3.10 Summary

In this chapter, we continued to use the same scripting techniques (enumeration, WQL queries, sink routines, etc.) as previously. However, at this stage, we clearly realize that the challenge is not limited to knowledge of the WMI Scripting API with the CIM repository classes. The challenge expands to the knowledge of the WMI provider capabilities with their classes, which determines the features available (i.e., instance provider versus event provider). In this case, the main concern is to understand the underlying technology the providers are managing. The WMI SNMP providers are a good example of providers that require a fair understanding of the SNMP MIBs before scripting on top of the WMI classes representing SNMP information. Moreover, if some private SNMP information must be added to the CIM repository, the knowledge of the managed device from an SNMP point of view is determinant.

Although the real-world managed entities vary throughout the chapter, the scripting technique remains a constant whatever the managed component is. This is exactly where we get the benefit of the abstraction made by WMI and the CIM repository. However, the management information nature, its interpretation, and its representation become the focus of the WMI development.

Now that we have a fair understanding of the core WMI providers under Windows Server 2003, there is still one aspect of WMI that we haven't yet examined: the WMI Security scripting. This is the purpose of the next chapter.