In short: Is there any known protocol for remote process management?
I have a system that contains several applications, each has it's own computer in a local network. When the applications are up and running, they communicate without any problems.
What I'm interested in is a protocol to manage the remote applications startup, shutdown and monitoring. By monitoring I mean getting error codes (predefined) when something goes wrong. Ideally I would control the whole system from one managing application and get status about what's going on.
I once worked in a place that wrote an in-house protocol that did this. However, I wish to avoid writing it again if someone already figured this out.
Edit: some more details:
Why bother with homegrown solutions instead of using tried and tested technology? Unless you only employ programmers who are MENSA members with 30+ years of experience, your solution will be less robust and costlier to maintain.
You failed to mention any details about the platform you're using, so I'll assume a Unix-ish system. I would go with (and have been going with for years)