Running Slurm in the cloud sounds simple at first: spin up some VMs, install Slurm, and start submitting jobs.

In reality, cloud-based HPC introduces a different set of design decisions and trade-offs compared to on-prem clusters. If the architecture is not planned properly, costs increase quickly and performance can drop.

This guide walks through a typical Slurm architecture on AWS/Azure and highlights the most common pitfalls.

Why Run Slurm in the Cloud?

Common reasons include:

On-demand scaling for peak workloads

No upfront hardware investment

Access to GPU instances when needed

Flexibility for short-term projects

However, cloud HPC is not always cheaper or faster — it depends heavily on how it is configured.

Typical Slurm Architecture in Cloud

A standard setup usually includes:

1. Head Node (Controller)

Runs slurmctld

Manages scheduling and job queues

Typically a small-to-medium VM

Key Point:

This node should be stable and always available.

2.…