A method, apparatus, and computer program product are provided for activating a blade server in a blade server system. The method comprises receiving a request for activating the blade server and obtaining a hardware feature of the blade server. The method further comprises determining a virtual machine management program corresponding to the hardware feature of the blade server in accordance with a correspondence relationship between the hardware feature of the blade server and the virtual machine management program and remotely activating the blade server via a management bus by using the determined virtual machine management program. In accordance with the method, a suitable built-in virtual machine management program may be determined according to user requirements, and system security and stability upon blade server activation may be ensured.