTHING SET oResource = NOTHING SET oResourceTypeSet = NOTHING SET oResourceType = NOTHING 

Two association classes are used in this example:

• MSCluster_ResourceGroupToResource

• MSCluster_ResourceTypeToResource

Yet, no instances of those association classes are manipulated by the script! Also, the fact that the name field is the primary key for MSCluster_ResourceGroup and MSCluster_Resource shortens the syntax by omitting the .Name in the WQL string.

Updating Properties

When accessing an object with the GetObject method, the system actually returns an in-memory private copy of the object. This guarantees that a bug in a program does not accidentally damage a live object; however, it makes updating objects more difficult. Updating an object requires three things:

• The object must be writeable .

• You must update the local copy of the object by writing to Object.Property .

• You must propagate the update to the system object using the SWbemNamedValueSet.Put_ method.

For example, this simple code will disable an account by updating the Disabled property (Here we pick on «Test User»):

 DIM oUserSet, oUser, oNamedValueSet CONST wbemChangeFlagUpdateOnly = 1 SET oNamedValueSet = CreateObject( _                        "WbemScripting.SWbemNamedValueSet" ) CALL oNamedValueSet.Add ( "__PUT_EXTENSIONS", TRUE ) CALL oNamedValueSet.Add ( "__PUT_EXT_CLIENT_REQUEST", TRUE ) strQuery = "Select * From Win32_UserAccount Where Name=" & _             """Test User""" SET oUserSet = GetObject( "winmgmts://./root/CIMv2" ). _                     ExecQuery( strQuery ) FOR EACH oUser IN oUserSet     EXIT FOR NEXT oUser.Disabled = "True" arProperties = ARRAY( "oUser.Disabled" ) CALL oNamedValueSet.Add ( "__PUT_EXT_PROPERTIES", arProper-ties ) CALL oUser.Put_( wbemChangeFlagUpdateOnly, oNamedValueSet ) SET oUser = NOTHING SET oUserSet = NOTHING SET oNamedValueSet = NOTHING 

Event Classes

Events are different from the previous objects in that they are not permanent, but rather happen in an asynchronous fashion in real time. After an event has happened , it’s lost unless it’s captured. Windows Server 2003 event logs might capture a lot of events, but it’s sometimes preferable to get the events as they occur. For example, the MSCluster_Event classes have a special-purpose method called MSCluster_Event.NextEvent that can be used to wait for an event to occur and return the new event. To display all cluster resource state change events in real time on the console, use this simple code:

 DIM oEvents, oItem SET oEvents = GetObject( "winmgmts://./root/MSCluster" ). _    ExecNotificationQuery( "Select * from MSCluster_EventResourceStateChange" ) DO     SET oItem = oEvents.NextEvent     WITH oItem         WScript.Echo( DATE & " " & TIME & _                        " EventNewState=" &.EventNewState & _                        " EventObjectName=" &.EventObjectName & _                        " EventObjectPath=" &.EventObjectPath & _                        " EventObjectType=" &.EventObjectType & _                        " EventTypeMajor=" & .EventTypeMajor & _                        " EventTypeMinor=" &.EventTypeMinor )     END WITH LOOP SET oEvents = NOTHING SET oItem = NOTHING 

WMIC Management

The goal of WMI is to standardize Windows management. However, until now, Microsoft has offered only a set of APIs and providers. This limited the penetration of WMI to programmers, whereas the ultimate goal of WMI is to facilitate the tasks of system Administrators and application Administrators. Windows Server 2003 provides a CLI to WMI called WMIC.

WMIC is an incredibly powerful tool that provides a common interface and syntax to manage almost everything on a system. Because WMIC can manage anything that offers a WMI provider, Administrators and end users finally have access to the stated benefits of WMI.

The first time WMIC is invoked, the system installs the required component to allow you to use the WMIC tool:

 C:>wmic Please wait while WMIC is being installed. 

This only occurs the first time and takes less than 30 seconds.

