1. A computer implemented method for characterizing a hardware resource in a virtual data processing environment, the method comprising: allocating the hardware resource to a test virtual machine (VM); configuring a characterization workload to execute in the test VM to characterize a parameter of the hardware resource; causing the characterization workload to execute on the test VM; and receiving a first result of the characterization workload execution from the test VM, wherein the result assigns a value to a characteristic of the hardware resource indicative of a behavior of the hardware resource under a set of circumstances.