Richard Siddaway's Blog

The Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class has an Index and an InterfaceIndex property. Both are suitable search properties.

The take an unsigned integer as their value – leading to this addition to the CDXML file:

<Property PropertyName="Index">
<Type PSType = "System.UInt32"/>
<RegularQuery >
   <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="Index" />
</RegularQuery>
</Property>

<Property PropertyName="InterfaceIndex">
<Type PSType = "System.UInt32"/>
<RegularQuery >
   <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="InterfaceIndex" />
</RegularQuery>
</Property>

You can use the new parameters like this:

Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration -Index 4

Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration -InterfaceIndex 5

You should see by now how much easier it is working with cmdlets like this rather than having to remember the syntax for WQL filters and even the class names.

The full CDXML file looks like this

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<PowerShellMetadata xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/cmdlets-over-objects/2009/11'>
  <Class ClassName='ROOT\cimv2\Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration'>
    <Version>1.0</Version>
    <DefaultNoun>NetworkAdapterConfiguration</DefaultNoun>

    <InstanceCmdlets>
      <GetCmdletParameters DefaultCmdletParameterSet='DefaultSet'>
       
        <QueryableProperties>
           <Property PropertyName="DHCPEnabled">
            <Type PSType = "System.Boolean"/>
            <RegularQuery >
              <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="DHCPEnabled" />
            </RegularQuery>
           </Property>
          
           <Property PropertyName="IPEnabled">
            <Type PSType = "System.Boolean"/>
            <RegularQuery >
              <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="IPEnabled" />
            </RegularQuery>
           </Property>

           <Property PropertyName="Index">
            <Type PSType = "System.UInt32"/>
            <RegularQuery >
              <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="Index" />
            </RegularQuery>
           </Property>

           <Property PropertyName="InterfaceIndex">
            <Type PSType = "System.UInt32"/>
            <RegularQuery >
              <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="InterfaceIndex" />
            </RegularQuery>
           </Property>

       
        </QueryableProperties>
             
      </GetCmdletParameters>
    </InstanceCmdlets> 
  </Class>
</PowerShellMetadata>

The module manifest file hasn’t needed to be changed to add this additional functionality. One of the great things about CDXML is that once you have the basic cmdlet working it is so easy to add extra parameters.

The next step is to use some of the methods on the class

Last time we added a search parameter enabling this:

Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration -DHCPEnabled $true

I also want to be able to search based on if the adapter if IP Enabled using:

Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration -IPEnabled $true

This can be achieved by specifying another search parameter:

<Property PropertyName="IPEnabled">
<Type PSType = "System.Boolean"/>
<RegularQuery >
   <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="IPEnabled" />
</RegularQuery>
</Property>

This the same as was done for DHCPEnabled except that the IPEnabled property is used.

The full XML now looks like this:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<PowerShellMetadata xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/cmdlets-over-objects/2009/11'>
  <Class ClassName='ROOT\cimv2\Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration'>
    <Version>1.0</Version>
    <DefaultNoun>NetworkAdapterConfiguration</DefaultNoun>

    <InstanceCmdlets>
      <GetCmdletParameters DefaultCmdletParameterSet='DefaultSet'>
       
        <QueryableProperties>
           <Property PropertyName="DHCPEnabled">
            <Type PSType = "System.Boolean"/>
            <RegularQuery >
              <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="DHCPEnabled" />
            </RegularQuery>
           </Property>
          
           <Property PropertyName="IPEnabled">
            <Type PSType = "System.Boolean"/>
            <RegularQuery >
              <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="IPEnabled" />
            </RegularQuery>
           </Property>
       
        </QueryableProperties>
             
      </GetCmdletParameters>
    </InstanceCmdlets> 
  </Class>
</PowerShellMetadata>

Last time you saw how to create a cmdlet from the Win32_NetWorkAdapterConfiguration class:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<PowerShellMetadata xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/cmdlets-over-objects/2009/11'>
  <Class ClassName='ROOT\cimv2\Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration'>
    <Version>1.0</Version>
    <DefaultNoun>NetworkAdapterConfiguration</DefaultNoun>

    <InstanceCmdlets>
      <GetCmdletParameters DefaultCmdletParameterSet='DefaultSet'>
             
      </GetCmdletParameters>
    </InstanceCmdlets> 
  </Class>
 
</PowerShellMetadata>

Now its time to add some parameters that can be used for searching.  This will be equivalent to performing these actions:

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration -Filter "DHCPEnabled='True'"

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration -Filter "IPEnabled='True'"

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration -Filter "Index=0"

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration -Filter "InterfaceIndex=3"

Lets start by looking at the DHCPEnabled property

£> $class = Get-CimClass -ClassName Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
£> $class.CimClassProperties["DHCPEnabled"]

Name                            : DHCPEnabled
Value                             :
CimType                       : Boolean
Flags                              : Property, ReadOnly, NullValue
Qualifiers                      : {MappingStrings, read}
ReferenceClassName :

The parameter DHCPEnabled takes a Boolean value.  At the moment I don’t want anything clever like pipeline input – just the ability to use a parameter

This requirement translates to:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<PowerShellMetadata xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/cmdlets-over-objects/2009/11'>
  <Class ClassName='ROOT\cimv2\Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration'>
    <Version>1.0</Version>
    <DefaultNoun>NetworkAdapterConfiguration</DefaultNoun>

