1. A method comprising: distributing a first synthetic application definition to a first synthetic application in a first node in a computer system; parsing the first synthetic application definition, wherein parsing comprises identifying a first set of node properties and a second set of node properties; distributing the first set of node properties to the first synthetic application and the second set of node properties to a second synthetic application in a second node of the computer system; consuming, with the first synthetic application, a first quantity of resources of the first node as defined in the first set of node properties; consuming, with the second synthetic application, a second quantity of resources of the second node as defined in the second set of node properties; recording performance of the first synthetic application and the second synthetic application; and evaluating the computer system based upon the recorded performance; wherein the first synthetic application and the second synthetic application consume resources in the computer system equivalent to consumption by a first candidate application.