1. A method for producing a derived list of suspect root causes for fault events in a grid-based computing system, the method comprising: establishing a rules database containing rules describing said grid-based computing system; establishing one or more agent scripts each adapted to identify potential causes for particular fault events that may occur in said computing system, each said agent script referencing said rules in said database to analyze metadata produced by said computing system; receiving an indication of a fault event after it occurs in said computing system; and initiating an automated diagnostic agent process instance in said computing system according to one of said agent scripts associated with said occurred fault event, said automated diagnostic agent instance process comprising a rules-based engine that establishes an event belief network that applies inferential logic to associate root causes with fault events by logic performing one or more analyses to construct a derivative list event according to said rules; and wherein said automated diagnostic agent process instance thereby provides a derived list that contains an identification of probable isolated faults.