WMI Health Status Test

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a set of specifications from Microsoft for consolidating the management of devices and applications in a network from Windows computing systems. It runs as a service with the display name "Windows Management Instrumentation" and the service name "winmgmt".

WMI is also one of the mechanisms the eG agent uses to remotely access and monitor the health of Windows servers and Windows-based applications. If the WMI service is down or is corrupt, eG will not be able to run WMI scripts on the target Windows host/application and will hence not be able to collect performance statistics. Sometimes, the WMI service may be up and running, but the WMI script may not run for some reason. From a monitoring stand-point therefore, if eG is unable to pull metrics from a target Windows host, administrators may want to know the root-cause of the failure – is it because the WMI service is not running? or is it because the WMI script failed? This is exactly what the WMI Health Status test reveals!

The test emulates a WMI script execution on a target Windows host, and in the process, checks the status of the WMI service and of the script execution. This way, the test points eG users to the real reason why the eG agent was unable to pull metrics from a Windows target – is it the non-availability of the WMI service? Or is it the failure of the script?

This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick the desired Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose the test from the DISABLED TESTS list, and click on the << button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : A Windows host

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Windows host being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Script execution availability	Indicates whether the script execution succeeded or failed.	Percent	If the value of this measure is 100, it implies that the script executed successfully. If this measure reports the value 0, it implies that the script execution failed.
WMI service availability	Indicates whether/not the WMI service is up and running.	Percent	If the value of this measure is 100, it implies that the WMI service is up and running on the host. If this measure reports the value 0, it implies that the WMI service is down.