System Center 2012 Configuration Manager hardware
inventory reads information about devices by using Windows
Management Instrumentation (WMI). WMI is the Microsoft
implementation of web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM), which is
an industry standard for accessing management information in an
enterprise environment. In previous versions of Configuration
Manager, you could extend hardware inventory by modifying the file
sms_def.mof on the site server. This file contained a list of WMI
classes that could be read by Configuration Manager hardware
inventory. If you edited this file, you could enable and disable
existing classes, and also create new classes to inventory.
The Configuration.mof file is used to define the data classes to
be inventoried by hardware inventory on the client and is unchanged
from Configuration Manager 2007. You can create data classes to
inventory existing or custom WMI repository data classes or
registry keys present on client systems.
The Configuration.mof file also defines and registers the WMI
providers that access device information during hardware inventory.
Registering providers defines the type of provider to be used and
the classes that the provider supports.
When Configuration Manager clients request policy, for example,
during their standard client policy polling interval, the
Configuration.mof is attached to the policy body. This file is then
downloaded and compiled by clients. When you add, modify, or delete
data classes from the Configuration.mof file, clients automatically
compile these changes that are made to inventory-related data
classes. No further action is necessary to inventory new or
modified data classes on Configuration Manager clients.
In System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, you
no longer edit the sms_def.mof file as you did in Configuration
Manager 2007. Instead, you can enable and disable WMI classes, and
add new classes to collect by hardware inventory by using client
settings. Configuration Manager provides the following methods to
extend hardware inventory.
| Method |
More information |
|
Enable or disable existing inventory classes
|
You can enable or disable the default inventory classes used by
Configuration Manager or you can create custom client settings that
allow you to collect different hardware inventory classes from
specified collections of clients. For more information, see the
To enable or disable existing inventory
classes procedure in this topic.
|
|
Add a new inventory class
|
You can add a new inventory class from the WMI namespace of
another device. For more information, see the To add a new inventory class procedure in this
topic.
|
|
Import and export hardware inventory classes
|
You can import and export Managed Object Format (MOF) files that
contain inventory classes from the Configuration Manager console.
For more information, see the To import
hardware inventory classes and To export
hardware inventory classes procedures in this topic.
|
|
Create NOIDMIF Files
|
Use NOIDMIF files to collect information about client devices
that cannot be inventoried by Configuration Manager. For example,
you might want to collect device asset number information that
exists only as a label on the device. NOIDMIF inventory is
automatically associated with the client device that it was
collected from. For more information, see To create NOIDMIF files in this topic.
|
|
Create IDMIF Files
|
Use IDMIF files to collect information about assets in your
organization that are not associated with a Configuration Manager
client, for example, projectors, photocopiers and network printers.
For more information, see To create IDMIF
files in this topic.
|
Procedures to Extend Hardware
Inventory
Use the following procedures to extend hardware
inventory, as described in the preceding table.
These procedures help you to configure the default
client settings for hardware inventory and they apply to all the
clients in your hierarchy. If you want these settings to apply to
only some clients, create a custom client device setting and assign
it to a collection that contains the devices that you want to
inventory. For more information about how to create custom client
settings, see How to Configure Client
Settings in Configuration Manager.
To enable or disable existing
inventory classes
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click
Administration.
-
In the Administration workspace, click Client
Settings.
-
Click Default Client Settings.
-
On the Home tab, in the Properties group,
click Properties.
-
In the Default Client Settings dialog box, click
Hardware Inventory.
-
In the Device Settings list, click Set
Classes.
-
In the Hardware Inventory Classes dialog box,
select or clear the classes and class properties to be collected by
hardware inventory. You can expand classes to select or clear
individual properties within that class. Use the Search for
inventory classes field to search for individual classes.
 Important |
| When you add new classes to Configuration Manager hardware
inventory, the size of the inventory file that is collected and
sent to the site server will increase. This might negatively affect
the performance of your network and Configuration Manager site.
Enable only the inventory classes that you want to collect. |
-
Click OK to save your changes and close the
Hardware Inventory Classes dialog box.
To add a new inventory class
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click
Administration.
| Important |
| You can only add inventory classes from the top level server in
the hierarchy and by modifying the default client settings. This
option is not available when you create custom device
settings. |
-
In the Administration workspace, click Client
Settings.
-
Click Default Client Settings.
-
On the Home tab, in the Properties group,
click Properties.
-
In the Default Client Settings dialog box, click
Hardware Inventory.
-
In the Device Settings list, click Set
Classes.
-
In the Hardware Inventory Classes dialog box,
click Add.
