1. A method for generating information that measures workload in a multi-node system, comprising: a server receiving user input that defines categories of work that can be performed by a plurality of nodes in the multi-node system; said server generating and storing first data that defines said categories of work based on said user input; said server aggregating performance statistics according to said categories of work defined by said first data; each node in the plurality of nodes generating second data, based on said aggregated performance statistics, that includes at least one performance metric that indicates a quality of service for work performed by the node for each category of said categories; generating performance grades for said each category of said categories, wherein each performance grade of said performance grades indicates a quality of performance realized for said each category of work on a node relative to other nodes within said multi-node system; said user input further specifying at least one quality of service requirement for said each category of said categories; wherein the at least one quality of service requirement is based on at least one of: a) percent of CPU allocated to performing work for said each category during a time interval; or b) average elapsed time to execute one or more requests for work of said each category; and wherein the steps of the method are performed by one or more computing devices.