1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving, by a computer system, one or more queries; identifying a first set of nodes of a system cluster associated with a plurality of nodes to process a first portion of the one or more queries, the first set of nodes being a first subset of the plurality of nodes; scheduling a plurality of jobs corresponding to the one or more queries; causing individual nodes of the first set of nodes to process the first portion of the one or more queries in parallel and in accordance with the scheduled plurality of jobs; and determining a second set of nodes of the system cluster associated with the plurality of nodes based at least in part on a retention policy associated with a plurality of distributed databases of the system cluster, the second set of nodes being a second subset of the plurality of nodes, individual nodes of the second set of nodes being a parent node to at least one child node of the first set of nodes in a hierarchical node structure, wherein at least one node is able to reside in the first set and the second set of nodes such that the at least one node may operate as a child node during processing of the first portion of the one or more queries and a parent node during processing of a second portion of the one or more queries, the first set of nodes and the second set of nodes comprising an instance on a database of the plurality of distributed databases, each layer of the hierarchical node structure being formed based at least in part on first results of the first portion of the one or more queries.