One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that performs event notification in a distributed computing system. During operation, the system receives an event that was generated at a node in the distributed computing system, wherein the event includes a set of name/value pairs associated with the event. Next, the system compares the event against a set of client event registrations to determine a set of clients to be notified of the event, wherein each client event registration identifies a client and a target set of name/value pairs, wherein the client is to be notified of the event if the target set of name/value pairs matches a subset of the set of name/value pairs associated with the event. Finally, the system sends a notification of the event to the set of clients to be notified of the event.