Maybe a little addition.

If you query your WMI from within a powershell on Windows 2008R2, you maybe get a Class not Found error. Remember that PRTG uses the 32-bit powershell as default.

Execute your powershell script in powershell 32-bit, receive the same error? Execute your powershell script in powershell 64-bit, error resolved? Than execute your script in a 64-bit powershell by calling it from a commandline in your 32-bit script.

start.ps1 <- the 32-bit, notice the sysnative folder.... c:\windows\sysnative\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe -file "C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\Custom Sensors\EXE\<script>.ps1"

main.ps1 your working 64-bit WMI script.....

Nice thing to know is that you still can use arguments...

Bye, Peter

People, hello.

I can't really understand what prevented you from developing something like "WMI proxy" which will run as a service on remote machine and execute all the WMI queries - there won't be any overloads, permission issues, flickering issues and so on...

we want to avoid the need to install and maintain extra software on the hosts you monitor.

@Vadim Doroginin: Actually we did develop such a service. It's called "Remote Probe" and can be installed on one, or a few, or all your machines in your network. But it's a lot of work to install a software on all machines in a network and in most cases it is not necessary.

A huge majority of PRTG users is using WMI just fine to monitor their networks with hundreds or even thousands of Windows PCs.

And for those who do have problems with WMI there is the option to install Remote Probes.

Windows Server 2008 & 2008 R2 WMI Defects

Paessler: please consider making the relevant information below part of the body of your KB article. I hope it helps someone else.

A while back I started closely monitoring the WMI service on the various servers that often false alarm during WMI overload. Most often, the free space check would fail returning a null or zero value instead of the correct value for free disk space. To troubleshoot, I added the PRTG WMI service monitor for the WMI Service itself with a 60 second interval. I also monitored the system and application event logs with 15 minute intervals. It helped to get more specific errors about what was going on with WMI. Most often I'd get one of these errors in succession:

1. WMI Free Disk Space [Multi Drive]: 0 % (Free Space C:) is below the error limit of 10 %
2. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI Service) Warning: 80041006: There was not enough memory for the operation.
3. Event Log (Windows API) Value changed: Faulting application wmiprvse.exe, version 6.1.7600.16385, faulting module 4a5bc794, version ole32.dll, fault address 0x6.1.7600.16624

Armed with this new information, I was able to find two Microsoft KB articles that seemed to match the symptoms:

• 958124 A wmiprvse.exe process may leak memory when a WMI notification query is used heavily on a Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Vista-based computer

• 954563 Memory corruption may occur with the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista Service Pack 1

Applying these two hotfixes stopped the false alarms on my Windows 2008 and 2008 R2 servers.

Dear Ismael,

great finding, thanks a lot for this!

I've added your solution to our Most common WMI errors article.

Best regards,

- Volker

To have WMI to work on 2k3 with firewall, I've opened port 1091 TCP.

Here's the DEBUG solution we've used to see this :

- start windows firewall logging and check the logs for dropped connections Go to the Windows Firewall, Advanced settings Security Log group-box -> Click on Parameters button Select "Log dropped packets" Look at the log file location (if not present define one) Click OK

You can now press 'Windows + R' and then type '%WINDIR%\pfirewall.log' to see what's wrong.

Vincent

If WMITest shows Error 800706BA: In Windows Firewall enable port TCP 1091 and TCP 56301

If WMITest show Error 8007005 for Windows Pro with firewall off : Disable simpe file sharing. Method 1: Explorer -> Tools -> Folder options -> Display -> Simple file sharing

Method 2 : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa Set 'forceguest' to 0

Hi,

a great thanks to ERIC Drezet from CNRS who give me a simple working solution.

It works for Windows XP : Netsh firewall set service remoteadmin enable

For Windows 7, we must have a closer look because netsh firewall [...] has been replaced by netsh advfirewall [...]

it should be something like (don't work for me): NETSH advfirewall firewall SET rule group="remote administration" new enable=yes

but this command seems to works (even if depreciated) : netsh firewall set service type=remoteadmin mode=enable

CAUTION : it seems that UAC will block these commands to work.

80070005: Access is denied SOLVED

Hello,

Just delete the device and "add" it again to your prtg monitor Group. Do an automatic discovering and it will work fine again. Try it.

Bye

Hey everyone.. I had been struggling for ages with a server that just suddenly stopped responding to WMI. Throwing a mixture of PE015, 80041002 (Object Not Found).

I tried everything across all the WMI threads on here and had no luck.

I found a guy online talking about general WMI errors, and I followed through some of the steps he had posted and boom! Working WMI sensors.

It boiled down to rebuilding WMI on the target server.

I've written up my process here: http://craigerrington.com/blog/prtg-wmi-repair-80041002/

@CraigE: Thanks for sharing your findings!

The prtg kb has been a godsend and so far solved any issues I encountered, namely WMI sensor issues that may relate back to the probe dependencies not being met. Thank you.

Please, update this article to not recommend adding the PRTG service account to the DOMAIN ADMINS. It's 2016, such blatant insecurity is not an acceptable solution to this problem!

We have the same doubts as you have about using domain admin credentials for WMI Montioring. However, it's the most reliable option for all WMI / Performance Counters that the sensors monitor. Bear in mind, we do not define the necessary permissions / privileges to access those counters. That's done by Microsoft and potentially the Windows Admins in an organization. PRTG can only adapt to it.

@PRTG, is it true, that WMI does not work over a NATed network?

