1. A method comprising: receiving a first synthetic application definition at a synthetic application in a node of a computing system, the first synthetic application definition defining a first plurality of resource consumptions, and a registry including a listing of a plurality of nodes of a computing system and respective addresses corresponding to the plurality of nodes; wherein the first plurality of resource consumptions are equivalent to consumptions by a candidate application at a first level of user demand; parsing the first synthetic application definition at the synthetic application to identify the first plurality of resource consumptions; parsing the registry to identify the plurality of nodes; consuming, with the synthetic application and based on the identified plurality of nodes and the resource consumptions, a plurality of quantities of resources of the plurality of nodes of the computing system; recording a first performance of the synthetic application; and evaluating the computing system based upon the first performance, comprising comparing the first performance to a requirement of a service level agreement (SLA).