1. A multi-node computer system comprising: a plurality of processing units that comprise a distributed process executing on a plurality of compute nodes having compute resources; a rules registry with rules that each comprise an action with an associated event, where the action indicates an adjustment of compute resources available to a first processing unit upon detection of the associated event on a second processing unit; an event detection mechanism that detects the occurrence of the associated event in the rules registry; and a resource controller that dynamically adjusts the compute resources available to the first processing unit according to the action listed in the rules registry corresponding to the detected associated event upon detection of the associated event on the second processing unit.