Microsoft Management Instrumentation Scripting Language

¶ … Microsoft Management Instrumentation Scripting Language is and how it works. It shall discuss as to what are the advantages, if any, of the Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation Scripting Language when it is used in an it corporate department? How is it used in an it environment? Finally the innate architecture of the WMI system shall be discussed.

The Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation Scripting Language is basically a part of the Windows Operating system of Microsoft ®, and is also the implementation of Microsoft's Web-Based Enterprise Management, also known as WBEM, that is actually the standard technology used by the industry to access and avail of all management related information in an organization.

The Common Information Model or the CIM is the standard that is used by the WMI to follow the industry-established standards of managing the systems and the networks and the different applications and devices related to the inner workings of an enterprise. All the mundane and common tasks within an organization can be automated by the WMI systems, and though it is true that it can be successfully used in any Windows based application, it can be the most beneficial when it is used in an enterprise related environment.

(Windows Management Instrumentation) It is a fact that the computers as well as the computer networks of today are no longer as simple and uncomplicated as they were a few years ago, and as time goes by, they are indeed becoming more complex and complicated and the system administrators of today are definitely faced with more challenges than they were a few years ago. Gone are the days when a Systems Administrator was responsible for just a few computers, more often placed in the same area.

However, today it is no longer as simple as being responsible for a few user accounts and a few applications, without having to use the system of a 'local area network'. The systems administrators of today are in charge of a hundred and sometimes even a thousand computers and a similar number of user accounts.

These computers may never be located within the same area; they are often located in remote areas, and the applications that run them are several and quite complicated in their multiplicity and variety and therefore, complexity. These computers generally depend on the various networked resources like 'file servers', 'Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol', also known as simply DHCP, 'Domain Name Systems servers, or DNS, and also the system of 'shared printers'.

(Microsoft Windows 2000 Scripting Guide) The primary need of the organizations of today was to find a systems administration that would basically help them find better management systems that could not only be created specifically to meet the specific needs of that particular organization requesting the solutions, but would also function against several different computers and would also be cost effective and function quickly and safely and efficiently so that the work within the organization would progress faster and better than ever before.

This is where the function of 'scripts' is clearly demonstrated. In addition to being cheap and easy to implement, most of them not requiring more than the basic computer than can run the Microsoft Windows 2000 as one of its applications on the computer system.

The general opinion about scripting may be that it is tough and difficult to master, leave alone to write a file in, and that it is time consuming, and that it is full of difficult technical jargon that would have to be memorized in order to use it efficiently. However, this is not the case with all scripts. The WMI has been flouted as an exception, easy to master and not full of technical coding that is difficult to grasp.

The very function of a script is that it removes most of the boredom that comes after having to repeatedly perform the same tasks over and over again, as for example, a person using the computer would have to do when he wants to complete a certain given task and he has to repeat the same commands to the computer in order to get the task done.

A script would automatically eliminate the need to repeat the same tasks again and again, as it actually means that a file is created, that describes the set of steps and procedures that are needed to complete the given task. The advantage of using such scripts is that it would not only make the given task easier, but would also save a lot of time and effort.

When a person, for example, has to clear a backlog of event logs and type it onto the computer, each and every time there is, in fact, a backlog, then he would definitely waste a lot of time, and this time would be saved if he learned how to write and use scripts.

(Introduction to Windows Scripting Technologies) The Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation ® is known as the completely scalable and scriptable management infrastructure that helps several organizations improve their functioning by conserving time and energy and improving efficiency in the computer systems used within the organization, however large and complex the applications may be.

The obvious advantages of WMI are as follows: Uniform scripting API, the better navigation and discoverability offered the query capability that allows the user to direct several queries at tit, and the compelling and powerful event subscription and also of event publication offered by it.

In addition, the most important advantage of the WMI script is that it can be made available to all applications and scripts, whether they are local or remote; in other words, the WMI can be administered remotely, as well as locally, with there being no additional effort or work involved in the administration of the WMI remotely.

For example, the WMI script enables an administrator to both identify and also list out all the different services on a server that have been configured to run on the 'Automatic Start Mode' and have been stopped. (Windows Management Instrumentation) It will also help to discover and then enlist all the NTFS partitions on a server that have very limited free space left, and also create a back up on an SQL server of Microsoft, and eventually abandon the transaction log.

It will even help the user to launch a program using the WMI method on the server. When a specific event has to be watched, it can be set up using the WMI script, by means of setting up an event consumer that will keep an eye out for that specific incident to occur in the system log, and alert the user by means of an e-mail when it actually happens.

