CONTROL INTERFACES FOR DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM APPLICATIONS

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for control interfaces for distributed system applications. A method includes, at an application deployed on a first computing system in a grid computing environment, monitoring a communication channel connecting the first computing system to a second computing system, receiving a command over the communication channel from the second computing system, and in response to the received command, generating a descriptor file including descriptions of one or more actions to be performed by the second computing system in order to move the application from the first computing system to a third computing system.