Appendix C: SMS Provider WMI Schema Reference

Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to manage its objects. Any managed object, such as a disk drive or a collection of computers, can be represented by an instance of an SMS class. SMS also includes classes that represent SMS features, such as software distribution. Collectively, these SMS classes are known as the SMS Provider WMI schema.

SMS 2003 uses a Microsoft SQL Server database to store managed object data. Both SQL Server and WMI can be used to view SMS managed data. A new query created in the Queries or Collections node of the SMS Administrator console, uses a WMI Query Language (WQL) query to request the SMS object data from the SMS Provider WMI Schema, which in turn retrieves the data from the site database. When creating a custom SMS report, SQL queries are used to retrieve the SMS object data from the site database.

The SQL table is equivalent to the associated WMI class, and a row within the SQL table is the equivalent of a WMI instance. The following example queries show the relationship between the System_DATA SQL table and the associated SMS_G_System_SYSTEM WMI class.

SQL Query

SELECT MachineID, Name0, Domain0, SystemRole0

FROM System_DATA 

This query returns the following rows.

WQL Query

SELECT ResourceID, Name, Domain, SystemRole

FROM SMS_G_System_SYSTEM

This query returns the following rows.

Related Links

• SMS WMI Namespaces and Classes
• SMS 2003 SQL Server View Schema
• SMS SQL Server Views