Monitoring data from Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

Define a data source to collect data from Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

1. On the Agent Initial Data Source page (Figure 1) or the Data Source Location page, click Data from a server in the Monitoring Data Categories area.
   Figure 1. Adding WMI data

   
2. In the Data Sources area, click WMI.
3. Click Next.
4. On the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Information page (Figure 2), do one of the following steps:
   Figure 2. WMI Information page

   
   • Type a name for the WMI namespace and a name for the WMI class name in the fields. Now go to step 9
   • Click Browse to see all of the WMI classes on the system (Figure 3).

     To browse a remote system, select a system from the list (if one is defined). Alternatively click Add to add the host name of a Windows system. Provide the credentials of a user account with permissions to access WMI data on the remote system, or provide Administrator credentials for the remote system. The page is updated with the information for the remote system. Browsing is only available when the Agent Builder is run on a Windows system, and can browse Windows systems only. For instance, you cannot add the host name of a Linux or Solaris system to do a remote browse.

     Figure 3. List of classes with their associated attributes

     
5. Click the plus sign (+) next to a class to expand the class and show the attributes.
6. From the list, select the class with its associated attributes that you want to specify, and click OK.
   Note: You can click the Search (binoculars) icon to find your selection in the list. Type a phrase in the Search phrase field; specify your preference by clicking either the Search by name, Search by class description, or Search by class properties fields; and click OK (Figure 4). If you find the item for which you are searching, select it and click OK.
   Figure 4. Optionally specifying WMI search options

   
   The WMI Information page of the wizard opens again, showing the selected WMI class information (Figure 5).
   Figure 5. WMI Information page completed

   
7. Optional: You can test this attribute group by clicking Test. For more information about testing, see Testing WMI attribute groups
8. Optional: You can create a filter to limit the data that is returned by this attribute group by clicking Advanced. For more information about filtering data from an attribute group, see Filtering attribute groups
9. Click Next.
   Note: If you typed the WMI Namespace and WMI class name manually you are brought to the Attribute Information page, where you can complete attribute information. On the Attribute Information page, you can select Add additional attributes if you want to add more attributes. Click Finish to complete.
10. On the Select key attributes page, select key attributes or indicate that this data source produces only one data row. For more information, see (Selecting key attributes).
11. Do one of the following steps:
    • If you are using the New Agent wizard, click Next.
    • Click Finish to save the data source and open the Agent Editor.
      Figure 6. WMI shown on Data Source Definition page in the Agent Editor

      
12. You can add attributes and supply the information for them. For more information, see (Creating attributes).
    In addition to fields that are applicable to all data sources (Table 1), the Attribute Information page for the WMI data source has the following field:

    Metric name

    Property name from the class you want to collect

13. If you want to set global options for the data source, click Global Options (Figure 7).
    Figure 7. Global Windows Data Source Options window

    

    Select the Include remote Windows configuration properties check box if you want to include this option, and click OK.

    For information about Windows remote connection configuration for Windows data sources, see (Configuring a Windows remote connection).