Abstract: A computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for staged tracing, where an initial high-level trace is performed to detect potential problems or issues at a sub-system level, followed by a dynamic tracing state, with a more detailed level of tracing for an identified problematic sub-system. During such dynamic tracing, the CPU consumption or processing time is monitored and if such consumption remains below a given threshold, additional trace points may be added. If such CPU consumption exceeds the given threshold, existing trace-points are selectively backed-out or removed. The dynamic adding and removing of trace-points allows for the CPU to perform in a desired window of execution performance such that the overall system performance is not adversely affected when tracing is enabled.