Creating Forms to Generate MIF Files

The SMS MIF Form Generator and the SMS MIF Entry utility let users at SMS clients add new groups to their computers' inventories.

For example, you can use the SMS MIF Form Generator to create a form for an Employee Information group that stores user information such as full name, location, room number, phone number, employee identifier, division, and so on.

You can distribute the form to SMS clients by sending a Run Command On Workstation job. At the SMS clients, users complete the forms by using the MIF Entry utility. The SMS system then collects the MIF files generated by the users who completed the forms, adding the groups included in the MIF files to the inventory of the users' computers in the site database. The new groups can then be viewed in the Personal Computer Properties – [computername] window for each client that reported new groups to the inventory.

The MIF form sets up the structure of the group: the group name, its class, and its attributes. It lets you set default values and add instructions for filling in each attribute. You can also modify the default form, UINFO.XNF. You can find this form on the site server in the following path:

SMS\SITE.SRV\MAINCFG.BOX\CLIENT.SRC\X86.BIN

Note On a MIPS computer, UINFO.XNF is in the following path:

SITE.SRV\MAINCFG.BOX\CLIENT.SRC\MIPS.BIN

On an Alpha computer, UINFO.XNF is in the following path:

SITE.SRV\MAINCFG.BOX\CLIENT.SRC\ALPHA.BIN

For extensive information on and procedures for using the SMS MIF Form Generator and MIF Entry utility, refer to the "Customizing the Computer Inventory" appendix in the Microsoft Systems Management Server for Windows NT Administrator's Guide.