Build SLURM on Alma Linux 9

Slurm (Simple Linux Utility for Resource Management) is a powerful, open-source workload manager for Linux clusters, scheduling and allocating resources (CPUs, GPUs, memory) for parallel jobs, essential for High-Performance Computing (HPC) and AI workloads.

Overview

This runbook covers building SLURM RPM packages from source on Alma Linux 9. These RPMs can then be distributed to controller and compute nodes in your cluster.

Prerequisites

A machine with Alma Linux 9 installed
Root or sudo access
Approximately 2GB free disk space for build process
Internet connectivity for downloading source and dependencies

Steps

Prepare RPM build environment

    # Create RPM build directory structure
    mkdir -p ~/rpmbuild/{BUILD,RPMS,SOURCES,SPECS,SRPMS}
    echo '%_topdir %(echo $HOME)/rpmbuild' > ~/.rpmmacros

Download SLURM source code

The latest version can be found here.

    sudo dnf install -y wget
    
    # Set version variable for easy updates
    SLURM_VERSION="25.11.0"
    wget https://download.schedmd.com/slurm/slurm-${SLURM_VERSION}.tar.bz2

Install build dependencies

    # Enable EPEL and CodeReady Builder repositories
    sudo dnf install -y epel-release
    sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
    
    # Install core build tools and SLURM dependencies
    sudo dnf install -y rpm-build autoconf automake gcc make \
        mariadb-devel munge-devel munge-libs pam-devel \
        perl-Switch perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker perl-devel \
        pmix pmix-devel readline-devel \
        hdf5 hdf5-devel lua lua-devel \
        rrdtool-devel openssl openssl-devel libssh2-devel \
        hwloc hwloc-devel ncurses-devel man2html \
        libibmad libibumad http-parser-devel json-c-devel

Build RPM packages

This process typically takes 10-15 minutes depending on your system.

rpmbuild --with slurmrestd --with pmix --with hdf5 -ta slurm-${SLURM_VERSION}.tar.bz2

Verify and locate built RPMs
```
ls -lh ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/
```
You should see RPMs including:
- slurm-*.rpm - Core SLURM binaries
- slurm-slurmctld-*.rpm - Controller daemon
- slurm-slurmd-*.rpm - Compute node daemon
- slurm-slurmdbd-*.rpm - Database daemon
- slurm-slurmrestd-*.rpm - REST API daemon
- slurm-pam_slurm-*.rpm - PAM module
- slurm-devel-*.rpm - Development headers

Troubleshooting

Missing Dependencies

If rpmbuild fails with missing dependency errors:

Note the missing package name from the error message
Install using: sudo dnf install -y <package-name>-devel
Re-run the rpmbuild command

Build Failures

Check build logs at: ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/slurm-*/config.log
Ensure CRB repository is enabled for http-parser-devel and json-c-devel
Verify sufficient disk space: df -h ~

Common Issues

“rpmbuild: command not found”: Install rpm-build package
Permission denied errors: Ensure you’re building as regular user, not root
Network timeouts: Check firewall settings if wget fails

Completion and Verification

Success criteria:

✓ No errors during rpmbuild process
✓ Multiple RPM files present in ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/
✓ RPM integrity check passes: rpm -K ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/slurm-*.rpm

File sizes (approximate):

Core slurm package: ~15-20 MB
Total RPMs: ~40-50 MB

Contacts

Appendix

Package Distribution Guide

Controller node: slurm, slurm-slurmctld, slurm-slurmdbd (if using accounting)
Compute nodes: slurm, slurm-slurmd
Submit hosts: slurm (client tools only)

References

Changelog

2025/12/14 - Created initial version

Keyboard shortcuts