Restarting event and alert analysis after a shutdown in a distributed processing system includes identifying a shutdown condition of the distributed processing system; and determining whether the shutdown was a planned shutdown or an unplanned shutdown; if the shutdown was planned, storing an identification of the last event in an event log that was injected in an event queue at the time of the planned shutdown and restarting event and alert analysis using the next event identified in the event log; if the shutdown was unplanned, identifying a previously configured restart mode; selecting an identification of a restart event in the event log according to the previously configured restart mode; and restarting event and alert analysis using the restart event identified in the event log.