Overview

In NMIS version 8.6.0 we've added support for collecting data from Windows systems using the Windows Management Instrumentation infrastructure (or short WMI).
This this page describes how to approach modelling devices for WMI, and where WMI modelling differs from modelling for SNMP.

Prerequisites

Tools

To collect WMI data NMIS has to use a WMI access tool. At of 8.6.0 we are using wmic, a commandline tool belonging to the Samba software suite.
NMIS 8.6.0 ships with a precompiled wmic program, and installs it as /usr/local/nmis8/bin/wmic. If the precompiled version should not work on your platform, the installer will notify you of that problem and you'll have to perform a manual build of wmic. The sources for wmic can be downloaded here: http://dl-nmis.opmantek.com/wmic-omk.tgz and you shouldn't have to do more than unpack that, and run make. When the build is complete, you should copy the resulting  wmic file to /usr/local/nmis8/bin/.

WMI Access

On the target systems, the WMI service must be running and the network (and any firewalls) must be configured to let WMI accesses pass. WMI accesses are generally negotiated to use dynamic ports (following up on an initial conversation on TCP port 135), but Microsoft provides instructions on how to setup fixed ports for WMI.

Node Configuration

NMIS does not attempt WMI accesses unless the node in question is configured with both a wmiusername and a wmipassword property. This can be done in the GUI, under "Edit Node'; the  WMI options are shown prominently near the top of the page.

If the node in question requires a domain prefix for the WMI access, prepend that to the wmiusername followed by a "/", e.g. "somedomain/theuser".

Modelling Preparation

We recommend that you verify the availability of WMI (and your credentials) with wmic, before performing any modelling work. This should be done using the wmic tool on your NMIS server, like in the following example:

Modelling of Devices with both WMI and SNMP support

both data source types can be used concurrently and in parallel in a single model, but see limitations below

Modelling Limitations

that for systemhealth stuff, BOTH sys and rrd sections must include indexed => actual field name, not just 'true'

that one systemhealth section can only have snmp or wmi, because one index governs the whole section

inefficiencies, queries are not rewritten to select only specific fields

inefficiencies, queries are also not rewritten when an indexed table row is fetched, so the whole table will be refetched