Namespaces are the XML-based mechanism that Microsoft Provisioning Framework (MPF) uses to link providers and procedures with MPF. Namespaces are used to group procedure calls.
Each namespace must be registered in the configuration database. Providers and the procedures used to implement the functionality of a provider must belong to a namespace.
Using Provisioning Manager or Configuration Database WMI Provider, you can configure the following namespace properties.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Namespace name | Identifies the name of the namespace. Modifying a namespace name can cause significant problems. If you must modify a namespace name, you should create a new namespace with the new name, then copy the XML and other namespace information (including permissions) from the old namespace. After you have followed these steps, you can delete the old namespace. |
| Provider source | Identifies the provider, if any, that the namespace calls. The identifier is the COM PROGID of the provider. |
| Description | Provides a brief description of the functionality provided by the namespace. |
| XML | Displays the procedures of a namespace that are registered with the configuration database. These procedures call a provider or another procedure, including procedures of other namespaces. You can modify a namespace's XML from Provisioning Manager, but this is not recommended. Instead, modify and test the XML outside of the production environment, then import it once testing is complete. |
| Security | Specifies who can execute all procedures of the namespace. By default, permissions propagate from the parent to the child. Adding or deleting a user in a namespace adds or deletes the user permissions in all procedures of the namespace unless you configure a procedure so that it does not propagate permissions. |
You can use Provisioning Manager’s Export option to export the XML of a namespace..
For more information about the properties of a namespace and the Export option Export option, see Maintaining and updating namespaces and procedures. For information on how a namespace works and how it is implemented in Microsoft Provisioning System, see How a namespace works and Namespace implementation in Microsoft Provisioning System. For more information on the providers and provider namespaces installed with MPF and the other providers and provider namespaces available in Microsoft Provisioning System, see Provider namespaces available in Microsoft Provisioning System. For more information on other namespaces available in Microsoft Provisioning System, see Non-provider namespaces available in Microsoft Provisioning System and Custom and other namespaces. For information on the requests, see Request architecture. For information on the procedures, see Procedure architecture. For information on providers, see Provider architecture. The Microsoft Provisioning Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) contains additional resources to help you implement procedures, requests, and namespaces. This included the complete XML schema for all elements and information on how to implement providers. For more information on the SDK and how to use it, see Microsoft Provisioning Framework SDK.