1. A method for managing distributed computer data stream acceleration devices comprising: identifying available nodes and available acceleration devices in a computing system comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of acceleration devices disposed on one or more of the nodes; identifying a plurality of virtual acceleration device definitions, each virtual acceleration device definition comprising attributes to configure at least one of the plurality of identified acceleration devices; receiving an inquiry comprising an identification of computing system resources to be used in processing the inquiry; identifying at least one virtual acceleration device definition capable of configuring an acceleration device in accordance with the computing system resources identified by the inquiry; configuring at least one of the plurality of identified acceleration devices in accordance with each identified virtual acceleration device definition; and using each configured acceleration device to process the inquiry.