Windows Management Instrumentation
25
votes
4answers
641 views
Should I install Windows Management Framework 3.0?
I'm posting this as a BIG CAVEAT to everyone. I know it's not a standard Q&A, but I think this is something every Windows admin should know. There is a very real risk of falling into Big ...
12
votes
1answer
433 views
Is anyone using an SNMP and/or WMI poller to push custom metrics to Amazon CloudWatch, and if so how?
Amazon CloudWatch has a decent console, and an alarm system which uses Amazon SNS for notifications.
Originally it only gave you AWS metrics, e.g. EC2 instance CPU utilization.
Recently they added ...
11
votes
3answers
8k views
Which permissions/rights does a user need to have WMI access on remote machines?
I'm writing a monitoring service that uses WMI to get information from remote machines. Having local admin rights on all these machines is not possible for political reasons.
Is this possible? What ...
10
votes
3answers
422 views
Installing Windows Management Framework 3.0 basically destroyed WMI, how can I fix it without reinstalling the O.S.?
Related, of course, to this question.
Before discovering it was somewhat... dangerous, I installed Windows Management Framework 3.0 on a number of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 servers, and WMI got ...
9
votes
2answers
5k views
WmiPrvSE memory leak on Windows 2008 *R2*
I've seen references on Windows 2008 to WmiPrvSE leaks, but nothing about Windows 2008 R2.
We're running R2 on top of Hyper-V (2008). We are also running NSClient++ for monitoring from opsview. Over ...
7
votes
2answers
9k views
What is stored in %Windir%\System32\LogFiles\WMI\RtBackup?
I occasionally notice in Resource Monitor hard disk activity related to ETL files in the folder C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\WMI\RtBackup.
Which process/service creates these ETL files and what is ...
6
votes
7answers
5k views
What is the best (free) tool to wrap an .exe into a MSI?
I'm looking at deploying some software via GPSI and the current version of the software is distributed as a .exe so I need to convert it to an MSI file.
furthermore, why does MS still distribute some ...
5
votes
6answers
4k views
Useful WMI admin scripts
In a comment to my response to this question , cop1152 said he loved WMI scripts. Well, so do I!
What are your favourite, best, most useful scripts you'd like to share with the community?
thanks.
5
votes
3answers
677 views
How to retrieve Serial Number from Windows on new U/EFI box?
I need to retrieve the hardware serial numbers from a set of new HP mini desktops that need provisioning.
This worked in the past using a WSH script to query it via WMI. Unfortunately, the newer ...
5
votes
1answer
2k views
Common WQL Monitoring Queries
What WQL queries would you use for monitoring typical Windows bottlenecks? Which would you use to obtain data similar to 'top' or 'netstat'? What interval would you poll at?
Here are a few that I ...
4
votes
1answer
155 views
identify / fingerprint a Windows Server core installation versus full
Seems like this should be easy, but I am not finding any information on how to remotely identify a Windows Server "core" installation as such, via WMI, Powershell or other method that can query lots ...
4
votes
6answers
8k views
How to get the IP Address for your Local Area Connection on Windows Server?
I want to create a batch or vbs file that will put together a url and executed. Part of that url needs to be the actual ip address of the machine. How I am able to get that IP address in a variable ...
4
votes
1answer
95 views
Prevalence of WMI enabled in real Windows Server networks
Hi I would like to get opinions from systems administrators, on how common it is that WMI functionality is actually enabled in corporate networks.
I am writing an enterprise network application that ...
4
votes
1answer
85 views
Is it easy or even possible yet to manage windows firewall with powershell?
I'm doing some POC testing on a server 2012 environment, and during initial firewall configuration I find myself going to the GUI repeatedly when I'd really much rather be able to write a script. I've ...
4
votes
1answer
3k views
How to monitor DFSR backlog more efficiently than dfsrdiag
Is there a way to monitor the DFSR backlog in a manner more efficient than using dfsrdiag.exe backlog?
I wrote a program that just slurps in the backlog count via dfsrdiag.exe backlog /smem:alpha ...
4
votes
4answers
1k views
Does WMI cause CPU Creep?
I have a few servers, running Server 2003 Std/Ent and SQL 2000/2005, that I've noticed will start showing higher CPU usages over time. Stopping the WMI service and restarting it will always bring it ...