-
In the Add Hardware Inventory Class dialog box,
click Connect.
-
In the Connect to Windows Management Instrumentation
(WMI) dialog box, specify the name of the computer from which
you will retrieve the WMI classes and the WMI namespace to use for
retrieving the classes. If you want to retrieve all classes below
the WMI namespace that you specified, click Recursive. If
the computer you are connecting to is not the local computer,
supply login credentials for an account that has permission to
access WMI on the remote computer.
-
Click Connect.
-
In the Add Hardware Inventory Class dialog box,
in the Inventory classes list, select the WMI classes that
you want to add to System Center 2012
Configuration Manager hardware inventory.
-
If you want to edit information about the selected WMI
class, click Edit, and in the Class qualifiers dialog
box, provide the following information:
- Display name – Specify a friendly name
for the class that will be displayed in Resource Explorer.
- Properties – Specify the units in
which each property of the WMI class will be displayed.
You can also designate properties as a key property to
help uniquely identify each instance of the class. If no key is
defined for the class and multiple instances of the class are
reported from the client, only the latest instance that is found is
stored in the database.
When you have finished configuring the properties,
click OK to close the Class qualifiers dialog
box.
-
Click OK to close the Add Hardware Inventory
Class dialog box.
-
Click OK to close the Hardware Inventory
Classes dialog box.
-
Click OK to close the Default Client
Settings dialog box.
To import hardware inventory
classes
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click
Administration.
-
In the Administration workspace, click Client
Settings.
-
Click Default Client Settings.
| Important |
| You can only import inventory classes when you modify the
default client settings. However, you can use custom client
settings to import information that does not contain a schema
change, such as changing the property of an existing class from
True to False. |
-
On the Home tab, in the Properties group,
click Properties.
-
In the Default Client Settings dialog box, click
Hardware Inventory.
-
In the Device Settings list, click Set
Classes.
-
In the Hardware Inventory Classes dialog box,
click Import.
-
In the Import dialog box, select the Managed
Object Format (MOF) file that you want to import, and then click
OK.
-
In the Import Summary dialog box, review the
items that will be imported, and then click Import.
To export hardware inventory
classes
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click
Administration.
-
In the Administration workspace, click Client
Settings.
-
Click Default Client Settings.
-
On the Home tab, in the Properties group,
click Properties.
-
In the Default Client Settings dialog box, click
Hardware Inventory.
-
In the Device Settings list, click Set
Classes.
-
In the Hardware Inventory Classes dialog box,
click Export.
 Note |
| When you export classes, all currently selected classes will be
exported. |
-
In the Export dialog box, specify the Managed
Object Format (MOF) file that you want to export the classes to,
and then click Save.
How to Use Management Information Files
(MIF Files) to Extend Hardware Inventory
Use Management Information Format (MIF) files to extend
hardware inventory information collected from clients by
Configuration Manager. During hardware inventory, the information
stored in MIF files is added to the client inventory report and
stored in the site database, where you can use the data in the same
ways that you use default client inventory data. There are two
types of MIF files, NOIDMIF and IDMIF.
To
create NOIDMIF files
NOIDMIF files can be used to add information to a
client hardware inventory that cannot normally be collected by
Configuration Manager and is associated with a particular client
device. For example, many companies label each computer in the
organization with an asset number and then catalogue these by hand.
When you create a NOIDMIF file, this information can be added to
the Configuration Manager database and be used for queries and
reporting. For information about creating NOIDMIF files, see the
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SDK
documentation.
| Important |
| When you create a NOIDMIF file, this must be saved in an ANSI
encoded format. NOIDMIF files saved in UTF-8 encoded format cannot
be read by Configuration Manager. |
After you create a NOIDMIF file, store this in the
folder %Windir%\System32\CCM\Inventory\Noidmifs
folder on each client. Configuration Manager will collect
information from NODMIF files in this folder during the next
scheduled hardware inventory cycle.
To
create IDMIF files
IDMIF files can be used to add information about assets
to the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
database that could not normally be inventoried by
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and is not
associated with a particular client device. For example, you could
use IDMIFS to collect information about projectors, DVD players,
photocopiers, or other equipment that does not contain a
Configuration Manager client. For information about creating IDMIF
files, see the System Center 2012
Configuration Manager SDK documentation.
After you create an IDMIF file, store this in the
folder %Windir%\System32\CCM\Inventory\Idmifs folder
on client computers. Configuration Manager will collect information
from this file during the next scheduled hardware inventory cycle.
You must declare new classes for information contained in the file
by adding or importing them. For more information, see How to Extend Hardware
Inventory in Configuration Manager.
See Also
