Abstract: The current document is directed to reinforcement-learning-based controllers and managers that control distributed applications and the infrastructure environments in which they run. The reinforcement-learning-based controllers and managers are both referred to as “management-system agents” in this document. Management-system agents are initially trained in simulated environments and specialized training environments before being deployed to live, target distributed computer systems. The management-system agents deployed to live, target distributed computer systems operate in a controller mode, in which they do not explore the control-state space or attempt to learn better policies and value functions, but instead produce traces that are collected and stored for subsequent use.