Another way elements can notify MVS™ of a dependency is through the ASSOCIATE request of the IXCARM macro. If a transaction processing application maintains a backup application for recovery purposes (such as with extended recovery facility (XRF)), the backup element should issue the IXCARM macro with the REQUEST=ASSOCIATE parameter to indicate that the system should not automatically restart the primary element. When one element is associated with another element, a restart will be done only when the backup has deregistered and the primary element fails, or is on a system that fails. In the event that the backup element fails, then the automatic restart manager will restart the backup element.