WMI Providers

The WMI Providers provide management and inventory tools for managing the client systems. Without them, you can only use Patch Manager to interface with WSUS, and not directly with any managed clients. WMI Providers is enabled in Patch Manager by default.

Be sure to enable WMI-in and WMI-out on your managed workstations. If these settings are not enabled, you cannot access the system with WMI Providers enabled in Patch Manager.

The following table describes the additional tasks you can perform with the WMI Providers.

Without WMI Providers:	With WMI Providers:
Publish third-party updates to the WSUS server	Deploy updates on-demand using the Update Management and Update Management Wizard tasks
Perform all WSUS administrative functions	Conduct a Managed Computer Inventory for detailed information about managed clients
Conduct a WSUS Inventory for details about your WSUS servers	Perform configuration management tasks, such as: Shutdown or Reboot Refresh Group Policy Client Certificate Management
Conduct a WSUS Extended Inventory to access a basic collection of system-level inventory data	Use Computer Explorer to browse computer details and launch configuration management tasks

Disable WMI Providers in your management group

1. In the Patch Manager console menu, expand Patch Manager System Configuration > Management Groups.

2. Select the management group to which you want to deploy the WMI Providers.

   For example, the default group is Managed Enterprise.

   

3. In the Managed Enterprise pane, click the Settings tab.

   

   If you cannot see all of the tabs in your console view, click the right-arrow on the tab bar to scroll to the tab you need to see.

4. Under Setting Name, double-click Automatically provision SolarWinds WMI Providers.

   

5. Select Disabled, and click OK.

   The WMI Providers option is disabled.