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Comparison of the ADSI and WMI Providers in IIS

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The methods of the IIS WMI provider are comparable to the methods of the IIS ADSI provider, although the two technologies differ in architecture and features.

IIS 5.1 and earlier: WMI cannot be used to configure these versions of IIS because the provider is not available.

The following table compares the architecture and features of the IIS ADSI provider with those of the IIS WMI provider.

Feature

IIS ADSI provider

IIS WMI provider

Namespace

The ADSI provider connects to IIS through the IIS://<computer_name> namespace.

The WMI provider connects to IIS through the WINMGMTS://<computer_name>/root/MicrosoftIISv2 namespace.

Use of admin objects

The ADSI provider uses the admin objects to map to configurable elements in the metabase. For each admin object, there exists an ADSI class of the same name.

The WMI provider uses the admin objects to map to configurable elements of the metabase. For each admin object there exists two WMI classes:

  • One class of the same name as the admin object that contains read-only properties and methods

  • Another class with "Setting" appended to the name of the admin object that contains writable properties

Object model and access routes

The ADSI provider uses the COM object model, and can be accessed from scripts and programs.

The WMI provider uses the COM object model and can be accessed from scripts and programs. There are also UI tools that use WMI such as the WMI object browser, called CIM Studio, which is included in the WMI SDK.

Query capabilities

The ADSI provider has no query capabilities.

The WMI provider has query capabilities. By querying on metabase key types, the IIS WMI provider returns only the data you need.

Extensible schema

The ADSI provider supports metabase schema extensions.

The WMI provider can return existing schema extensions, but cannot extend the metabase schema.

Association or containment of related data

In the ADSI provider, metabase properties are related to IIS metabase keys (or nodes) by containment.

You can use the ADSI container object methods of the IIS admin objects to manipulate keys in the IIS metabase. You can create, delete, and move keys by creating, deleting, and moving IIS Admin Objects within container objects. You can also enumerate contained objects, such as virtual directories or servers, with container object methods. ADSI supports property inheritance.

In the WMI provider, metabase properties are related to IIS metabase keys (or nodes) by association.

An association in WMI describes a relationship between two classes. Every association is represented by a WMI association class. This powerful concept allows management information about an entire system of associated components to be viewed and traversed for tasks such as troubleshooting. Navigating from class to class using an association class is not limited by containment.

See Also