4
votes
2answers
549 views
What is the WMI class to manage BitLockerToGo
I am working on a script that will be used to audit some machines. I can check whether or not volumes are encrypted using the Win32_EncryptableVolume class in root\cimv2\Security\EncryptableVolume. ...
4
votes
1answer
853 views
How to get physical partition name from iSCSI details on Windows?
I've got a piece of software that needs the name of a partition in \Device\Harddisk2\Partition1 style, as shown e.g. in WinObj. I want to get this partition name from details of the iSCSI connection ...
4
votes
1answer
592 views
Where can I find a guide to remotely enable WMI access to a Windows client machine
I need to enable the WMI remote access in a lot of client machines in order to connect to these machines and get some information. These machines have installed different versions of windows (Windows ...
4
votes
4answers
2k views
How can I get WMI to return info on physical disks in Dell Poweredge server with RAID enabled?
I'm using WMI to gather stats on some of our servers, and I'm trying to get details of the physical disks that are installed in each server.
The servers are various Dell PowerEdge models. Windows' ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
Use WMI to detect a USB drive was connected, regardless of whether it was mounted?
I am writing a script that uses MS KB 823732 to temporarily prevent users from plugging in new USB storage devices. This works fine, and the HKLM\...\Services\UsbStor registry key successfully blocks ...
4
votes
0answers
127 views
WMI Impersonation levels within vbscript / ASP code
I have an IIS 7.5 web site running "classic" ASP code (not ASP.NET) where the site is running under the normal service context, and only "Windows Authentication" is enabled. Users and navigate the ...
4
votes
1answer
324 views
What are the minimum permissions to read the WMI class 'MSSerial_PortName'?
I am configuring a local application user (part of BUILTIN\Users) on a Windows 7 kiosk. The kiosk has a special USB device running on a virtual COM port. The user needs permission to read the WMI ...
3
votes
2answers
3k views
How to check if WMI is broken or not?
I'm looking for a way to check whether WMI is running properly on a Windows Server 2008 machine. I'd prefer to do this by running a command. Is there any?
3
votes
2answers
8k views
How to uninstall software using batch file
I want to uninstall a software by calling a bat file. It must be automatically, without entering any parameters during the uninstallation.
How to make the bat file which would be able to uninstall ...
3
votes
2answers
328 views
Can I still use WMI to manage SQL Server 2005 and 2008?
I've seen some articles on how to use WMI to manage SQL2000 servers (after installing SQLWMI80.msi manually) but I've not seen anything about this for SQL2005 and SQL2008.
Has this been depreciated? ...
3
votes
1answer
102 views
When I query Win32_PnPEntity , my PS/2 devices always show up as [Not Present, Not Working, No Driver]… Why?
I am using a WMI query as part of a general diagnostic script, and I query the following:
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\CIMV2")
Set ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
How to apply an Group Policy only to Clients in a specific IP range? (using WMI Filter)
I need to apply a GPO only to some computers in a specific network range.
I'm aware that there many other solutions for this issue. I could group them into an OU or use Sites. But the current ...
3
votes
1answer
419 views
Accessing Acer SNID via Windows WMI?
Dell have been really helpful in making their desktop and laptop serial numbers available via WMI. Has anyone had any success in finding similar information about Acer computers, especially the SNID, ...
3
votes
2answers
981 views
Run command remotely on Windows computer
I have a Windows Server 2008 instance on Amazon EC2 (Amazon's cloud compute platform, which provides VMs in the cloud). It has an external IP, and I have an admin account on the box. I would like to ...
3
votes
3answers
2k views
Disable a specific ethernet card via batch commands on Windows
What I would like to do is disable a NIC based on the connection name (aka: what you see in the "network connections" window, or what you would use with netsh commands).
I know enabling/disabling can ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
WMI Rights required to read root\MicrosoftIISv2 in IIS7 with IIS6 compatibility mode
I need to manage my IIS7 (Windows Server 2008) remotely with a WMI IIS6 API. So I added the IIS6 WMI Compatibility and IIS6 Metabase Compatibility roles to access the root\MicrosoftIIsv2 namespace.
I ...
