A mechanism is provided for guarded, multi-metric resource control. Monitoring is performed for an intended action to address a negative condition from a resource manager in a plurality of resource managers in the data processing system. Responsive to receiving the intended action, a determination is made as to whether the intended action will cause an additional negative condition within the data processing system. Responsive to determining that the intended action will cause the additional negative condition within the data processing system, at least one alternative action is identified to be implemented in the data processing system that addresses the negative condition while not causing any additional negative condition. The at least one alternative action is then implemented in the data processing system.