Described are techniques user to determine expected service levels. A first set of one or more data portions are selected from one or more devices forming a first device set. The first set of data portions are stored on physical storage of a physical device set of one or more physical devices having an unknown service level expectation. I/O operations directed to the first set of data portions are received and serviced for a time period. First information is collected that characterizes performance of the physical device set during the time period. In accordance with the first information and using an adaptive learning technique, a first service level expectation for servicing I/Os directed to the physical device set is determined.