3
votes
1answer
89 views
Is there a way to set access to WMI using GroupPolicy?
From various documentation it appears that to change WMI access you need to use WMI to access the running service and modify specific parts of the tree.
Its kind of annoying changing 150,000 hosts ...
2
votes
3answers
1k views
What is the closest equivalent of “load average” in Windows available via WMI?
Linux has a notion of Load Average which is defined as:
System load averages is the average number of processes that are either in a runnable or uninterruptable state. A process in a runnable ...
2
votes
5answers
1k views
Powershell recursive WMI query
I'd like to start at the top of a WMI namespace, recurse through all the objects, then recurse through each object's property list, filtering out and returning to console only those properties that ...
2
votes
2answers
728 views
How Can I Monitor an IIS 7.5 Application Pool with WMI?
I currently have an application in a load balanced IIS cluster (NLB) on Server 2008 R2. This application leverages some legacy database access code which occasionally fails enough to disable the app ...
2
votes
3answers
448 views
Rename file in folder whenever it's created?
I need to find a way to automatically rename all files that are created within a specific directory on a Windows 2008r2 file server. This needs to be done more or less instantanously, so I can't have ...
2
votes
1answer
166 views
Windows ADSI , WMI and Registry. How Do They All Relate With Each Other?
I have a work task which involves setting up Windows XP machines. I'm not a Windows user normally which is why I ask this question.
The tasks involved in setting up one of these machines involve ...
2
votes
1answer
427 views
Converting WMI from vbscript to powershell
I'm trying to follow the guides for accessing IIS 6 using WMI but I'm having trouble working out how to translate the Get method of SWbemServices as Get-WmiObject doesn't seem to use the same path ...
2
votes
1answer
746 views
WMI query of Win32_Product creates events in the W2K8+ Application Event Log
On Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 querying installed software with WMI and the Win32_Product class events are written to the Application event log.
The events are purely informational ...
2
votes
1answer
876 views
Difference between CurrentClockSpeed and MaxClockSpeed
Rationale this belongs on ServerFault rather than StackOverflow - I already have my program which gets the value, I am querying the value returned and what it means.
I have an in-house program which ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
Determine Users Accessing a Shared Folder Using PowerShell
I need to determine the users/sessions accessing a shared folder on a Windows XP (SP2) machine using a PowerShell script (v 1.0). This is the information displayed using Computer Management | System ...
2
votes
1answer
6k views
Scripting inventory of machine name, current username, Operating System using WMIC or powershell
I have a text file of every machine in our Windows Active Directory domain, and I would like to determine the currently logged in user (if any) and operating system of each machine using WMIC:
WMIC ...
2
votes
1answer
355 views
How do I uninstall an ActiveX control via Powershell
I have to constantly switch back and forth between two installations of a web app with two different versions of an ActiveX control. Therefore I'd like to script the ability to uninstall this control. ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
Remote installing an msi on citrix servers using WMI
OK, I'm a C# programmer that is trying to streamline the deployment of a custom windows form app I inherited and built an installer for with WiX (this app will need to be reinstalled regularly as I'm ...
2
votes
1answer
336 views
Setting WMI permissions remotely
I've developed a tool that does a simple retrieval of registered services and installed applications from remote Windows Server 2003 servers via WMI.
My problem is, the tool needs to be run on an ad ...
2
votes
2answers
778 views
How to work out the WMI Class name from its perfmon counter name
So I have been provided with a bunch of performance counters that are housed within a particular performance object (i.e. these are not one of the default perf counters that come with Windows) and ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
Powershell or WMI to pull Printer Properties and Additional Drivers?
What I am trying to accomplish:
Use a powershell script (WMI or cmdlets directly, or a combination) to query a 2003 or 2008 server with the PrintServer role, enumerate the printers shared, then list ...
2
votes
1answer
633 views
DCOM Access Issues through Windows Server 2008 Firewall
I am trying to connect remotely to a Windows Server 2008 Machine through WMI Protocol using J-Interop Library. Although I have not been able to configure the firewall properly even after following ...
2
votes
3answers
1k views
Detect corrupted WMI
When WMI is corrupted it will fail in the strangest ways, certain queries (most of them) will work, some will throw exceptions, others will time out and a few will simply return no (or ...
