Applet mode is similar to using Web-based System Manager in client-server mode when using the -host argument. In client-server mode, you use the following command:
/usr/websm/bin/wsm -host [managing machine]
while in applet mode, you point your browser to
http://managing machine/wsm.html
In both cases, managing machine is the machine that contains the Web-based System Manager application. The managed machine is the first machine to be listed in the Management Environment.
There is a significant difference between using applet mode and client-server mode. In applet mode, it is only possible to manage a set of machines that have the same version of Web-based System Manager installed. The reason for this is that applets in general are restricted for security reasons to loading Java classes only from the HTTP server running the applet. While the Java classes needed to operate the Web-based System Manager console come from the managing machine, another set of Java classes is used to operate tasks on the managed machines. These classes must be loaded from the machine being managed (this is different from the managing machine) in order for these classes to match the operating system being managed. In applet mode, this situation is not possible.