JSI Tip 10185. WinRM on Windows Server 2003 R2 does not respond to an authentication challenge by sending credentials?

When you type winrm operation http://ServerName/wsman on a Windows Server 2003 R2 computer to send a request to a remote server using the Windows Remote Management command-line, Microsoft's implementation of theWS-Management protocol:

- The remote server send a http 302 status code to http://ServerName/wsman/. Notice the tailing slash.

- The WS-Management protocol repeats the request to the redirected URL.

- The remote server responds by sending a 401 authentication challenge.

Because of the added trailing slash, WinRM does not respond to the authentication challenge by sending credentials.

To workaround this behavior, use the -prefix switch:

winrm operation -machine:ServerName -prefix:wsman/

Where is a short string that identifies a resource in the enterprise, such as a computer, a process, a disk drive, or a temperature sensor in a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC). The URI is the Web service addressing mechanism defined in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [RFC3986].

NOTES: See the following:

 WS-Management Protocol

Windows Remote Management (WinRM)