{"id":593,"date":"2013-02-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/windowsserver\/2013\/02\/26\/ws-management-isoiec-standard\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T11:45:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:45:54","slug":"ws-management-isoiec-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-server\/blog\/2013\/02\/26\/ws-management-isoiec-standard\/","title":{"rendered":"WS-Management ISO\/IEC Standard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evolution of standards-based management in Windows<\/h1>\n

In a world where management has shifted from managing one server to managing many complex, heterogeneous servers and clouds, standards-based management\u2014long supported by Microsoft\u2014has become essential. We were one of the founding members of the Distributed Management Task Force<\/a> (DMTF), and shipped the first, and richest, Common Information Model<\/a> Object Manager (CIMOM) we know as Windows Management Instrumentation<\/a> (WMI). In 2005, Microsoft, along with 12 other companies, submitted WS-Management for DMTF standardization. Since then, the specification has been improved, stabilized and implemented widely by the industry. Today, the specification reached its highest level of maturity as it became an ISO (International Organization for Standardization<\/a>)\/IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission<\/a>) international standard. Windows Remote Management (WinRM), Microsoft\u2019s implementation of WS-Management, has been included with Windows since Windows XP. Today, all versions of Windows, both client and server from XP forward, support WS-Management through WinRM. System Center uses WS-Management to remotely manage systems. This includes both Windows and Linux (System Center Cross Platform). Windows PowerShell uses WS-Management for remote shell access.<\/p>\n

In Windows Server 2012, standards-based management was necessary to help make Windows Server 2012 the best Cloud OS. WS-Management provided remoting access for managing Windows resources by using CIM + WS-Management. While WMI has served our customers and partners well, the true promise of standards-based management was only realized through completing and making our WS-Management implementation, WinRM, the default remote management protocol for Windows. In Windows today, Windows PowerShell remoting is built on WS-Management. Additionally, WMI\u2019s default protocol is no longer DCOM, but WinRM.<\/p>\n

WS-Management as a management protocol<\/h1>\n

WS-MAN was developed to enable remote management of systems over a firewall friendly protocol such as HTTP while utilizing existing tools and investments in SOAP.\u00a0 With the 1.0 and 1.1 releases, WS-MAN has been used as the preferred protocol for desktop and mobile system management as part of the DASH initiative<\/a> and a recommended protocol for server systems management as part of the SMASH initiative<\/a>.\u00a0 Hardware from different vendors in the market today have support for DASH and SMASH and can be managed by Windows and System Center products.<\/p>\n

The Web Services for Management (WS-Management) Specification describes a simple object access protocol (SOAP) for managing systems such as PCs, servers, devices, and other remotely manageable entities. The WS-Management protocol identifies a core set of web service specifications and usage requirements that expose a common set of operations central to all systems management. This includes the ability to do the following:<\/p>\n