Using Provisioning Manager, you can create custom providers and namespaces to address your specific provisioning requirements. You can do the following:
Only registered namespaces are valid. After creating a custom namespace, you can register the namespace by using Provisioning Manager to import it, or you can register it by using the command-line utility.
If your provisioning requirements include functionality that is not supported by the standard providers included with Microsoft® Provisioning Framework (MPF), you can implement custom providers for MPF. You can write custom providers in Microsoft Visual C++®, Microsoft Visual Basic®, or another language.
For MPF to recognize a custom provider and its procedures, you must create a corresponding namespace XML file and then register it in the configuration database. The configuration database contains both namespace definitions for providers and run-time parameters for provisioning components.
The Microsoft Provisioning Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) and its documentation supports development of a custom provider and the associated namespace using one of the following methods:
Visual C++ and Visual Basic automatically generate a namespace file called ProjectName.xml that can be added to MPF.
Important
To develop a custom provider for MPF on a platform other than Visual C++ or Visual Basic, start by creating a Component Object Model (COM) object that defines and implements the interfaces and procedures required to run the provider in MPF. You can use the format described in the Microsoft Provisioning Framework SDK to manually create a namespace file for the provider.
After you create and test the XML of the namespace file, for MPF to recognize it, you must register it in the configuration database. Registration is automatic when you use Provisioning Manager to import the namespace. You can also use ProvNamespace.exe to register a namespace from the command line.
The Microsoft Provisioning Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) contains additional resources about developing namespaces and providers. For more information on the SDK and how to use it, see Microsoft Provisioning Framework SDK.
Not all namespaces require the development of a provider. Some namespaces implement the business logic that invokes the lower-level procedures required to call a provider. You create this type of namespace the same way you would a provider namespace; that is, by creating a namespace XML file and registering it in the configuration database.
For more information about adding and registering namespaces, see Managing Microsoft Provisioning Framework from the command line, Maintaining and updating namespaces and procedures, and Add namespaces.