Get CM Objects from a Container

kassidy — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Before you get started make sure you have read the following page. Get CM Containers

Now that you know how to find Containers and view what information they contain, lets get all the objects inside of the container located at ABC:\DeviceCollection\Folder1\Department

PS C:\Users\kassidy> Get-Item ABC:\DeviceCollection\Folder1\Department


PSPath                : AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite::siteserver.contoso.com\DeviceCollection\Folder1\Department
PSParentPath          : AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite::siteserver.contoso.com\DeviceCollection\Folder1
PSChildName           : Department
PSDrive               : ABC
PSProvider            : AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite
PSIsContainer         : True
SmsProviderObjectPath : SMS_ObjectContainerNode.ContainerNodeID=618
ContainerNodeID       : 618
FolderFlags           : 0
FolderGuid            : 4A56A29C-C24E-4255-870C-CB11EAD48DD8
IsEmpty               : False
Name                  : Department
ObjectType            : 5000
ObjectTypeName        : SMS_Collection_Device
ParentContainerNodeID : 2
SearchFolder          : False
SearchString          :
SourceSite            : ABC

We can do this by utilizing the Invoke-CMWmiQuiery cmdlet. You will need some information from the container to help create the WMI query. We will need the ContainerNodeID, ObjectType, ObjectTypeName, and an InstanceKey for that object. How do I find the instance key? I find the easiest way to find this is to run a query against just the ObjectTypeName. Look at the example below, in the SmsProviderObjectPath field the data is represented as [ClassName].[UniqueKey].

Note that the actual class is SMS_Collection not SMS_Collection_Device. If you look at the UserCollection container you'll see that it shows as SMS_Collection_User.

PS ABC:\> $Query = "select * from SMS_Collection"
PS ABC:\> Invoke-CMWmiQuery -Query $Query

SmsProviderObjectPath          : SMS_Collection.CollectionID="ABC0000B"

With the information gathered from above lets build our query to list the objects!

$Query = "select * from SMS_Collection where CollectionID is in(select InstanceKey from SMS_ObjectContainerItem where ObjectType='5000' and ContainerNodeID='618')"
Invoke-CMWmiQuery -Query $Query

If the query was created correctly you should see a lot of information scroll past. Store these in a variable to interact with them using the various cmdlets for collections. You can also query based on the path. This way appears to be rather resource heavy, and can run kinda slow. The previous example is my preferred method.

$Query = "select * from SMS_Collection where ObjectPath = '/Folder1/Department'"
Invoke-CMWmiQuery -Query $Query

In some cases you will need to convert your data to an IResultObject before you can use it with the available PowerShell cmdlets. This used to be the case anytime I ran Invoke-CMWmiQuery, but in some of the newer versions it appears to be doing the conversion for me. Take a look at ConvertTo-CMIResultObject and ConvertFrom-CMIResultObject

If you can't figure out what format your object is, pipe your object into gm. Take note of the type name

PS ABC:\> $items | gm


   TypeName: IResultObject#SMS_Collection

Get CM Containers

kassidy — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I may sometimes refer to folders as containers and the items inside of them as nodes. It is important to understand that when you create a folder in SCCM it is not really a folder. What you are actually interacting with is a CM Object. What are CM Objects? You can read the Microsoft documentation here CM Objects. But the best TL:DR I can give is that they are Instances of CM specific WMI classes. So when browsing the PSDrive you created and you run Get-ChildItem ABC:\DeviceCollection it is returning a list of all containers at the root of Device Collections, which are the WMI classes for Device Collections. Take a look at the example output below. Notice that multiple containers are returned (more than I have shown here).

PS ABC:\> Get-ChildItem .\DeviceCollection

PSPath                : AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite::siteserver.contoso.com\DeviceCollection
PSParentPath          : AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite::siteserver.contoso.com
PSChildName           : DeviceCollection
PSDrive               : ABC
PSProvider            : AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite
PSIsContainer         : True
SmsProviderObjectPath : SMS_ObjectContainerNode.ContainerNodeID=2
ContainerNodeID       : 2
FolderFlags           : 0
FolderGuid            : 8D4A816D-E5B5-44D0-8D3B-ED3BDBE42CDE
IsEmpty               : False
Name                  : All Systems
ObjectType            : 5000
ObjectTypeName        : SMS_Collection_Device
ParentContainerNodeID : 0
SearchFolder          : False
SearchString          :
SourceSite            : ABC

PSPath                : AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite::siteserver.contoso.com\DeviceCollection
PSParentPath          : AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite::siteserver.contoso.com
PSChildName           : DeviceCollection
PSDrive               : ABC
PSProvider            : AdminUI.PS.Provider\CMSite
PSIsContainer         : True
SmsProviderObjectPath : SMS_ObjectContainerNode.ContainerNodeID=40
ContainerNodeID       : 40
FolderFlags           : 0
FolderGuid            : FC17345A-AEED-41F2-ABF0-4B9854DCE19D
IsEmpty               : False
Name                  : All Unknown Computers
ObjectType            : 5000
ObjectTypeName        : SMS_Collection_Device
ParentContainerNodeID : 0
SearchFolder          : False
SearchString          :
SourceSite            : ABC

Now lets try running Get-ChildItem ABC:\DeviceCollection\Folder1 and Get-Item ABC:\DeviceCollection\Folder1 notice anything different? We can use Get-Item to just return the parent at that location or Get-ChildItem to return all of its children.

You can use this information to get all containers on the site. Not sure what container types are available? Just ls ABC: and it will return all the container types available to you. Tab complete does work when navigating the drive. However it is very very slow to complete. I recommend you enter in the path instead.

Here is a list of available container types as of writing.

PS C:\Users\kassidy> ls ABC:
Application
BootImage
ConfigurationBaseline
ConfigurationItem
DeviceCollection
Driver
DriverPackage
OperatingSystemImage
OperatingSystemInstaller
Package
Query
SoftwareMetering
SoftwareUpdate
TaskSequence
UserCollection
UserStateMigration
VirtualHardDisk
SmsProvider

kassidy.dev

Get CM Objects from a Container

Get CM Containers