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WMI Explorer is an auxiliary application for LanAtlas, however it can be used independently
as well. WMI Explorer is included into LanAtlas Network Monitor package (since version 5.82) and can also be downloaded
separately at the download page.
WMI is an acronym for Windows Management Instrumentation. WMI is the Microsoft's
implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) - a new management technology that allows software to monitor
and control managed resources throughout the network. Such managed resources include hard drives, file systems,
settings of operating system, processes, services, shares, registry settings, networking components, event logs,
users, groups, etc.
WMI allows monitoring of performance counters as well. Microsoft applications such as Exchange and SQL Server have WMI
built-in. Many non-Microsoft applications utilize WMI and thus they could be monitored using LanAtlas Network Monitor as
well.
WMI is already built into Windows 2000 or above, and can be installed on any other 32-bit Windows system.
See also:
WMI Explorer
Explorer allows you to
- Explore the full set of WMI management classes, objects and their properties
- Browse through objects and settings on remote machines
- Execute any WQL query and view the result set
WMI Explorer can be started as an independent application or it can be launched by LanAtlas to tune up a WMI test.
Once you have started WMI Explorer, you will be presented with two ways to explore a machine's objects:
The Classes (browser) view*
This view displays full set of classes within the specified namespace** (on local or remote
machine), child objects and their properties.
Top portion of the main window shows all classes available on the system. In order to quickly find a class you may use
"Search" menu. Menu item "Find" searches (using the name) for the specified class. Menu item "Search again" looks for
the next suitable entry. If the search option "Match whole word only" is disabled, the search string might be found
within longer words. E.g. consecutive searches for the string "_Process" will find CIM_Process,
CIM_ProcessExecutable, CIM_Processsor, CIM_ProcessThread, Win32_Process and Win32_Processor items.
Instances
The Instances panel is located in the bottom-left portion of the main window. Every time you click on a class in Classes
panel, WMI Explorer queries Windows and retrieves all instances (objects) of the selected class.
Please note: some classes have many instances, retrieving of information about them may require a lot of time and
system resources. That is why WMI Explorer requests the target system in the background using dedicated thread.
This allows the user to check properties or switch to another class while the request is still in progress. When
request is completed, explorer shows the number of instances in the status line (if you see "Requesting instances..."
in the status line, it means explorer have not yet finished retrieving the information).
Properties
The Properties panel is located in the bottom-right portion of the main window. Every time you click on a class in
Classes panel, WMI Explorer queries Windows to retrieve the list of properties of the selected class. Even if there
are no instances of the class, you will be able to see the list of its properties.
To view the property value for specific object, simply click the mouse on the object's instance in Instances panel.
The Query view*
The Query View gives you the capability to run standard WMI Query Language (WQL) queries; each instance that's returned
is listed in the Results window.
- E.g. if you want to monitor the number of handles used by all running instances of the Internet Explorer, use the query
like this: SELECT HandleCount FROM Win32_Process WHERE name='iexplore.exe'
- If you need to monitor the number of processes which use more than 10 threads, use the following query:
SELECT ThreadCount FROM Win32_Process WHERE ThreadCount>10
- The query: SELECT * FROM Win32_Service WHERE Started=0 AND StartMode="Auto" shows all services
which have not started and have the start mode configured to "Automatic".
Query window is an invaluable resource for those who know where to look for something but need to see what exactly is
returned by Windows API to LanAtlas.
If you are running LanAtlas and you already have configured some "WMI" test items, you may click the right mouse
button on the test item and choose "Explore WMI" item from the popup menu. When you do so, LanAtlas will start
WMI Explorer in the Query mode, passing the query and information about the target host (such as the hostname, name
space, login, etc) to the explorer. This allows you to check quickly hardware and software parameters on the target
system and instantly see what is going on (e.g. why the test item has been failed).
*To switch between views, click on their respective tabs at the top of the main window. You can do
it at anytime since views are absolutely independent.
Connecting to remote host
WMI Explorer allows you to request both local (the system where explorer is running) and remote systems. To connect to
the remote system you may use GUI or command line parameters.
GUI:
If you already have started explorer and you need to connect to another system, use menu "Action" -> "Connect to
remote host". In the connection dialog you should specify the hostname and WMI name space**
(default is root\cimv2); optionally you may provide the login name and password.
Command line:
You may specify connection parameters in command line so that WMI Explorer connects to specified system right after
startup.
Format of the command line:
>wmiexplorer.exe [-host:<hostname>] [-namespace:<namespace>] [-user:<username>] [-pswd:<password>] [-query:<WQL query>]
Examples:
>wmiexplorer.exe "-host:primarywebserv" "-namespace:root\cimv2" "-user:admin" "-pswd:secret words"
>wmiexplorer.exe "-query: select * from Win32_Process"
**
Note: WMI namespace is a container grouping child objects related to one another in some way.
A namespace contains a hierarchy of classes and associations which define either a machine's object or the relationship
between two or more objects. The most commonly used namespace is CIMV2 (Common Information Model Version 2.)
See also: "Known problems"
System requirements
The following versions of Windows do have the WMI pre-installed:
- Windows Vista
- Windows 2003
- Windows 2000
- Windows XP
- Windows ME
These versions of Windows do not have the WMI pre-installed:
- Windows NT
- Windows 98
- Windows 95
The WMI Core software package for Windows 95, 98, and Windows NT 4.0 available at Microsoft's web site.
Please note: WMI CORE for Windows 95/98/NT requires Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5 or later.
Known problems
OS: Windows XP SP2
Problem: built-in firewall may block WMI requests from remote systems
In order to remotely administer a Windows XP SP2 machine using WMI, you will need to configure the built-in firewall.
If the Windows firewall is enabled and if it hasn't been configured to accept a WMI connection, WMI Explorer (and
LanAtlas) will not be able to connect to the system. In such case, LanAtlas shows "The RPC Server is unavailable"
error.
To configure Windows XP firewall to accept WMI connections, you need to enable the "Allow remote administration
exception" group policy entry. This setting can either be configured on the local group policy of a machine or
globally by configuring the global Group Policy settings of an Active Directory domain.
OS: Windows 95/98/NT
Problem: winmgmt.exe does not start automatically on such systems
If you want to monitor Windows 95/98/NT systems using WMI, you should install WMI Core
software package AND perform following steps:
- enable DICOM (set HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OLE\EnableDCOM to "Y")
- enable remote connections (set HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OLE\EnableRemoteConnect to "Y")
- set HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WBEM\CIMOM\AutoStartWin9x to 2
- add link to the Winmgmt.exe file into the Startup directory
OS: Windows 2000,XP,2003
Problem: WMI Explorer (and LanAtlas's WMI test) returns "Class ISWbemLocator is not registered" error
Windows 2000, XP, 2003 do have the WMI pre-installed. If application returns such error, most likely there is system registry problem.
The following article shows how to fix a corrupted WMI repository and how to register the WMI components:
Rebuilding the WMI Repository
Other useful links:
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