How To: Find the SMS or ConfigMgr NameSpace in WMI
Here is the situation. You need to find the SMS 2003 or ConfigMgr NameSpace in WMI and you don’t have the PowerShell expertise, yet. Easiest way is to use a GUI interface. Namely CIM Studio. CIM = Common Information Model… or framework of how info is stored in WMI.
About CIM Studio
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc181062.aspx
Download CIM Studio
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc181062.aspx
Note: I would recommend book marking CIM studio in IE. Saves time finding it later. Every time you launch CIM studio in IE6 and later you will need to accept the ActiveX object. Bookmark: C:\Program Files\WMI Tools\studio.htm
Question: Where do I look in WMI to find the SMS / SCCM info?
The default when you first open CIM Studio up is root\CIMV2. This is the local machine and CIM version 2.0 is the default location of machine information (think where the SMS_Def.Mof gets its info.) Have fun playing in there, but it is not where you want to be right now.
Question 2: Well that’s great, but how do I connect to a remote machine.. say the ConfigMgr server?
Connect to remote machine
\\<MachineName>\root
Example: \\ShaunWorkstation01\root
Note: do not add a trailing ‘\’ it will error out. WMI syntax is very exacting.
Pass credentials that allow you to have rights. Usually local admin.
The connection string above is a combination of machine and NameSpace.
NameSpace = root in the above example
Question 3: How do I find the NameSpace for the SMS / ConfigMgr information?
- Open __SystemClass
- Open __Namespace
- Click Instances button
One of the many results is: SMS.
Note: SMS is the correct namespace for any version of SMS or ConfigMgr (didn’t change with name change).
Great, now lets connect to the root\SMS name space: \\<server name>\root\SMS
Not a lot of results. Check the Namespaces again, you find:
- Inv_Schema
- Site_CAP (if this is an upgraded SMS 2003 server)
- Site_<sitecode>
So the WMI namespace I really want for SMS or SCCM is:
\\<ServerName>\root\sms\site_<SiteCode>
Example:
\\SMSServer01\root\sms\site_LAB
Fun thought, did you notice how the WMI classes never open in the same order. That just means the information returned is whatever is read first. Interesting.
Okay that is enough for this post. I’ll have another one us shortly about locating the Updates classes in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1.