Step 11: Set up Slurm on nodes

Prerequisites

  • Provide the repository with slurm v25.X rpms.

Note

If any Slurm nodes (Slurm controller, compute nodes, login nodes, or login/compile nodes) have an InfiniBand interface and ib_network details are defined in network_spec.yml (Update the Input Parameters for Discovering the Nodes), the Slurm user repository must be built (See Repository prerequisites) without UCX and openmpi support. Specifically:

  • The Slurm user repository must NOT include the following packages: ucx, ucx-devel, openmpi, openmpi-devel.

  • Slurm itself must be compiled without UCX and openmpi support.

After running discovery.yml and PXE-booting the nodes, DOCA-OFED is installed on nodes that have Mellanox InfiniBand cards. A static IP is assigned to the InfiniBand interface only if the interface is up. If the interface is down, the user must bring it up to enable IP assignment.

  • Fill the mandatory parameters in omnia_config.yml: Input parameters for the cluster

  • Fill the parameters in storage_config.yml: Input parameters for the cluster

  • Add slurm_custom to software_config.json and add slurm_custom subgroups.

  • Add slurm_custom repository URL to user_repo_url_x86_64 or user_repo_url_aarch64 in local_repo_config.yml.

Setup Slurm:

  1. To download the artifacts required to set up Slurm on the nodes, run the local_repo.yml playbook.

  2. To build diskless images for cluster nodes, run build_image_x86_64.yml or build_image_aarch64.yml: Build cluster node images

  3. To discover the potential cluster nodes, configure the boot script, and cloud-init based on the functional groups, run the discovery.yml playbook: Discover cluster nodes

  4. After successfully executing the discovery.yml playbook, you can PXE boot the slurm node, login node, and login compiler node simultaneously.

Note

If you want to deploy only Slurm clusters (slurm_custom), the idrac_telemetry_support parameter must be set to false in the telemetry_config.yml file. Omnia is Validated for Slurm version 25.05. If you use any other version, some functionality like PAM may not work.

  1. To export openmpi, do the following:

    export MPI_HOME=/share_omnia/benchmarks/openmpi

export PATH=$MPI_HOME/bin:$PATH

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$MPI_HOME/lib:$MPI_HOME/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

<share_omnia> : nfs client share path for slurm in storage_config.yml

Slurm with GPU:

Prerequisites

  • You must have the user_repo which is compiled with nvml and cgroup-v2. If slurm-nodes have GPU then you must provide at least one login_compiler_node.

Note

If the iDRAC of a Slurm node is not accessible through OIM—because of issues such as an incorrect iDRAC port configuration or invalid credentials—the node configuration specified in /etc/slurm/slurm.conf for NodeName will default to: Sockets=1 CoresPerSocket=1 ThreadsPerCore=1 RealMemory=3774873. Update slurm.conf with the correct hardware values and run scontrol reconfigure to apply the changes.

Add new Slurm nodes

Omnia supports dynamic addition of Slurm compute nodes to an existing cluster. The process automatically updates the Slurm configuration and integrates new nodes into the cluster.

  1. Update the PXE mapping file with new node entries. Add entries for new nodes with appropriate functional group assignments slurm_node_x86_64.

Note

Addition of new slurm_control_node is not supported.

  1. Run the discovery playbook.

  2. PXE reboot the newly added node.

Remove Slurm nodes

Omnia automatically handles node removal when nodes are deleted from the PXE mapping file or functional groups.

  1. Update the PXE mapping file. Remove or reassign nodes that should no longer be part of the Slurm cluster.

  2. Run the discovery playbook.

Slurm configuration validation and defaults

Omnia includes a built-in validation system that checks Slurm configuration files for correctness before deployment. The input validator module validates all configuration files (slurm.conf, slurmdbd.conf, cgroup.conf, gres.conf, etc.) against Slurm 25.X specifications, ensuring parameter names are valid and values match expected types (integers, strings, booleans, arrays, etc.). You can provide custom configurations in omnia_config.yml > slurm_cluster > config_sources either as a file path or a mapping directly. For supported conf parameters, see Slurm.conf

Note

By default, there is a partition with name “normal” that is created with all the slurm compute nodes listed in the pxe_mapping file.

PartitionName=normal Nodes=<Comma-separated list of all compute nodes> MaxTime=INFINITE State=UP

Default Slurm configuration

Omnia provides a comprehensive default configuration optimized for HPC clusters. These defaults are automatically applied and can be overridden via custom configuration files.

Default slurm.conf parameters:

Note

The parameters ClusterName, SlurmctldHost, AccountingStorageHost cannot be modified.

# Authentication and Security
    AuthType=auth/munge
    CredType=cred/munge
    SlurmUser=slurm

# Controller Configuration
    ClusterName=cluster
    SlurmctldHost=<auto-detected>
    SlurmctldPort=6817
    SlurmctldTimeout=120
    SlurmctldLogFile=/var/log/slurm/slurmctld.log
    SlurmctldPidFile=/var/run/slurmctld.pid
    SlurmctldParameters=enable_configless
    StateSaveLocation=/var/spool/slurmctld

# Compute Node Configuration
    SlurmdPort=6818
    SlurmdTimeout=300
    SlurmdLogFile=/var/log/slurm/slurmd.log
    SlurmdPidFile=/var/run/slurmd.pid
    SlurmdSpoolDir=/var/spool/slurmd

# Accounting
    AccountingStorageHost=<auto-detected>
    AccountingStoragePort=6819
    AccountingStorageType=accounting_storage/slurmdbd

