When a VM appears to be properly configured for guest OS scans, but consistently fails to provide guest details back to Snow Software® Commander®, you can confirm whether or not Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)is functioning correctly on the VM.

Microsoft provides a utility to diagnose WMI issues. This tool runs various tests against the WMI repository when run on a Windows-based virtual machine locally, and creates three log files with the results in the temporary directory (%Temp%) of the executing user. The names of the files contain the Windows machine name and the date and time when the script was executed, so will vary slightly from the examples below:

• WMIDIAG-V2.0_2003_.SRV.RTM.32_W2K3-001_2013.04.09_17.38.21.LOG
• WMIDIAG-V2.0_2003_.SRV.RTM.32_W2K3-001_2013.04.09_17.38.21-REPORT.TXT
• WMIDIAG-V2.0_2003_.SRV.RTM.32_W2K3-001_2013.04.09_17.38.21-STATISTICS.CSV

The log file is fairly easy to interpret as it is presented in plain language. Generally, you want to search the log file for all  WARNING and ERROR lines. Doing so will often bring you quickly to a solution. For example, the following lines will appear if DCOM is disabled on the VM:

..313 10:24:36 (0) ** Verifying DCOM configuration.
..314 10:24:36 (4) Reading registry (REG_SZ) 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Ole\EnableDCOM'.
..315 10:24:36 (1) !! ERROR: DCOM is DISABLED.

For complete information about using the WMI Diagnosis Utility, refer to the vendor documentation.

If you require assistance interpreting the results, please send an email to technical support, attaching the three files.