How SMS Uses WMI

SMS uses WMI to collect information about SMS clients and for the management and operation of SMS itself. Specifically, SMS uses WMI for:

The SMS Administrator console, which gathers and sets all SMS configuration and inventory details (using the root\SMS\site_ namespace).

Resource Explorer, which gathers inventory data from the same namespace as the SMS Administrator console, but uses the group classes for a specific computer. Resource Explorer also uses the SMS_PropertyDisplayNode class in the root\SMS\inv_schema namespace for window formatting details.

All other SMS administration tools, including support tools, resource kit tools, recovery tools, scripts, and any tools you have written with the SMS software development kit (SDK).

The Legacy Client Hardware Inventory Agent, which gathers hardware inventory data from WMI (by default from the root\CIMv2 namespace), and records which WMI classes should be reported by the Legacy Client Hardware Inventory Agent. The classes that the agent should report are recorded in the root\CIMv2\SMS namespace. The settings in that namespace are usually transferred to clients by using the SMS_def.mof file. The \root\CIMv2\SMS\Delta namespace records the values of the classes when they were last reported, so that hardware inventory deltas can be calculated.

The Advanced Client. Configuration policies and most client data are stored in WMI in the root\CCM namespace and its namespaces.

The Advanced Client Inventory Agent, which gathers hardware inventory data from WMI (by default from the root\CIMv2 namespace) and records the values of the classes when they were last reported, so that hardware inventory deltas can be calculated.

The SMS Provider and SMS Component Management Provider, which use WMI as the interface model and store some details in the WMI repository. The SMS Provider also uses the root\SMS\inv_schema namespace for localization details.

Queries and collections, which use the WBEM Query Language (WQL) and the SMS Provider.

Network Discovery. Configuration options are stored in the root\NetworkModel namespace.

Network Trace, which uses the SMS Component Management Provider and SMS Component Polling Provider.

Reporting (using tools other than the reporting tool included in SMS 2003 or that use the SMS SQL Server views), which uses the WBEM Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver. ODBC is a commonly used database interface.

A pointer to the SMS Provider server, which uses the root\SMS\SMS_ProviderLocation class.

Because SMS uses WMI, you can:

Script SMS operations to ease your SMS administration tasks. For more information, see Appendix C, "Scripting SMS Operations."

Increase or decrease the details that SMS collects as part of the hardware inventory. For more information, see Chapter 2, "Collecting Hardware and Software Inventory."

Build tools to manage SMS. For more information, see the SMS SDK.

Directly connect to client computers, if they are accessible on your network, to verify in real-time any details that you see in Resource Explorer.