Configuration Manager and Configuration Service Providers
4/8/2010
The Configuration Manager is the central authority that processes OMA client provisioning XML. Configuration Service Providers carry out all configuration queries and changes. After the data is passed to the Configuration Service Providers, they are responsible for carrying out the changes and reporting the success or failure of the transaction.
The Configuration Service Providers are the last level of abstraction for the Configuration Manager operating model.
It distributes assignments to various Configuration Service Providers to complete the configuration changes requested by the setup XML. The FileOperations Configuration Service Provider and the Registry Configuration Service Provider handle file-related operations, such as renaming, deleting, and adding files or registry keys. This allows the Configuration Manager to track all of the changes and to transact an installation. If the installation fails at any point, the Configuration Manager automatically rolls back the changes to the previous state.
Transactioning ensures that the device remains in a reliable state, regardless of problems during installation. For example, if an application installation script is written incorrectly, it may try to access a file that it does not have permission to modify. Even if the installation has already changed some registry keys and copied other files, the Configuration Manager can reverse these changes. All of the attempted changes are rolled back, an error message is presented to the user, and the device returns to its previous state. **
The Configuration Manager also universally enforces security settings dictated by the metabase. These settings ensure that a .cab or .cpf file cannot create or modify registry keys or files unless it specifically has permission to do so. For example, most of the directories on the file system cannot be accessed through the User_UnAuthenticated role.
For more information about the Configuration Manager, see Configuration Manager. For more information about Configuration Service Providers, see Configuration Service Providers.
See Also
Concepts
Configuration Manager Operating Model