Thank you so much for your thorough explanations and insightful suggestions.
After the discussion, I now have a clearer understanding of the differences between these backup configuration options.
发件人: Daniel Letai dani@letai.org.il 发送时间: 2025年2月21日 20:34 收件人: taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn 抄送: slurm-users@lists.schedmd.com 主题: Re: 回复: 回复: [slurm-users] Re: how to set slurmdbd.conf if using two slurmdb node with HA database?
Looking at the code, it would seem the DbdBackupHost (in slurmdbd.conf) is used to determine whether or not to run in standby mode.
https://github.com/SchedMD/slurm/blob/ea17bbffc381deae54e126b227d5290bf95253...
https://github.com/SchedMD/slurm/blob/ea17bbffc381deae54e126b227d5290bf95253...
Going back to your initial question - you can be consistent across all nodes and use the first option (explicitly set nodeC as primary and nodeD as backup on all four nodes). This might result in slurmdbd using a 'remote' replica if the local DB is not responding, rather than switching to the other node and using the dbd+DB on the same backup node. It's a matter of performance vs. robustness.
In short:
slurm.conf->AccountingStorageHost is used by slurmctld to connect to a dbd process on timeout to primary dbd
slurmdbd.conf->DbdBackupHost is used by slurmdbd process to determine if it should initially run in backup mode
slurmdbd.conf->StorageBackupHost is used by slurmdbd to point to a backup DB replica on timeout to primary DB
In terms of performance, the "worst" issue is if primary slurmdbd is down : slurmctld is connecting to a remote slurmdbd, which again connects to a remote DB.
The entire discussion using localhost was to avoid this scenario, by ensuring there is at most only a single remote.
Consider your initial configuration (A,B ctld), (C,D dbd+DB)
If nodeC only has slurmdbd down, then nodeA would switch to using nodeD for slurmdbd, but nodeD would connect to nodeC for DB.
Whether this is an issue in your use case is up to you, but this would be the most robust configuration.
On 21/02/2025 8:41, taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn mailto:taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn wrote:
But there is even 3rd pair backup option if we count the slurm.conf : AccountingStorageHost and AccountingStorageBackupHost. I think this is what slurmctld referred to when it finds primary slurmdbd unavailable.
Will slurmctld also go to read the slurmdbd.conf? It seem to be the dedicated configuration file for slurmdbd. So I think the DbdBackupHost should not influence the slurmctld’s behaviour. Otherwise the usage of AccountingStorageBackupHost and DbdBackupHost will be totally duplicated.
张天阳
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发件人: Daniel Letai mailto:dani@letai.org.il dani@letai.org.il 发送时间: 2025年2月21日 14:04 收件人: taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn mailto:taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn 抄送: slurm-users@lists.schedmd.com mailto:slurm-users@lists.schedmd.com 主题: Re: 回复: [slurm-users] Re: how to set slurmdbd.conf if using two slurmdb node with HA database?
There are 2 backuphosts configurations.
DbdBackupHost is used if the slurmdbd service is unavailable (timeout). In that case the slurmctld will try to connect to the slurmdbd on another node.
StorageBackupHost, on the other hand, is what you describe - timeout when connecting to a DB replica will make slurmdbd switch to using the other replica.
On 21/02/2025 4:45, taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn mailto:taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn wrote:
Thank you for your insightful suggestions. Placing both slurmdbd and slurmctld on the same node is indeed a new structure that we hadn’t considered before, and it seems to provide a much clearer logic for deployment.
Regarding the usage of DbdBackupHost, I would like to confirm my understanding of how it works. Is it mean that the DbdBackupHost option will only be referenced when slurmdbd service detects its local database (specified by StorageHost) is unavailable? And I guess in that case, the first slurmdbd service would act as a proxy who forwards requests to the DbdBackupHost and returns the data from there to slurmctld?
