Slurm major releases are moving to a six month release cycle. This change starts with the upcoming Slurm 24.05 release this May. Slurm 24.11 will follow in November 2024. Major releases then continue every May and November in 2025 and beyond.

There are two main goals of this change:

- Faster delivery of newer features and functionality for customers. - "Predictable" release timing, especially for those sites that would prefer to upgrade during an annual system maintenance window.

SchedMD will be adjusting our handling of backwards-compatibility within Slurm itself, and how SchedMD's support services will handle older releases.

For the 24.05 release, Slurm will still only support upgrading from (and mixed-version operations with) the prior two releases (23.11, 23.02). Starting with 24.11, Slurm will start supporting upgrades from the prior three releases (24.05, 23.11, 23.02).

SchedMD's Slurm Support has been built around an 18-month cycle. This 18-month cycle has traditionally covered the current stable release, plus one prior major releases. With the increase in release frequency this support window will now cover to the current stable release, plus two prior major releases.

The blog post version of this announcement includes a table that outlines the updated support lifecycle: https://www.schedmd.com/slurm-releases-move-to-a-six-month-cycle/

- Tim