We recommend actually to use Remote Probes in a NAT-scenario. Place a Probe into the subnet and configure it to connect back to the PRTG Core Server. That usually also resolves any administrational struggles then when alerts happen, to see in which actual subnet they happen.

I have been breaking my head on this one, WMI is working on my servers, but on some servers, the Free Disk Space (Multi Drive) sensor can't seem to get out of an error state (unexpected result). SNMP free disk space works in these cases. I tried to use Free Disk Space (Multi Drive) sensor per drive, and it appeared that only some drives fail.

Solution: be sure the account you use for logging in with WMI has some read rights to the drive. For security, root-only Read-only is enough.

I'm having a nightmare getting the WMI sensors to work on Windows Server 2016.

I've meticulously followed the guides and troubleshooting steps, set permissions in DCOM, WMI, ensured the services are running, allowed WMI through the Windows Firewall (even though the firewalls are set to off) and ensured PRTG is using the right credentials.

I was getting an error PE015 but now they just show as Down. I've run the WMI Tester utility from my PRTG server and directed it at my target system with the same credentials configured in the PRTG sensor, and the WMI Tester successfully pulls WMI data. The sensor stubbornly does not.

I've rebooted both host and PRTG server, checked and double-checked but no dice.

Is there any additional checks I can do, logs I can review or steps I can attempt?

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Hey scuk07,
Thanks for your KB-posting.

Please open a new support ticket, using the ticket number PAE969863, and forward us a complete support bundle for analysis.

Also, please create and forward us Probe State Files from the affected probe device (local probe or remote probe).

Thank you very much in advance.

Best regards,
Sven

please add the topic: User Account Control and WMI https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/windows/win32/wmisdk/user-account-control-and-wmi?redirectedfrom=MSDN

I had trouble with Remote-WMI on Windows 10/1903. I got an Access denied from the Win10-machine. Creating a local administration-user did not work. I found a solution here:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38859777/windows-10-wmic-wmi-remote-access-denied-with-local-administrator

Windows PowerShell

PS C:\Windows\system32> get-service winrm

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Stopped  winrm              Windows-Remoteverwaltung (WS-Verwal...


PS C:\Windows\system32> enable-PSRemoting -force
WinRM wurde aktualisiert, um Anforderungen zu empfangen.
Der WinRM-Diensttyp wurde erfolgreich geändert.
Der WinRM-Dienst wurde gestartet.

WinRM wurde für die Remoteverwaltung aktualisiert.
Die WinRM-Firewallausnahme ist aktiviert.
"LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy" wurde so konfiguriert, dass lokalen Benutzern remote Administratorrechte gewährt werden.

if i recall correctly, in a situation where you have older windows installs on a lan with no CD or name service, you will need to either disable UAC on clients or alternatively setup specific trust relations in WMI by way of scripting

WMI Service Sensor (for Windows Service Monitoring via WMI) will only work on some of our servers. On the rest, the "80041003: The current users does not have permission to perform the action" message appears, when the PRTG WMI Service Sensor attempts to activate via the PRTG web interface. Does anyone know which "permission" this error may be referring to and/or have any additional guidance for what to check? We have multiple servers that are configured the same and WMI Service Sensor DOES work. Curiously enough, WMI Disk, WMI CPU and WMI Memory all work. That suggests that our WMI is functional. What are the additional requirements of WMI Service Sensor beyond what WMI CPU, WMI Memory and WMY Disk require? Thanks!

To add to this, the Windows built-in "administrator" account does allow WMI Service Sensor to activate and function. We of course cannot use this account for PRTG purposes. How can a a local Windows account that 100% mirrors "administrator" be created? Manually creating a local account that has all of the required group memberships and WMI settings associated with it did not work.

Hello,

as the necessary rights are not well documented by Microsoft, we can only recommend to use an administrator user here.

As alternative, you could enable the SNMP service and allow remote SNMP access, and then use the SNMP Windows Service sensor.

Arne - Please elaborate. The local Windows built-in "administrator" account will enable PRTG WMI Service Sensor to function but if I create a local Windows account that is a member of "administrators" group, PRTG WMI Service Sensor fails to function. How do I create a Windows local administrator account that will work? Thanks in advance for your guidance!

Hello TheWMIMaverick,

this would be a question for Microsoft. PRTG creates a WMI connection using the credentials provided to PRTG, Windows then determines if those are accepted or not.

Details about what exactly does work and what does not work seem to change with different Windows versions, or with Windows settings. If we had more details, we would share those.

This worked for me:

Start > Run > wmimgmt.msc ENTER Right Click on WMI Control (Local) Under General Tap you might see issues as follow:

[===========================================================]
"Failed to initialize all required WMI classes."
Win32_Processor: WMI: Invalid class
Win32_WMISetting: WMI: Invalid class
Security information: Successful
Win32_OperatingSystem: WMI Invalid class
[===========================================================]

Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\wbem\ to rename folder Repository. The system will recreate it.

This should fix most WMI issues.

Let me know how it goes!!

I find it absolutely irresponsible to give the PRTG probe user local-admin privileges or even domain-admin privileges. In time of Zero Trust you should give the users as few rights as possible (#leastprivilege).

What I did and what worked:

• wmimgmt.msc
• WMI Control (local) -> - Properties ->- Security
• Select "Root" and click on "Security" at the bottom.
• Give the PRTG user the following right: Remote Enable
• Apply the permissions to this namespace and subnamespaces.

Of course the other rights like "Remote Management Users", "Distributed COM User" and "Performance Monitor Users" must be set as well.