Developing WMI Solutions

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is an impressive technology that provides, for the first time, an integrated approach to hardware and software management for the Windows operating system. Developing WMI Solutions gives administrators and developers the skills necessary to take advantage of the power of WMI with Windows 2000, XP, and .NET Server.

Developing WMI Solutions starts with an overview of the concepts behind systems management. The authors then provide a synopsis of existing management architectures, as well as an explanation of the architectural components of WMI and the tools provided by Microsoft for their use. Also included is a WMI scripting boot camp for administrators using samples in VBScript, plus a series of best practices that give scripts a professional edge.

• The Common Information Model (CIM)
• Developing CIM extended schemas
• Management-application development using C++ and COM for WMI
• MMC snap-in development using C++ and COM, presented as a tutorial
• WMI providers and the necessary C++ and COM skills needed to expose class schema
• Developing management applications using the .NET Framework-the first comprehensive guide to the WMI classes in the System. Management namespace

Finally, developers will learn about the often undersold but extremely powerful high-performance event-tracing mechanism available in Windows, which allows developers to expose detailed information about operations in an application.

The companion Web site, located at http://www.wbem.co.uk, includes the complete set of code examples found in the book, as well as updates and related articles.

Both a tutorial and a reference, Developing WMI Solutions is an essential companion for network administrators, software developers, and team leaders looking to become proficient with WMI.

Contents

1. Introduction.
2. Existing Management Frameworks.
3. Windows Management Instrumentation.
4. A Guided Tour of the Common Information Model Repository.
5. Developing Class Schemas.
6. Method Design and Schema Class Positioning.
7. Developing Management Applications.
8. Developing .NET Management Applications.
9. Developing MMC Snap-ins.
10. Developing WMI Scripts for Administrators.
11. WMI Scripting and WMIC.
12. Developing WMI Providers.
13. High-Performance Instrumentation.