WMIC has two separate sets of help:

• The WMIC command uses /? for help and /?:FULL for advanced help. Everything in WMIC is context sensitive, which means that the help information displayed depends on what precedes the /? . The main problem with context-sensitive help is similar to a Catch-22; if I don’t know where it is, I can’t get there to ask for help!

• The other set of help comes from the common «Help and Support.» I recommend that everyone read though the WMIC help topics.

WMIC can generate output in any format desired. The default formats available are text, CSV, HTML, and XML. However, it is possible to define new formats.

WMIC Command Syntax

WMIC commands are made of multiple context sensitive parts ; refer to the online help for the full description. However, to get started, the following format is usually used: WMIC /NameSpace:<Path> [global switches] PATH <Class> [WHERE WQL] [Verb/VerbQualifier [[PropertyName [=Value] MethodName [Parameters] ]/Qualifier]

In creating WMI queries, the WMIC options shown here are important in formatting the query to accomplish what you want. Following is a list of definitions of these options:

• /NameSpace qualifier is only required for objects not in the default namespace.

• You can also use the /Output:FileSpecification global switch.

• PATH <object> specifies the object class you want to work with.

• The WQL clause is optional, but allows selecting a particular object set. By default, all objects of the chosen class are selected.

• The most useful verbs are GET, SET , and CALL. GET is used to get a property list. SET is used to modify a property. CALL is used to invoke a method.

• The most useful final qualifiers are /VALUE, /FORMAT: specifier , and /EVERY:time. /VALUE directs the output to be in list format. When not specified, the output defaults to tabular for text output. /EVERY and /FORMAT are described in detail in the next topic.

WMIC Navigation

Navigating the WMI schema with WMIC initially might appear like navigating a labyrinth. Using the /? command to get help greatly eases the feeling of navigating blind. The command WMIC /? will show you the syntax elements and also all the aliases defined.

The first step in navigating using WMIC is to discover aliases. An alias is nothing more that a shortcut. Microsoft includes aliases for the most useful classes. For example, the WMIC /? command will show you that there is an OS class. So to access the OS class, all you have do is type WMIC OS . However, the output will be very disappointing. By default, WMIC outputs text in table format. In this case, the table is very wide and only contains one row of information. To change the output in to a more useable column, you would type WMIC OS GET /VALUE . This produces the same output, but instead of being truncated to the right, it just scrolls in your command window.

If you are interested in finding out what an alias actually points to, you can use the command WMIC ALIAS <Alias> GET /VALUE . Using this command will show that the OS alias actually points to Win32_OperatingSystem . So the following two commands are equivalent:

 WMIC OS GET /VALUE WMIC PATH Win32_OperatingSystem GET /VALUE 

Follow the same technique to browse all the available aliases. Some aliases might fall short on information; for example, if your test machine only has IDE drives , the SCSI alias will not have any instances. Also note that WMIC actually appeared in Windows XP so you can use it on your Windows XP clients . WMIC is not and will never be available for Windows 2000 or earlier.

WMIC Help

After you have found a class to investigate you can easily obtain more information about the class. For example, to find out the properties of the OS class, type WMIC OS GET /? . This will list all the properties available in the class. Similarly, the command WMIC OS CALL /? lists all the methods available.

WMIC Output Formatting

The previous sections introduced you to the WMIC commands. However, all the examples so far have been simple and resulted in immediate display of text results in a command-prompt window. WMIC can do much more. For managing a server, WMIC command mode with immediate text results are fine, but for monitoring a server, the powerful output formatting of WMIC and its repeating feature are needed.

WMIC formats results using common style sheets (files with .XSL extensions). To use the style sheet, simply add the /FORMAT:Style-sheet to a WMIC command. The standard style sheets provided are

• CSV : Allows you to output the results to a file using comma-separated fields. This is great for sending data to a simple database or Excel.

• HFORM : HTML with the data in list format. This format is great when viewing a lot of properties from a single object.

