Processes are programs that are run by a process agent on the same workstation, within a process control system. Processes must be defined in a service, for ease of management.
A PA aware process is one that is part of the process control configuration and is aware of process control. All process control features, such as process dependencies, can be used. For example, ObjectServers, proxy servers, and ObjectServer gateways are PA aware. A process that is not PA aware can be managed by process control, but cannot use all process control features. For example, the Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus desktop is not PA aware.
The order in which applications are started can be important. You can use process control to configure processes to be dependent on each other if they are in the same service. For example, a process can be configured to start only after another process has started and completed various startup tasks.
A PA aware process communicates with the process agent. When the process reaches the point in its startup where it recognizes itself to be running, it sends a message to the process agent. When the process agent receives this message, it starts dependent processes.