An information handling system and method for managing event messages in a distributed computing environment employing a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) architecture in which a central controller is configured to send heartbeats, indicative of a message handling capacity of the central controller, to a plurality of nodes within a management domain of the controller. Each node maintains an event messaging state of the central controller based on the heartbeats. When a node detects the occurrence of a reportable event, the node determines a reporting policy corresponding to the event messaging state of the central controller and takes an event message action in accordance with the reporting policy. The event message action may include sending the event message without delay or storing the event message for subsequent sending.