1. A method of monitoring a computer system comprising; defining a monitoring policy for the computer system, the monitoring policy comprising at least one self-healing action rule; selecting at least one monitored element from among a plurality of elements of the computer system that is necessary to be monitored to determine an operating condition of the at least one monitored element, wherein the selecting is responsive to data structures containing information for applying the monitoring policy; monitoring, with the computer system, the operating condition of the at least one monitored element based on the monitoring policy; and performing, with the computer system, at least one action that executes the at least one self-healing action rule to modify at least one operation of the computer system in response to the operating condition having a predetermined status, the at least one action causing the operating condition to no longer have the predetermined status, wherein the monitoring comprises selectively starting or stopping monitoring of the at least one monitored element responsive to the at least one self-healing action rule and the operating condition.