Windows Remote Management (WinRM) is the

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

implementation of the

DMTF Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit industry standards organization that creates open manageability standards spanning diverse emerging and traditional IT infrastructures including cloud, virtualization, network, s ...

-standard

WS-Management WS-Management (Web Services-Management) is a DMTF open standard defining a SOAP-based protocol for the management of servers, devices, applications and various Web services. WS-Management provides a common way for systems to access and exchange ma ...

. It allows accessing or exchanging management information across a common network. Utilizing scripting objects or the built-in command-line tool, WinRM can be used with any remote computers that may have baseboard management controllers (BMCs) to acquire data. On Windows-based computers including WinRM, certain data supplied by Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) can also be obtained.

Components

* WinRM Scripting API: Provides an

Application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that des ...

enabling scripts to remotely acquire data from computers that perform WS-Management operations. * winrm.cmd: Built-in systems management command line tool allowing a machine operator to configure WinRM. Implementation consists of a Visual Basic Scripting (VBS) Edition file (Winrm.vbs) which is written using the aforementioned WinRM scripting API. * winrs.exe: Another command line tool allowing the remote execution of most Cmd.exe commands. This tool utilizes the WS-Management protocol. * Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) driver: Provides hardware management and facilitates control of remote server hardware through BMCs. IPMI is most useful when the operating system is not running or deployed as it allows for continued remote operations of the bare metal hardware/software. * WMI plug-in: Allows WMI data to be made available to WinRM clients. * WMI service: Leverages the ''WMI plug-in'' to provide requested data or control and can also be used to acquire data from most WMI classes. Examples include the Win32_Process, in addition to any IPMI-supplied data. * WS-Management protocol: Web Services Management is a

open standard An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a common prerequisite that open standards use an open license that provides for extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to ...

defining a

SOAP Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...

-based

protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics) Protocol originally (in Late Middle English, c. 15th century) meant the minutes or logbook taken at a meeting, upon which an agreement was based. The term now commonly refers to ...

for the management of servers, devices, applications and various Web services. WS-Management provides a common way for systems to access and exchange management information across the

IT infrastructure Information technology infrastructure is defined broadly as a set of information technology (IT) components that are the foundation of an IT service; typically physical components (Computer hardware, computer and networking hardware and facilitie ...

. * Ports: By default WinRM HTTPS used 5986 port, and HTTP uses 5985 port. By default, port 5985 is in listening mode, but port 5986 has to be enabled.

Common uses

Ansible The term ''ansible'' refers to a category of fictional technological devices capable of superluminal Faster-than-light (superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than ...

communicates with Windows servers over WinRM using the

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (prog ...

''pywinrm'' package and can remotely run

PowerShell PowerShell is a shell program developed by Microsoft for task automation and configuration management. As is typical for a shell, it provides a command-line interpreter for interactive use and a script interpreter for automation via a langu ...

scripts and commands. Thycotic's Secret Server also leverages WinRM to enable PowerShell remoting.

SolarWinds SolarWinds Corporation is an American company that develops software for businesses to help manage their networks, systems, and information technology infrastructure. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with sales and product development offi ...

Server and Application Monitoring software (SAM) utilizes a WinRM server on monitored servers for its PowerShell integration.

CloudBolt CloudBolt is a hybrid cloud management platform developed by CloudBolt Software for deploying and managing virtual machines (VMs), applications, and other IT resources, both in public clouds (e.g., AWS, MS Azure, GCP) and in private data cent ...

leverages WinRM as part of Blueprints, Server Actions, and CB Plugins to execute remote scripts on Windows servers using the pytho
pywinrm
module.

Security

WinRM uses Kerberos for initial authentication by default. This ensures that actual credentials are never sent in client-server communications, instead relying on features such as hashing and tickets to connect. Although WinRM listeners can be configured to encrypt all communications using

HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It uses encryption for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protoc ...

, with the use of Kerberos, even if unencrypted HTTP is used, all communication is still encrypted using a symmetric 256-bit key after the authentication phase completes. Using HTTPS with WinRM allows for additional security by ensuring server identity via

SSL/TLS Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network, such as the Internet. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, b ...

certificates thereby preventing an attacker from impersonating it.

References

External links

Windows Remote Management - Windows applications , Microsoft Docs
{{Windows commands Microsoft Windows Network management Windows administration Windows components