In the case when an event consumer script is to be reconfigured, and a system event is needed whenever there happens to be a utilization rate of more than 90% of the CPU, then the WMI will definitely come in handy. All the above-specified events can be done via a remote control of execution of a program, on a remote machine. The 'Distributed Management Task Force' or 'DMTF' have adopted the WMI as it is broadly based on the 'Web-Based Enterprise Management System' and also the 'Common Information Model' system.

What is special about the WMI is the fact that all computer systems, whether they are local or whether they are remote, can be managed equally well by the rich and extensible script offered by the WMI and all the management can be completed in a completely scriptable and also completely constant manner.

Most of the OS systems of today already use the WMI script in their systems since the WMI forms a part of the Win2K and the other third party services that are in fact still being developed. (Windows Management Instrumentation) the use of the WMI allows the user to avail of a huge amount of information available through the Win23 as well as the IIS WMI providers. WMI also allows for the use of a namespace, which in turn allows the user to group WMI classes together, logically.

When a user uses this namespace, he can register his own namespace, if he is a provider, and then group all his classes under that particular namespace. An example of this would be: 'root/cimv2', that means that all Wim32 calls can be grouped under this namespace, and 'root/microsoftiisv2' means that all IIS WMI classes are to be found under this namespace.

Here, 'root' means that it is the root where namespaces can be found, while a namespace can even have a child namespace, and also a WMI class. For example, if the provider wants to connect to 'Management Scope', then the root namespace is the / / 'managementscope', whereby the object, that is in this case the ManagementScope has been created, and then it is set to the root namespace on the machine.

The location or the whereabouts of the machine and the namespace are defined, or, in other words, the class where the machine is bound to is in residence. (an in-depth look at WMI and Instrumentation) After this is achieved, a 'ManagementPath is created, wherein it will be bound to the WMI class or the '_ namespace class'.

The third step is the creation of the 'ManagementClass' object that is achieved by using the scope as well as the path objects that have already been created, or by creating the ManagementClass object and then directly passing along the path specified as '//. / root: namespace.' The WMI class allows the user to avail of an entire list of all class instances for that particular class by calling 'GetInstnaces ()'. When this is a _namespace, then this will be the list of all child namespaces.

After this step, the paths and the names of all the namespaces are added together to form the 'tree view'. Since the ManagementClass and ManagementObject classes utilize unmanaged COM objects, 'Dispose' will be used to relieve them. Another advantage of using the WMI script is that adequate security can be applied to each and every namespace. For example, when the user wants to do this, he can open the 'Computer Management' tool in Windows, and go on to the 'Service and Applications', and then to the 'WMI control'.

Herein lies the 'Security' tag of the WMI script, and this can be used to steer through the hierarchy of the namespaces and select the one for which security is required.

The several different rights that are available within this framework of working are the execute methods that define the ways in which the user can execute the methods specified by the classes, the full write access that allows the user to read write and delete the access to the WMI classes, the provider write that enables the user to access write rights to dynamic classes, the enable account that grants the user the right to read WMI classes, the remote enable right that enables the user to remotely access the namespace, the remote security that allows the user to have an access to the 'read only' security files and information, and the edit security that permits the user to have a write right to security information.

(an in-depth look at WMI and Instrumentation) What are the advantages, if any, of the Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation scripting language when it is used in an it corporate department? It is indeed a well-known and accepted fact that all organizations, especially it, are always under constant and permanent pressure to do more with the fewer resources available to them.

The company of today is expected to be streamlined and also stripped down to the bare essentials so that there is more cost efficiency and a fewer number of employees doing the same job that many more employees would have had to do in the past, just a few years ago.

Automation is a phenomenon that is still in the process of being implemented in quite a few establishments everywhere, and when the it sector is also faced with the lack of automation and also the necessity of making do with less, it is in fact very difficult for it to cope.

The several business demands placed on the corporate developers of the it sector will eventually end up in overpowering them, and this would lead to limited functioning capabilities on their part, wherein the different departmental applications would become postponed in favor of the several core enterprise processes present within the organization, resulting in the inevitable logjam.

What can be done to break out of this sort of jam? Microsoft Access can be one of the means of achieving a breakthrough, even though it is a fact that several organizations have prohibited it, stating that if centralized development is possible with the use of one programming language, wherein the data will be stored on the corporate SQL servers, then there is no need for including Microsoft Access in the organization, whereas it will always remain in control.

