Introduction to Configuration and Management

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is the Microsoft implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), an initiative to establish standards for gaining access to and sharing management information over an enterprise network. WMI is WBEM-compliant and provides integrated support for the Common Information Model (CIM), the data model that describes the objects that exist in a management environment.

WMI includes a CIM-compliant object repository, which is the database of object definitions, and the CIM Object Manager, which handles the collection and manipulation of objects in the repository and gathers information from the WMI providers. WMI providers act as intermediaries between components of the operating system and applications. For example, the registry provider draws information from the registry; the SNMP provider provides data and events from SNMP devices.

For more information about WMI, see Windows 2000 Professional Help and the Deployment Planning Guide .