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Slurm

SchedMD
open source / Overall score: 3.2

Workload manager for Linux clusters, and a long-standing scheduler for HPC and GPU training. Jobs request generic resources with --gres or --gpus, and Slurm's controller allocates whole nodes or specific GPUs to a job, enforces the allocation, and runs the job's steps inside it. Multi-node allocations are granted together, which is what all-or-nothing training jobs need.

Openness

5 high confidence
5.0
license
GPL-2.0(OSI
source
public(SchedMD/slurm is the scheduler you run)
core features withheld
no — a 3,889-entry recursive tree carries no path matching enterprise, ee, commercial or proprietary

Slurm is licensed under the GNU General Public License, read from the COPYING body rather than GitHub's classifier label, which reports NOASSERTION because the file opens with a SLURM LICENSE AGREEMENT preamble. SchedMD sells support, training and development services around Slurm rather than a fuller build, so the full source remains what anyone runs.

  • https://api.github.com/repos/SchedMD/slurm/git/trees/master?recursive=1 recorded 2026-09-15

    Full untruncated recursive tree of the default branch, 3,889 entries. Licenses are the root COPYING plus contribs/ components. No path matches enterprise, ee, commercial or proprietary. A tree lists paths; it is cited for that and for nothing about the vendor's offerings.

  • https://github.com/SchedMD/slurm recorded 2026-09-15

    Repository page for SchedMD/slurm: public and unarchived, described as 'Slurm: A Highly Scalable Workload Manager'. Establishes that the source is public.

  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SchedMD/slurm/master/COPYING recorded 2026-09-15

    Slurm's COPYING file: 'SLURM LICENSE AGREEMENT. All Slurm code and documentation is available under the GNU General Public License. Some tools in the contribs directory have other licenses.' Establishes the license from the body rather than from the API label.

  • https://www.schedmd.com/slurm-support/support/ recorded 2026-09-16

    SchedMD's support page: the commercial offering around Slurm is support, training and development services. Establishes that what is sold is service rather than a fuller build.

Adoption

2 low confidence
2.0

Slurm is distributed as source tarballs and operating-system packages rather than through a package registry this map can measure, leaving GitHub stars as the only available adoption signal. Stars measure attention rather than use, so this reading reflects what that channel shows and says nothing about how widely Slurm is actually deployed.

Capability

5 medium confidence
5.0

--gres and --gpus are Slurm's own submit-language fields, and its controller allocates specific GPUs and nodes against them, granting a multi-node allocation as one unit for the life of the job. Though a general-purpose scheduler rather than an AI-specific one, Slurm does what the newer accelerator-focused schedulers do, which puts it level with KAI Scheduler.

  • https://slurm.schedmd.com/gres.html recorded 2026-09-15

    Slurm's generic resource (GRES) scheduling documentation, describing --gres and GPU allocation by the controller. Establishes that the accelerator request is consumed by Slurm's own scheduler.

  • https://slurm.schedmd.com/quickstart.html recorded 2026-09-15

    Slurm's quickstart: as a cluster workload manager it 'allocates exclusive and/or non-exclusive access to resources (compute nodes) to users for some duration of time', and then 'provides a framework for starting, executing, and monitoring work (normally a parallel job) on the set of allocated nodes'. Establishes that the allocation is a set of nodes held for one job.

Verified 2026-09-15