A system and method are described for remotely debugging an application server. In one embodiment, a plurality of application servers are organized into groups referred to as "instances." Each instance may include a group of redundant application servers, one or more debug nodes, and a dispatcher. The dispatcher distributes service requests to each of the application servers in accordance with a load-balancing mechanism. In addition, a central message passing architecture is defined which allows the various instances to communicate with one another. In one embodiment, a debug node is isolated from the load-balancing mechanism. The debug node may also be isolated from the central message passing architecture. A remote node may then debug an application on the debug node, without disrupting processes executing on other application servers in the instance.