However, the backlog and logjam within the organizations prevent it from actually maintaining steady control, and there is a general consensus that the time has arrived for it to give up at least part of the control. Today, the end users seem to want immediate completion of their applications, regardless of whether it maintains control or whether there is a lack of resources; this is where Microsoft Access makes it easier.

Access provides its clients with a tough and strong department level database engine that will not bind the user into a certain specific technology, especially if the application would have to grow in future. A user of Microsoft Access would have to just track a few thousands of rows of data that have been spread over a few tables.

It is a fact that nothing remains in a state of rest or is static in it, and access is possible through quite a few standard interfaces like OLE DB, and ODBC, and it can even be designed in such a manner that it would match the individual user's specific needs.

Since the designing and the creation and the implementation of the database application would consume quite a lot of time, it is better if the entire project is handled jointly by the it department as well as the other individual departments of the organization. (Tech Republic Tutorial) Since the Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation Technology is actually an implementation of the WBEM proposal for the DMTF's development of the Windows platforms that would extend the DMTF CIM to represent the various objects that exist in the management environments of Windows.

The CIM in turn is used to represent both physical as well as logical objects in a unified way within the managed environment of Windows. The Windows Management Instrumentation Technology was created as the implementation of WBEM technologies in order to provide a 'fully integrated operating system support' for the various applications based on the CIM.

The basic method of achieving this is by the WMI providing a dependable and constant and consistent expressive and descriptive model of the configuration and the operational and the status levels of the Windows NT® based systems. This model will not only reduce costs but will also save resources by implementing various management applications that would decrease both the maintenance costs as well as the entire cost of the lifecycle of the Windows NT systems.

When the WMI is used in combination with other Windows NT managed services such as the Microsoft Management Console, also known as MMC, it would ultimately serve to simplify the creation of well-integrated management applications, thereby permitting vendors to offer customers extremely efficient and capable management solutions for various enterprises and organizations needing them.

In addition, the combination of both local as well as remote processing with the advantage of the SQL-based query language in the information model allows the user to access and find solutions to highly complex management problems within the working environment. Sometimes developers utilize the Visual Basic® or the Windows Scripts to find the similar sort of solutions that are offered by the WMI scripts.

(Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation, advantages to Developers) It can be stated that the WMI can and does offer a standard uniform model of working for the purpose of both representing and accessing all management information in a manner that developers would find useful in their development of associations between the several different applications and the drivers and the systems and the devices and the management information in the network system.

The WMI technology supports the management infrastructure that is needed for the syntax of the CIM, and the Managed Object Format, also known as the MOF, a programming interface. MOF can defines clearly the structure and the contents of the CIM data in machine-readable as well as humanly readable formats, and the WMI is capable of offering a whole range of extremely useful and powerful services such as query-based retrieval of desired information, and the accurate notification of events.

The developer can use the WMI to write out management applications in WMI scripting so that when it is used in an it Corporate Department, it will not only provide access to certain varied machine resources such as 'system memory', available hard disk space, etc., but will also allow the access to application information such as the several different current application installations on a client computer. It will also allow the user to administer information, remotely, as an application.

It will be able to process events such as SNMP traps, and the events related to the Windows NT Event Viewer Log. The developer can also create WMI Providers, and this would allow such management information as required, to be exposed to the user from either a source from the network, or from any software application. It will become possible for these forms of WMI enabled resources to be managed by different management applications.

(Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation, advantages to Developers) The Windows Management Instrumentation Technology will be able to provide the Corporate it manager with the facility of accessing and monitoring and also commanding and actually controlling any required entity through a system of common unifying set of interfaces that can be accesses despite the varied and different underlying instrumentation mechanisms, by the very fact that WMI in itself is an access mechanism.

WMI also offers the user a consistent model of the workings of the Windows 2000, and the different configurations and status levels associated with them. It sometimes also functions as a COM Application Programming Interface, known as API for the purpose of providing the user with accessed information on the management. Additionally, the WMI has the innate advantage of being incompatible with almost all other Windows 2000 management services.

The advantage here is that the entire process of the creation and the development of integrated and well-defined management solutions become extremely simplified and uncomplicated. It also offers the developer a flexible and adaptable and extensible architecture with which to develop management solutions for the corporate it, in that it allows the developer to extend the original information model to also cover newer and later devices and applications by writing WMI Provider Code Modules.

Instrumentation data as well as records of events from device drivers and kernel components can be made available to the developer when he utilizes the WMI,.