发件人: Daniel Letai mailto:dani@letai.org.il dani@letai.org.il 发送时间: 2025年2月20日 21:56 收件人: taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn mailto:taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn 抄送: slurm-users@lists.schedmd.com mailto:slurm-users@lists.schedmd.com 主题: Re: [slurm-users] Re: how to set slurmdbd.conf if using two slurmdb node with HA database?
It's functionally the same with one difference - the configuration file is unmodified between nodes, allowing for simple deployment of nodes, and automation.
Regarding the backuphost - that depends on your setup. If you can ensure the slurmdbd service will stop if the local db replica is not healthy, you shouldn't need backuphost. Conversely, if there is no health check to ensure replica readiness, configure the backuphost. This will require using a different conf file for each node, unless setting up a more robust HA clustering scheme.
The other option is to separate the dbd from the db. Put the dbd on the ctld nodes (A,B) and let nodes C,D only be DB master replica (not dbd).
In slurm.conf on nodes A,B You will then have:
AccountingStorageHost = localhost
(without AccountingStorageBackupHost)
And in slurmdbd.conf you will have:
DbdHost = localhost
(without DbdBackupHost)
StorageHost = nodeC
StorageBackupHost = nodeD
This would mean identical slurm.conf and slurmdbd.conf on both nodes A,B, and no slurm conf files or processes on nodes C,D.
This setup assumes that the entire stack (ctld+dbd) is either working or not, which is usually true, as either the node is functioning or not. If the ctld is working but dbd is not, you will loose connection to the DB. If the ctld is not working, the other ctld will take charge and use its local dbd, so that scenario is covered.
Adding AccountingStorageBackupHost pointing to the other node is of course possible, but will mean different slurm.conf files which slurm will complain about.
It will mean that most of the time you will not load balance on the multi-master DB replicas. Whether that is a consideration or not is for you to decide.
On 20/02/2025 3:57, taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn mailto:taleintervenor@sjtu.edu.cn wrote:
Do you mean the second configuration scheme?
I think configuring `dbdhost=localhost` is the same as configuring ` DbdAddr =nodeC` and ` DbdAddr =nodeD` on the two nodes respectively.
The key point is whether we should set the DbdBackupHost option and how it work?
发件人: Daniel Letai mailto:dani@letai.org.il dani@letai.org.il 发送时间: 2025年2月19日 18:21 收件人: slurm-users@lists.schedmd.com mailto:slurm-users@lists.schedmd.com 主题: [slurm-users] Re: how to set slurmdbd.conf if using two slurmdb node with HA database?
I'm not sure it will work, didn't test it, but could you just do `dbdhost=localhost` to solve this?
On 18/02/2025 11:59, hermes via slurm-users wrote:
The deployment scenario is as follows:
nodeA nodeB
(slurmctld) (backup slurmctld)
| -------------------------------/ |
| / \ |
nodeC nodeD
(slurmdbd) (backup slurmdbd)
(mysql) <--multi master replica--> (mysql)
Since the database is multi-master replicated, the slurmdbd should only talk to the mysql on its own node.
In such case, how should we set the slurmdbd.conf? The conf file contains options “DbdAddr”, “DbdHost” and “DbdBackupHost”.
Should they be consistent between nodeA-2 and nodeB-2? Such as:
DbdAddr = nodeC | DbdAddr = nodeC
DbdHost = nodeC | DbdHost = nodeC
DbdBackupHost = nodeD | DbdBackupHost = nodeD
StorageHost = nodeC | StorageHost = nodeD
Or maybe just set different conf and don’t use the “DbdBackupHost” like:
DbdAddr = nodeC | DbdAddr = nodeD
DbdHost = nodeC | DbdHost = nodeD
StorageHost = nodeC | StorageHost = nodeD
I’m quite confused about the usage of DbdAddr and DbdHost. What is the difference between them and why only DbdHost has the backup one?
Another confusing point is how DbdBackupHost work. I guess It is slurmctld that is responsible for selecting the available slurmdbd. Since the slurm.conf already contains “AccountingStorageHost” and “AccountingStorageBackupHost”, why we need set backupdbd again on slurmdbd side?