Simple protocol for remote process startup/shutdown

Question

I'm looking for a simple protocol to control remote processes from one managing application. The remote processes will run on Windows and Linux (x86).

Is there a simple protocol for managing remote processes, for which I could find daemons that run on both Windows and Linux?

Answer 1

I consider ssh to be the "Swiss-army knife" of remote administration. A custom script communicating over ssh can then do the process management. On Windows, I install ssh as part of Cygwin.