15. A system for evaluating a plurality of proposed states for a storage system that provides service to a plurality of workloads, the system comprising: computer hardware configured to: access a state tree comprising a plurality of nodes arranged in a plurality of hierarchical levels comprising at least first, second, and third levels, the first level comprising a start node representing a current state of the storage system, the second level comprising a plurality of time nodes, each time node representing a time frame, and the third level comprising a plurality of proposed nodes, each proposed node representing a proposed state of the storage system, the plurality of proposed nodes divided into a plurality of groups, each group of proposed nodes comprising a sub-tree of a corresponding time node and representing a group of proposed states, each proposed state implementable within the corresponding time frame, wherein each proposed state comprises an associated set of storage-system configuration settings, and at least one service level objective (SLO) comprising a target value of a hardware or software attribute of the storage system is specified for each workload; receive a time constraint that specifies a time frame; receive new planner information comprising at least one new configuration certification specifying that a set of storage-system configuration settings achieve one or more SLOs for the workloads of the storage system; remove each group of proposed nodes comprising a sub-tree in the state tree that is unique to the group of proposed nodes of the time node representing the specified time frame; and remove at least one proposed node in the state tree based on the new planner information, the removal to: determine that at least one workload of the storage system has a specified SLO that matches an SLO specified in at least one received configuration certification, and remove at least one proposed node from the state tree that represents a proposed state with an associated set of storage-system configuration settings different from the set of storage-system configuration settings of the at least one received configuration certification.
15. A system for evaluating a plurality of proposed states for a storage system that provides service to a plurality of workloads, the system comprising: computer hardware configured to: access a state tree comprising a plurality of nodes arranged in a plurality of hierarchical levels comprising at least first, second, and third levels, the first level comprising a start node representing a current state of the storage system, the second level comprising a plurality of time nodes, each time node representing a time frame, and the third level comprising a plurality of proposed nodes, each proposed node representing a proposed state of the storage system, the plurality of proposed nodes divided into a plurality of groups, each group of proposed nodes comprising a sub-tree of a corresponding time node and representing a group of proposed states, each proposed state implementable within the corresponding time frame, wherein each proposed state comprises an associated set of storage-system configuration settings, and at least one service level objective (SLO) comprising a target value of a hardware or software attribute of the storage system is specified for each workload; receive a time constraint that specifies a time frame; receive new planner information comprising at least one new configuration certification specifying that a set of storage-system configuration settings achieve one or more SLOs for the workloads of the storage system; remove each group of proposed nodes comprising a sub-tree in the state tree that is unique to the group of proposed nodes of the time node representing the specified time frame; and remove at least one proposed node in the state tree based on the new planner information, the removal to: determine that at least one workload of the storage system has a specified SLO that matches an SLO specified in at least one received configuration certification, and remove at least one proposed node from the state tree that represents a proposed state with an associated set of storage-system configuration settings different from the set of storage-system configuration settings of the at least one received configuration certification. 17. The system of claim 15 , wherein: each proposed state comprises an associated set of actions that, when executed, changes the current state of the storage system to the proposed state; and for each group of proposed states, the set of actions associated with a proposed state are implementable within the corresponding time frame.