A method comprising: for an optical fiber span coupled between a first node and a second node, obtaining a first receive power measurement at the second node with a controlled optical source at the first node turned on and with a plurality of Raman pump lasers at different wavelengths at the second node turned off; obtaining a second receive power measurement at the second node with the controlled optical source at the first node turned on and the plurality of Raman pump lasers turned on to respective reference power levels to inject optical Raman pump power at a corresponding plurality of wavelengths into the optical fiber span; obtaining a noise measurement at the second node with the controlled optical source at the first node turned off and the plurality of Raman pump lasers turned on to the respective reference power levels; computing a reference Raman gain based on the first receive power measurement, the noise measurement, and the second receive power measurement; computing a total power from the plurality of Raman pump lasers needed to achieve a target Raman gain in the optical fiber span based on the reference Raman gain and a sum of the respective reference power levels used by the plurality of Raman pump lasers used to obtain the second receive power measurement; obtaining respective ratios of the total power from lookup tables that map target Raman gain and target Raman gain tilt for each of the Raman pump lasers, each ratio to be used for a corresponding one of the plurality of Raman pump lasers; and setting the power of each of the plurality of Raman pump lasers according to its respective ratio of the total power. for an optical fiber span coupled between a first node and a second node, obtaining a first receive power measurement at the second node with a controlled optical source at the first node turned on and with a plurality of Raman pump lasers at different wavelengths at the second node turned off; obtaining a second receive power measurement at the second node with the controlled optical source at the first node turned on and the plurality of Raman pump lasers turned on to respective reference power levels to inject optical Raman pump power at a corresponding plurality of wavelengths into the optical fiber span; obtaining a noise measurement at the second node with the controlled optical source at the first node turned off and the plurality of Raman pump lasers turned on to the respective reference power levels; computing a reference Raman gain based on the first receive power measurement, the noise measurement, and the second receive power measurement; computing a total power from the plurality of Raman pump lasers needed to achieve a target Raman gain in the optical fiber span based on the reference Raman gain and a sum of the respective reference power levels used by the plurality of Raman pump lasers used to obtain the second receive power measurement; obtaining respective ratios of the total power from lookup tables that map target Raman gain and target Raman gain tilt for each of the Raman pump lasers, each ratio to be used for a corresponding one of the plurality of Raman pump lasers; and setting the power of each of the plurality of Raman pump lasers according to its respective ratio of the total power.