An apparatus includes at least one node device to host a computing cluster, and at least one processor to: use at least one of a level of resource observed to be consumed by operation of the computing cluster or a level of performance observed to be provided by operation of the computing cluster as an input to a pre-existing cluster model to derive a predicted level; compare the predicted level to a corresponding observed level of resource consumed or performance provided; and in response to the predicted level not matching the observed level to within a pre-selected degree, derive a new cluster model from observations of the operation of the computing cluster, and generate a prompt to perform repeat the configuration of the computing cluster using the new cluster model in place of the pre-existing cluster model to generate a new set of configuration settings for the computing cluster.