How do you query for WMI namespaces?

Question

How do you query for WMI namespaces?

So I know about WMI namespaces because I read that they exits and I know I can connect to say:

root\cimv2

My question is what if I didn't know what namespaces were there, how would I go about querying for the available namespaces?

I just sort of want to go exploring the WMI and not have to look up each namespace.

I'm using WBEMtest, but I'll take anything, .NET, winapi.h, what have you.

Answer 1

To enumerate all the namespaces, you must first connect to the root namespace, query for all the __NAMESPACE instances, and for each instance recursively repeat this process.

check these samples

Delphi

procedure  GetListWMINameSpaces(const RootNameSpace:String;const List :TStrings;ReportException:Boolean=True);//recursive function
var
  objSWbemLocator : OleVariant;
  objWMIService   : OleVariant;
  colItems        : OLEVariant;
  colItem         : OLEVariant;
  oEnum           : IEnumvariant;
  iValue          : LongWord;
  sValue          : string;
begin
 try
  objSWbemLocator := CreateOleObject('WbemScripting.SWbemLocator');
  objWMIService   := objSWbemLocator.ConnectServer(wbemLocalhost, RootNameSpace, '', '');
  colItems        := objWMIService.InstancesOf('__NAMESPACE');
  oEnum           := IUnknown(colItems._NewEnum) as IEnumVariant;
  while oEnum.Next(1, colItem, iValue) = 0 do
  begin
    sValue:=VarStrNull(colItem.Name);
    colItem:=Unassigned;
    List.Add(RootNameSpace+'\'+sValue);
    GetListWMINameSpaces(RootNameSpace+'\'+sValue,List);//recursive
  end;
 except
     if ReportException then
     raise;
 end;
end;

VbScript

strComputer = "."
Call EnumNameSpaces("root")

Sub EnumNameSpaces(strNameSpace)
    WScript.Echo strNameSpace
    Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & _
        "\" & strNameSpace)
    Set colNameSpaces = objWMIService.InstancesOf("__NAMESPACE")
    For Each objNameSpace In colNameSpaces
        Call EnumNameSpaces(strNameSpace & "\" & objNameSpace.Name)
    Next
End Sub

Answer 2

I understand that you got your answer but wanted to show how easy it is in PowerShell to get a list of namespaces:

Get-WMIObject -namespace "root" -class "__Namespace" | Select Name

Answer 3

To list all the namespace Name property values for all (root) namespaces for a server named server in C# (in LINQPad):

ManagementClass nsClass =
    new ManagementClass(
        new ManagementScope(@"\\server\root"),
        new ManagementPath("__namespace"),
        null);

foreach(ManagementObject ns in nsClass.GetInstances())
{
    ns["Name"].Dump();
}

Note that the Dump method just outputs a value; if you're not using LINQPad you'd want to do something else with the Name property value.

Answer 4

For Python (with the requisite WMI and pyWin32 extensions installed):

import wmi
c = wmi.WMI (moniker='//./root')
wql = "SELECT * FROM __NAMESPACE"

for __NAMESPACE in c.query(wql):
    print __NAMESPACE.Name

Answer 5

Use Get-CimInstance -Query "SELECT * FROM __NAMESPACE" -Namespace "root" from powershell.

This also works for Windows Nano Server

Answer 6

You can use VBScript to get all Namespaces from root.

Here is the sample script

On Error Resume Next
strComputer = "." 
Wscript.Echo "-----------------------------------"
Wscript.Echo "Namespaces"
Wscript.Echo "-----------------------------------"
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root") 
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery( _
    "SELECT * FROM __NAMESPACE",,48) 
For Each objItem in colItems 
    Wscript.Echo "Name: " & objItem.Name
Next

Expected output

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

-----------------------------------
Namespaces
-----------------------------------
Name: subscription
Name: DEFAULT
Name: MicrosoftWmiNet
Name: CIMV2
Name: Cli
Name: nap
Name: MicrosoftIISv2
Name: SECURITY
Name: SecurityCenter2
Name: RSOP
Name: WebAdministration
Name: WMI
Name: OpenHardwareMonitor
Name: directory
Name: Policy
Name: Interop
Name: ServiceModel
Name: SecurityCenter
Name: Microsoft
Name: aspnet