1. A method for receiving and executing, on one of a plurality of servers, a system command from a software application program, the method comprising: receiving a system command from a command-line interface of a server management system, the server management system including the command-line interface, a virtual server client, and virtual server agents, each virtual server agent running on a respective server; translating the system command to an abstract system command, the abstract system command being indifferent to operating systems used by the servers running the virtual server agents; receiving, at the virtual server client, the abstract system command; and instantiating the abstract system command by: identifying, by the virtual server client, a target server to receive the abstract system command and a corresponding virtual server agent associated with the target server, transmitting the abstract system command to the corresponding virtual agent for translation of the abstract system command into an operating system-specific system command for execution on the target server, executing the operating system-specific system command under permissions determined as a function of the target server, an identity of a user of the command-line interface, and a role assigned to the identity, and receiving execution results from the corresponding virtual server agent.