Slurm Workload Manager

Slurm Workload Manager - Quick Start User Guide

A highly scalable cluster management and job scheduling system for Linux clusters:

What is Slurm:

  • Job Scheduler: Manages and schedules computational jobs across cluster nodes
  • Resource Manager: Allocates compute resources (CPUs, memory, GPUs) efficiently
  • Workload Manager: Handles queues, priorities, and job dependencies
  • Open Source: Free and widely adopted in HPC environments

Key Features:

Job Management:

  • Batch Jobs: Submit scripts to run when resources are available
  • Interactive Jobs: Allocate resources for interactive computing sessions
  • Array Jobs: Efficiently handle large numbers of similar tasks
  • Job Dependencies: Chain jobs together with dependency relationships

Resource Allocation:

  • CPU Management: Allocate specific number of cores per job
  • Memory Control: Manage memory allocation and limits
  • GPU Support: Schedule and manage GPU resources
  • Network Resources: Handle interconnect and bandwidth allocation

Scheduling Policies:

  • Fair Share: Ensure equitable resource distribution among users
  • Priority Queues: Different priority levels for different job types
  • Backfill: Optimize resource utilization by filling gaps in schedule
  • Preemption: Higher priority jobs can preempt lower priority ones

Common Use Cases:

High-Performance Computing:

  • Scientific Computing: Physics simulations, climate modeling
  • Machine Learning: Training large models on GPU clusters
  • Bioinformatics: Genomic analysis and computational biology
  • Engineering: CFD, FEA, and other computational engineering tasks

Academic Research:

  • University Clusters: Shared computing resources for researchers
  • Laboratory Computing: Dedicated resources for specific research groups
  • Student Projects: Managed access to computing resources

Basic Commands:

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sbatch job_script.sh    # Submit batch job
squeue                  # View job queue
scancel job_id          # Cancel job
sinfo                   # View cluster information
salloc                  # Allocate resources interactively

Benefits:

  • Scalability: Manages clusters from small to massive scale
  • Efficiency: Maximizes resource utilization
  • Fairness: Ensures equitable access to resources
  • Flexibility: Supports diverse workload types and requirements

Slurm is essential infrastructure for any organization running computational workloads on Linux clusters, providing the foundation for efficient resource management in HPC environments.