A global resource manager is provided for each node of a plurality of nodes of a distributed data processing system. Each node can be a coordinator node, an intermediate node, and a leaf node depending on the node at which a session arrives for global processing. In response to the arriving sessions, the global resource managers implement ripple scheduling by conducting a global QoS negotiation and adaptation, and preemption if necessary, in order to determine if the arriving session is supportable by the distributed data processing system. More specifically, the resource managers of all nodes determine whether their corresponding nodes can support the arriving session. The resource managers of the coordinator node and all intermediate nodes request their child nodes to indicate whether the child nodes can support the arriving session. The resource managers of all intermediate nodes and all leaf nodes respond to their coordinating or intermediate nodes with an indication of supportability. The resource manager of the coordinator node sends a commit message if all nodes can support the arriving session.