1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a first compute node of a plurality of compute nodes on a cluster computing system, a state object for a job to be executed by a distributed application on the cluster computing system, wherein the state object includes a job metadata database that stores status and history information for the respective job as executed by the distributed application on the plurality of compute nodes of the cluster computing system, wherein the cluster computing system comprises at least the plurality of compute nodes connected together through a network; sending, by the first compute node through the network, a location indicator for the state object on the first compute node to a state tracker at a second compute node of the plurality of compute nodes on the cluster computing system, the state tracker recording that the state object is located at the first compute node in a state object location database for the cluster computing system; and updating the job metadata database of the state object according to execution of one or more tasks of the job on the first compute node.