A facility comprising systems and method for automatically triggering the collection of comprehensive monitoring information in a distributed processing system. The facility compares the overall performance of distributed processing system to one or more performance metrics and, in response to determining that one or more performance metrics is not satisfied, triggers one or more of the nodes within the distributed processing system to increase one or more of its monitoring rate or its distribution rate. The facility collects and analyzes the collected information to provide resources that can be used to assess and diagnose failures within the distributed processing system. In this manner, the facility reacts to performance anomalies by triggering nodes within in the system to provide comprehensive performance information over a trigger period for diagnostic purposes.