WMI Architecture

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) allows management applications, such as a script, to get or set information about a computer’s resources. Computer resources include the Windows OS services, utilities, performance counters, event logs, physical (such as the disk drive) and logical (such as the disk volume) hardware, and applications.

The key architectural components of WMI (enclosed in the dashed box) are WMI providers, the Common Information Model (CIM) Object Manager (CIMOM), and the CIM repository.

WMI providers (bottom). Similar to hardware device drivers, providers communicate with and monitor physical and logical computer components, such as Windows OS services and utilities, hardware (such as hard drives), network interface cards, and applications.

CIMOM. The CIMOM manages communication between WMI providers, the CIM repository, and management applications by registering which providers are available and the capabilities they expose, routing information requests to the appropriate provider, processing queries for information written in a SQL-like WMI Query Language (WQL), validating security, and providing the necessary infrastructure for event monitoring.