[slurm-users] About tpology.conf

[Yusuke Saiki via slurm-users]

Must topology.conf, like slurm.conf, be accessible to all nodes?

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[Paul Edmon via slurm-users]

Yes. It must be in the same directory as slurm.conf

-Paul Edmon-

[Yusuke Saiki via slurm-users]

Thank you, Mr. Paul. You're a big help.

[Yusuke Saiki via slurm-users]

Slurm Management Node - Is it sufficient that only nodes running slurmdbd/slurmctld can be referenced?

I confirmed on the official Slurm website that the official documentation states topology.conf should be placed in the same directory as slurm.conf.

However, some Oracle (OCI) official sources also state that topology.conf should be accessible from all nodes (including compute nodes).

Do you have a more specific answer?

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[Chris Samuel via slurm-users]

On 7/10/25 12:17 am, Yusuke Saiki via slurm-users wrote:

> I confirmed on the official Slurm website that the official documentation states topology.conf should be placed in the same directory as slurm.conf.

That is correct, and IIRC it needs to be everywhere where slurmd runs as
well as it's tied up with how Slurm messages are forwarded across the
system. Looking at the Slurm code the topology code is common code, and
referenced (at least in 24.11) from src/common.forward.c in the
forward_msg() function.

Also Slurm's configless mode sends out topology.conf to compute nodes,
which would reinforce that being important.

All the best,
Chris

[Yusuke Saiki via slurm-users]

Thank you, Chris. That helps a lot.
To be explicit about terms:

・Management node: runs slurmctld/slurmdbd
・Compute node: runs slurmd

>From your note (topology in common code referenced by forward_msg() and configless pushing topology.conf), I’ll keep topology.conf alongside slurm.conf and ensure /etc/slurm is readable across the cluster, including compute nodes.
Does that align with your understanding?

[Chris Samuel via slurm-users]

On 12/10/25 10:11 am, Yusuke Saiki via slurm-users wrote:

> Thank you, Chris. That helps a lot.

My pleasure!

> To be explicit about terms:
>
> ・Management node: runs slurmctld/slurmdbd
> ・Compute node: runs slurmd

That's correct, though there's no requirement to run slurmdbd on the
same node as the slurmctld.

> From your note (topology in common code referenced by forward_msg() and configless pushing topology.conf), I’ll keep topology.conf alongside slurm.conf and ensure /etc/slurm is readable across the cluster, including compute nodes.
> Does that align with your understanding?

Yup, that sounds right. Ideally you'll have the same config files
everywhere.

Just be careful with slurmdbd.conf as that should not be world-readable
as it will have the credentials for your MySQL/MariaDB/etc database in it.

All the best,
Chris