Abstract: Systems, methods and computer-readable memory devices are provided for greater efficiency in the configuration of a database cluster for performing a query workload. A database cluster configuration system is provided that includes a database cluster comprising one or more compute resources configured to perform database queries. A query workload comprising a plurality of queries is received. An initial workload-level configuration is applied. For each query of the query workload, a query-level configuration is generated using a query configuration model corresponding to each query in a contextual Bayesian optimization with centroid learning while also leveraging the query plan for each executing query for query characterization and including application of virtual operators. Query events are collected and used to update the corresponding query configuration model. The workload-level configuration is updated based on the query events and cached for use during a subsequent execution of the workload.