Running Slurm on AWS/Azure: Architecture & Pitfalls

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 scali