# Job Execution
    SrunPortRange=60001-63000
    ReturnToService=2
    Epilog=/etc/slurm/epilog.d/logout_user.sh
    PrologFlags=contain

# Scheduling
    SchedulerType=sched/backfill
    SelectType=select/linear

# Resource Tracking
    TaskPlugin=task/cgroup
    ProctrackType=proctrack/cgroup
    JobAcctGatherType=jobacct_gather/linux
    JobAcctGatherFrequency=30

# MPI Configuration
    MpiDefault=none

# Plugin Directory
    PluginDir=/usr/lib64/slurm

# Default Node Configuration
    NodeName=DEFAULT State=UNKNOWN

# Default Partition Configuration
    PartitionName=DEFAULT Nodes=ALL Default=YES MaxTime=INFINITE State=UP
    PartitionName=normal Nodes=<compute_nodes> Default=YES MaxTime=INFINITE State=UP

Default slurmdbd.conf parameters:

Note

The parameters DbdHost, StorageHost cannot be modified.

# Authentication
    AuthType=auth/munge
    SlurmUser=slurm

# Database Daemon Configuration
    DbdHost=<auto-detected>
    DbdPort=6819
    LogFile=/var/log/slurm/slurmdbd.log
    PidFile=/var/run/slurmdbd.pid
    PluginDir=/usr/lib64/slurm

# Database Connection
    StorageType=accounting_storage/mysql
    StorageHost=<auto-detected>
    StoragePort=3306
    StorageLoc=slurm_acct_db
    StorageUser=slurm
    StoragePass=<storage_password>

Default cgroup.conf parameters

# Cgroup Plugin
    CgroupPlugin=autodetect

# Resource Constraints
    ConstrainCores=yes
    ConstrainDevices=yes
    ConstrainRAMSpace=yes
    ConstrainSwapSpace=yes

Default gres.conf parameters

# GPU Auto-Detection
    AutoDetect=nvml

Post Installation

Pulling container images on a Slurm cluster node

A helper script is provided to simplify pulling container images on cluster nodes. By default, the script downloads the hpcbenchmarks container from the site Pulp registry, but it can also be used to pull any other approved images available in Pulp.

It is recommended to run this script on a login or compiler node.

  1. Verify if required paths exist.

    ls -l /hpc_tools/scripts
ls -ld /hpc_tools/container_images

The following should be available:

  • download_container_image.sh

  • container_image.list

If missing, NFS is not mounted.

  1. Verify if Apptainer is installed.

    apptainer --version

  2. Update image list (optional): By default, the list includes the HPC benchmarks image. To retrieve additional images from Pulp, add them to this list.

    vi /hpc_tools/scripts/container_image.list

Format:

<registry>/<namespace>/<image>:<tag>

Example:

docker.io/library/ubuntu:22.04

  1. Run the download script.

    /hpc_tools/scripts/download_container_image.sh

The script retrieves images from the Pulp mirror and saves them to /hpc_tools/container_images.

  1. Verify the downloaded images.

    ls -lh /hpc_tools/container_images
apptainer inspect /hpc_tools/container_images/<image>.sif

  2. Run a container (example).

    apptainer exec /hpc_tools/container_images/hpc-benchmarks_25.09.sif --help

Slurm configuration utilities

Create a backup, rollback, or cleanup of Slurm configuration files.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the Omnia infrastructure is available.

  • Proper configuration files are available.

  • SSH access to Slurm controller node is available.

Backup Slurm configuration

Create timestamped backups of Slurm configuration files.

  1. Create a complete backup of Slurm configuration files with optional custom naming. Run the following command:

    bash
ansible-playbook utils/slurm_config_util.yml --tags config_backup

  2. Provide a backup base name or use a timestamp-only name. The backup is created at <client_share_path>/slurm_backups/<backup_name>/<controller_node>/

Example:

Enter backup base name (leave empty for timestamp-only): pre_upgrade
Creating backup: pre_upgrade
Backup completed successfully

Cleanup Slurm configuration

Remove existing Slurm configuration files from the live cluster directory.

Run the following command:

bash
ansible-playbook utils/slurm_config_util.yml --tags slurm_cleanup

  • Before cleanup, take a config backup. It is recommended before deleting live configurations.

  • The path where files are deleted: <client_share_path>/slurm/

Example:

Before cleanup, take a config backup? (y/n): y
Enter backup base name (leave empty for timestamp-only): safety_backup

This will delete /share/slurm. Type YES to continue: YES
Deleted SLURM configuration directory successfully

Rollback Slurm configuration

Restore Slurm configuration from a previous backup with comprehensive validation.

Example:

Available backups (newest first):
1. backup_2024-02-01_120000 (controller: slurm-ctrl-01)
2. pre_maintenance (controller: slurm-ctrl-01)
3. backup_2024-01-15_143022 (controller: slurm-ctrl-01)
... (showing 10 of 15 total)

Enter backup name to restore (or press Enter to abort): pre_maintenance

Validating backup 'pre_maintenance'...
✓ slurm.conf exists
⚠ munge.key missing (optional but recommended)

Take safety backup of current config before rollback? (y/n): y
Enter backup base name (leave empty for timestamp-only): safety_before_rollback

Restoring configuration files...
Fixing file permissions...
Restarting slurmdbd (config changed)...
Reconfiguring SLURM controller...

Rollback completed successfully!

If you have any feedback about Omnia documentation, please reach out at omnia.readme@dell.com.