1. A method, comprising: performing data processing functions at each of a plurality of processor nodes in a distributed computing system having said plurality of processor nodes; selecting for each of said plurality of processor nodes in said distributed computing system, a distributed node service management role of operation from a plurality of distributed node service management roles of operation available in a distributed node service management system; and performing distributed node service management at each of said plurality of processor wherein said distributed node service management is performed at each processor node in the distributed node service management role selected for the particular processor node, and includes processing a service request for servicing a processor node of the distributed computing system.