You can add and configure a user on a Windows system with permissions to allow
WMI browsing.
About this task
If your agent collects data from a remote system by using Windows Management Instrumentation
(WMI), it requires permissions to access WMI data on the remote system.
The agent can access WMI data on a remote system when you provide
credentials of an account with permissions to access WMI data on the
system. The procedure applies to Windows 7, Windows 2008 Server and Windows Vista.
Note: Your agent
can also access data on a remote Windows system
by using Windows Performance
Monitor (Perfmon), and Windows Event
Log data sources. However, in the case of Windows Performance Monitor (Perfmon), and Windows Event Log data sources,
you must provide Administrator credentials for the remote system.
Procedure
- Create a user account:
- Go to Windows . The Computer Management window
opens.
- Expand Local Users and Groups.
- Right-click the Users folder
and select New User.
- Complete the user details and click Create and Close.
- Configure the group membership for the new user account:
- In the Computer Management window,
select the Users folder.
- Right-click the new user account and select Properties.
- Click the Member Of tab.
- Click Add.
- Click Advanced.
- Click Find Now.
- Select the following groups:
- Distributed COM Users
- Performance Log Users
- Remote Desktop Users
Tip: Press Ctrl and click to select multiple groups.
- Click OK until you return
to the Computer Management window.
- Select to exit the Computer Management window.
- Assign Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) rights:
- Go to Windows . The Component Services window
opens.
- Expand .
- Right-click My Computer and
select Properties. The My Computer Properties window opens.
- Click the COM security tab.
- In the Access Permissions area,
click Edit Limits
- In Distributed COM Users,
verify that Local Access and Remote Access are selected.
- Click OK to save settings.
- In the My Computer Properties window, Launch and Activation Permissions area,
click Edit Limits
- In Distributed COM Users,
verify that Local Launch, Remote Launch, Local
Activation, and Remote Activation are
selected.
- Click OK to save settings
and click OK again to close
the My Computer Properties window.
- Select to exit the Component Services window.
- Configure the WMI namespace security assignments
- Go to Windows .
- Enter wmimgmt.msc and click OK.
- Right-click WMI Control (Local) and
select Properties.
- Click the Security tab.
- Click Security.
- Click Add.
- Click Advanced.
- Click Find Now.
- Select the new user account, and click OK until
you return to the Security for Root window.
- Click Advanced and select
the newly added user account.
- Click Edit.
- From the Apply to: menu
selection, select This namespace and subnamespaces.
- In Execute Methods, verify
that Enable Account, Remote Enable, and Read
Security are selected.
- Click OK until you return
to the wmimgmt window.
- Select to exit the wmimgmt window.
What to do next
For more information about collecting WMI data from a
remote system, see Monitoring data from Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).