Developing WMI Solutions: A Guide to Windows Management Instrumentation

Chapter 4. A Guided Tour of the Common Information Model Repository

Before we take a hands-on look at Microsoft's implementation of the Common Information Model (CIM) repository, let us first examine its structure as defined by the DMTF. In the previous chapters, you have gleaned an idea of the structure and purpose of the CIM. In simple terms, it consists of the following four components:

• Classes that define the structure of the information held in the store

• Associations that define the relationships between elements in the repository

• Methods that define the behavior of the managed objects

• Properties that define individual characteristics of each managed object

Each of these components can have associated instances that hold the management data. They ...