The power of WMI

WMI ---Windows Management Instrumentation

WMI is Microsoft's implementation of the WBEM (Web based Enterprise Mgmt) which is an industry standard used for managing computers and devices across a network(locally or remotely).

Since WMI is a very deep rooted concept , its impossible to throw light on each and every aspect , and so i'd like to concentrate more on what the technology is all about and how it is powerful in managing thousands of "POTENTIALLY MANAGEABLE" entities .

To start of with WMI is a small piece of code / software that resides in Windows.

Typically all of us(scripters, users, admins) make use of WMI without actually knowing were using it :)

WMI is an interface provided by Windows which instruments (automates) the potentially managable objects to the outside world.By instrumentation i mean , it helps in exposing data which can be consumed.

Windows consists of managed objects. Each object can be referred to as a BOX.For example u may have a box of services , processes , registry , file system , chocolates :P etc

The entire concept is layered into 3 parts ...1) the front end which is the user / administrator
2) the middleware (WMI broker)
3) the backend (Managed objects)

The above block diagram illustrates the WMI architecture , showing 3 layers as mentioned above.

The WMI consumer is the user who wants to fetch information and consume it.

Second layer of abstraction is the WMI broker which acts as a bridge between the consumer and the managed objects (Boxes). Providers consists of classes which are implemented as dlls used to fetch information from the managed objects.The classes provides access to the properties and calling methods .

The managed objects are the third layer in the architecture which are the potentially manageable boxes/entities.

Information is fetched from the managed objects and instrumented to the outside world which may be consumed further.

WMI is platform agnostic i.e. a user can fetch information by firing vbscript() queries , C++ (com) code , WQL (WMI query language ) , or using the .NET framework ( C# , VB.NET, J#)

Any WMI compatible windows object can be monitored and managed effectively using scripts or WMI tools . All Operating systems after WindowsNT to the currently running Vista / Windows CE , servers like IIS , SQL , ISA , Exchange can be managed with ease.

Misunderstood concept of WMI

Users expect that information retrival using WMI should be magical. Thats not the case if a user is attempting to retrieve 10,000 files or 3000 instances of startup options. Common sense should prevail since it takes more than a few seconds to fetch data and display the same.

Other expectations include display of "out of the band " data. The information will be fetched only if the particular provider is present.

Microsoft is trying to include as many providers they can to solve day to day problems of the people. With the current version of Windows Vista 100 odd providers are included and there are more to come.

I end the article here. Hope you have enjoyed the concept of WMI and now you are ready to manage your computers and other's your own way ;)