    <InstanceCmdlets>
      <GetCmdletParameters DefaultCmdletParameterSet='DefaultSet'>
       
        <QueryableProperties>
           <Property PropertyName="DHCPEnabled">
            <Type PSType = "System.Boolean"/>
            <RegularQuery >
              <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="DHCPEnabled" />
            </RegularQuery>
           </Property>
       
        </QueryableProperties>
             
      </GetCmdletParameters>
    </InstanceCmdlets> 
  </Class>
</PowerShellMetadata>

The changes are defined by the  <QueryableProperties> tags

        <QueryableProperties>

Define the WMI property you are searching on

           <Property PropertyName="DHCPEnabled">

Define the type of the data the parameter accepts

            <Type PSType = "System.Boolean"/>

Define the query type – in this case a straight forward search

            <RegularQuery >

Define the name you want the parameter to have  - doesn’t have to match the WMI property name
              <CmdletParameterMetadata PSName="DHCPEnabled" />
            </RegularQuery>
           </Property>
       
        </QueryableProperties>

You can use the changed cmdlet like this:

Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration
Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration -DHCPEnabled $true
Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration -DHCPEnabled $false

The full syntax on the cmldet is:

Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration [-DHCPEnabled <bool[]>]
[-CimSession <CimSession[]>] [-ThrottleLimit <int>]
[-AsJob]  [<CommonParameters>]

The cmdlets over objects technology automatically adds these parameters:

-CimSession

-ThrottleLimit

-AsJob

-CommonParameters

Next time we’ll add the other search properties

I’ve amended the new-cdxml function created earlier in the series:

function new-cdxml {
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[string]$class,

[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[string]$noun,

[string]$namespace = 'ROOT\cimv2',
[string]$path = "C:\Scripts\Modules\Hardware"
)

$code = @"
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<PowerShellMetadata xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/cmdlets-over-objects/2009/11'>
  <Class ClassName='$namespace\$class'>
    <Version>1.0</Version>
    <DefaultNoun>$noun</DefaultNoun>

    <InstanceCmdlets>
      <GetCmdletParameters DefaultCmdletParameterSet='DefaultSet'>
             
      </GetCmdletParameters>
    </InstanceCmdlets> 
  </Class>
 
</PowerShellMetadata>
"@

$file = Join-Path -Path $path -ChildPath "$class.cdxml"
Write-Verbose -Message  $file
Set-Content -Path $file -Value $code

}

The change is making the class and noun parameters mandatory. In PowerShell 3 & 4 you can simplify the syntax slightly:

param (
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[string]$class,

[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[string]$noun,

[string]$namespace = 'ROOT\cimv2',
[string]$path = "C:\Scripts\Modules\Hardware"
)

I prefer to use the PowerShell 2.0 syntax and actually state that Mandatory=$true.  This is for 2 reasons. Firstly, its what I’m used to and it works – I haven’t got round to changing my default templates. Secondly, I prefer to use this syntax because its immediately apparent to me that the parameter is Mandatory.

This time I’ve used the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class because it enables me to introduce the use of search (filter) parameters in CDXML cmdlets; it has a number of very useful methods and it enables me to introduce the use of format files.

Using new-cdxml you can create the basic module

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<PowerShellMetadata xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/cmdlets-over-objects/2009/11'>
  <Class ClassName='ROOT\cimv2\Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration'>
    <Version>1.0</Version>
    <DefaultNoun>NetworkAdapterConfiguration</DefaultNoun>

    <InstanceCmdlets>
      <GetCmdletParameters DefaultCmdletParameterSet='DefaultSet'>
             
      </GetCmdletParameters>
    </InstanceCmdlets> 
  </Class>
 
</PowerShellMetadata>

To add this into the module manifest amend these two lines as shown:

# Modules to import as nested modules of the module specified in RootModule/ModuleToProcess
NestedModules = @('Win32_BIOS.cdxml',
                   'Win32_ComputerSystem.cdxml',
                   'Win32_DiskDrive.cdxml',
                   'Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration.cdxml'
                    )

# Functions to export from this module
FunctionsToExport = @('Get-Bios',
                      'Get-ComputerSystem',
                      'Get-PhysicalDisk',
                      'Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration'
                      )

You now have a hardware module consisting of:

£> Get-Command -Module Hardware

CommandType     Name
-----------             ----
Function               Get-Bios
Function               Get-ComputerSystem
Function               Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration
Function               Get-PhysicalDisk

The output from Get-NetworkAdapterConfiguration on my Windows 8.1 virtual machine looks like this:

ServiceName   DHCPEnabled   Index   Description
-----------        -----------         -----     -----------
netvsc             False                0          Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter
kdnic               True                 1          Microsoft Kernel Debug Network Adapter
tunnel             False                 3          Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
netvsc             False                4          Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter #2
tunnel             False                5          Microsoft ISATAP Adapter

Now this is the same display that Get-CimInstance produces and for my purposes it doesn’t work.  I need to create a format file to produce the display I need. I also want to be able to filter on various criteria including DHCPEnabled, IPEnabled, InterfaceIndex, Index  and Description. I also want to be able to search on any of these individually or in any logical combination