1. A method of emulating a data storage system comprising: obtaining a performance characterization of a data storage device to be emulated and a specification of a workload, the specification of the workload including a specification of a plurality of data stores for the workload; assigning the data stores to an emulation data storage device according to the performance characterization and according to the specification of the workload such that sufficient resources of the emulation data storage device are allocated to the workload to meet the performance characterization of the data storage device to be emulated; and operating the emulation data storage device under the workload.