he Microsoft^® Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) provides a roadmap for simplifying enterprise software development, deployment, and management. Current Microsoft products and technologies that support the DSI model for system management include Automated Deployment Services, Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005, Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, Virtual Server 2005, and Windows Server^™ Update Services. Future technologies expected to extend the DSI model include Visual Studio^® 2005 Team System and the System Definition Model (SDM) planned for a future version of Windows Server. (For more information about DSI, see Dynamic Systems Initiative.)

With these key DSI and SDM deliverables planned for the future, developers need manageable apps right now. Fortunately, the current version of Windows^® Management Instrumentation (WMI) is able to satisfy many manageability requirements. In this article I'll demonstrate how WMI provides a first step towards DSI-style system management. I will develop a WMI-aware monitoring solution you can use to instrument your ASP.NET applications, and I'll introduce you to the capabilities of MOM 2005 that allow you to then monitor these instrumented applications.

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