Managing Objects on a Network
Through the WMI ADSI Extension, WMI can integrate with Active Directory and Active Directory Services Interfaces (ADSI) to increase the ability of WMI to manage objects over a network.
Note For more information about support and installation of this component on a specific operating system, see Operating System Availability of WMI Components.
Active Directory is an operating system component that stores information on managed objects and provides that information to a user. Using Active Directory, a user can manage users, files, and other objects across an enterprise network. The primary interface for Active Directory is ADSI.
ADSI is a set of COM interfaces created by Microsoft that allow a developer to access multiple directory services in a unified manner. ADSI allows developers to access Active Directory, and they can also use ADSI to access other directory services, such as Novell NetWare 3.11 or Novell NetWare Directory Services (NDS). For example, an application using the same ADSI interface could access a Windows-based workstation on Active Directory or a corporate file server on NDS. While the strength of WMI is in providing control over the managed objects on a specific computer, the strength of ADSI and Active Directory is in providing general information across an entire network.
Using ADSI and Active Directory, a user can determine the location of a specific computer on a network. From there, the user can use the ADSI interface IWMIExtension to manage the computer with WMI. The IWMIExtension interface provides several ways through which to access WMI: