Adding a Group to an Existing NOIDMIF File

If you want to collect an attribute that has not been previously collected, you can create a second NOIDMIF file or you can extend the original one.

For example, Wide World Importers’ network planners want to keep information about the geographical location of each hardware item in the SMS site database. This information will assist their administrators with troubleshooting, especially when they need to directly access the computer.

They considered adding this information as a second group in the System Information component (which was created in steps 1 and 2 of the procedure in the previous section of this chapter). When they realized that information about the computers located in each office might be useful for asset management and space allocation, they decided to create an IDMIF file instead for each office in their location. (A sample of such an IDMIF file is provided in “Customizing with IDMIF Files” later in this chapter.)

At this point, Wide World Importers’ planners still need to link each SMS client with the office in which it is located, so they create a second group in the System Information component. This group is called Office Location. After they create records for all the offices in their organization, the planners can link each computer’s record in the SMS site database to the correct Office structure. After they do so, they can determine the physical location of each computer from its SMS site database record whenever they need to directly access the computer, and the office information is also available for other purposes.

The NOIDMIF file that Wide World Importers created is as follows:

Start Component   Name = "System Information"   Start Group      Name  = "Wide World Asset Numbers"      ID    = 1      Class = "wideWorldAssetNumbers"      Start Attribute         Name    = "Computer Asset Number"         ID      = 1         Type    = String(10)         Value   = "414207"      End Attribute   End GroupStart Group      Name  = "Office Location      ID    = 2      Class = "officeLocation"      Start Attribute         Name    = "Current Location"         ID      = 1         Type    = String(50)         Value   = "Bldg 3 Floor 2 Office 2131"      End Attribute   End GroupEnd Component

Whenever Wide World Importers administrators decide to collect an attribute for the first time and associate it with each client, they can use this method to extend the existing custom MIF file.

Procedure Bullet  To add the Office Location group to the System Information component

  1. Type the following line to add the new Office Location group:
    2. Start Group    Name = "Office Location"

    The Name is the display name, which will be seen by administrators within Resource Explorer. As mentioned earlier, when you add attributes, even if you only add a single attribute, add a group to contain your new attributes.

  2. Type the following line to assign the Office Location class a group ID number:
    3. ID = 2

    You can use any method to determine the ID number for each group, so long as the ID number is unique within the component.

  3. Type the following line to add the officeLocation class:
    4. Class = "officeLocation"

    The Class information represents processing information, while the Name information becomes the display name for the group.

  4. Type the following lines to add the first attribute:
    5. Start Attribute    Name = "Current Location"    ID = 1    Type = String(50)    Value = "Bldg 3 Floor 2 Office 2131"End Attribute

    Set an ID for this attribute that is unique within this group, name the attribute, and give a data type. Only three data types are recognized by the system: integer, string, and a specially formatted datetime string. (For more information about data types, see Appendix C, “Hardware Inventory Classes.”) You must also specify a valid value for the data type you selected.

  5. Replace the file in the following directory:

    %Windir%\MS\SMS\Noidmifs

    The file will be processed at the next hardware inventory.

After Wide World Importers administrators add the office location to the custom NOIDMIF file on a client, they must extend the procedure to every client within the organization. For more information, see “Customizing More than One Client” later in this chapter.