• HTABLE : HTML with the data in table format. This format is best for viewing a few properties from a lot of instances. Optionally, the table can be sorted by using the syntax /FORMAT:HTABLE:»sortby=field_name»

• MOF : Microsoft Operations Framework source file used to describe the WMI namespace.

• RAWXML : XML data that can be easily imported into any XML-aware applications such as SQL.

• XML : Generates HTML of the XML data.

The default style sheets can be found in the same %WinDir%System32WBEM directory as the MOF files. Also, you can create your own style sheet and translation; see TechNet at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/proddocs/entserver/wmic_creating_format.asp.

WMIC Repeating Command

Now that you have learned to use WMIC to extract system information and either display it or send it to an application, wouldn’t it be nice if you could make it refresh the information at fixed intervals? That is exactly what the /EVERY qualifier does. You specify a repeat interval in seconds, and the command repeats over and over at fixed intervals.

Using a combination of /OUTPUT , /FORMAT , and /EVERY , it is now possible to use WMIC to create Web pages that are automatically updated and served via IIS. As you travel out of the office, you still can keep track of your server infrastructure remotely.

WMI and WMIC Limitations

You must understand some of the limitations of WMI and WMIC to prevent frustration:

• WMIC does not allow access to asynchronous WMI event classes. In order to access events, you must perform WMI calls either from a high-level language (like C++) or from a scripting language. However, you can access events that have been logged to the Windows Event log using the Event Log provider.

• WMIC does not allow access to linked private properties. For example, cluster resources have common properties (properties that all cluster resources have, such as PendingTimeout ) and they have private properties (such as IP addresses that only make sense for a resource of type IP address). Only common properties can be manipulated with WMIC.

• WMI reports errors that it receives from the WMI APIs. However, because data and control flow through the WMI providers, component-specific errors and events cannot be reported , but have to be converted to generic WMI errors. Therefore, WMI errors will be less informative than native API errors.

• The WMIC syntax checker is extremely picky, and you must be very careful. Make sure you preserve the order of the qualifiers and parameters.

• Because the providers are an additional layer of software that adds overhead, WMI usually performs worse than native applications. WMI should be used for management purposes and not to write time-critical applications.

Especially Useful Classes

So far, we have dealt in generalities. However, some WMI classes are especially useful for managing a server. The list is not meant to be exhaustive, and everyone has favorites; however, this is a good starting point.

NtEvent

The class Win32_NTLogEvent provides access to the Windows NT event logs. It provides access to all entries maintained in the system event logs, including the system and application log. The log is selected using WQL on the LogFile property. WMIC provides an alias called NtEvent for easy access. For example, the command

 wmic ntevent where "logfile='Application' and eventcode=7026" get sourcename,message /value 

produces the list of all system event 7026 (service failed to load).

Hotfixes

The class Win32_QuickFixEngineering provides easy access to all hotfixes applied to a system. WMIC has a QFE alias, so the command WMIC QFE GET HOTFIXID will list ID of all hotfixes applied to a system. WMIC QFE will list all information (including IDs) known about the hotfix .

BIOS

The class Win32_BIOS provides easy access to your server’s BIOS, especially the version and build date. WMIC has a BIOS alias, so the simple command WMIC BIOS GET /VALUE will show you most of what you will ever want to know without having to shut down and look at the BIOS using <F9 or F10>.

Terminal Services

The class Win32_TerminalService offers access to remote Terminal Services. When managing servers, it is safer to leave administrative mode terminal services disabled until needed. This WMI class provides a simple interface to enable or disable remote Terminal Services. The following command

 wmic /node:<IP or network name> /user:<DomainUser> path Win32_TerminalServiceSetting where AllowTsConnections=0 call SetAllowTsConnections 1 

enables terminal services on a remote machine. If the password for the username specified does not match the local password, WMIC will prompt for the password. After you are finished performing your remote session, you can either disable remote connections from the computer property box or use the following command remotely:

 wmic /node:<IP or network name> /user:<DomainUser> path Win32_TerminalServiceSetting where AllowTsConnections=1 call SetAllowTsConnections 0