[slurm-users] Novice Slurm Upgrade Questions

[Jason Simms]

Dear Ole,

Thanks. I've read through your docs many times. The relevant upgrade
section begins with the assumption that you have properly configured RPMs,
so all I'm trying to do is ensure I get to that point. As I noted, a vendor
installed Slurm initially through a proprietary script, though they did
base it off of created RPMs. I've reached out to them to see whether they
used a modified slurm.spec file, which I suspect they did, given that Slurm
is installed in /opt/slurm (which seems like a modified prefix, if nothing
else).

The fundamental question is, if I am performing a yum update, and I don't
adjust any settings in the default slurm.spec file, will it upgrade
everything properly where they currently "live," or will it install new
files in standard locations? It's a question of whether "yum update" is
"smart enough" to figure out what was done before and go with that, or
whether I must specify all relevant information in the slurm.spec file each
time? Based on Paul's reply, it seems we do need an updated slurm.spec file
that reflects our environment, each time we upgrade.

Jason

On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 3:13 PM Ole Holm Nielsen <Ole.H.Nielsen at fysik.dtu.dk>
wrote:

> Hi Jason,
>
> Slurm upgrading should be pretty simple, IMHO.  I've been through this
> multiple times, and my Slurm Wiki has detailed upgrade documentation:
> https://wiki.fysik.dtu.dk/niflheim/Slurm_installation#upgrading-slurm
>
> Building RPMs is described in this page as well:
> https://wiki.fysik.dtu.dk/niflheim/Slurm_installation#build-slurm-rpms
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> /Ole
>
>
> On 04-12-2020 20:36, Jason Simms wrote:
> > Thank you for being such a helpful resource for All Things Slurm; I
> > sincerely appreciate the helpful feedback. Right now, we are running
> > 20.02 and considering upgrading to 20.11 during our next maintenance
> > window in January. This will be the first time we have upgraded Slurm,
> > so understandably we are somewhat nervous and have some questions.
> >
> > I am able to download the source and build RPMs successfully. What is
> > unclear to me is whether I have to adjust anything in the slurm.spec
> > file or use a .rpmmacros file to control certain aspects of the
> > installation. Since this would be an upgrade, rather than a new install,
> > do I have to adjust, e.g., the --prefix value, and all other settings
> > (X11 support, etc.)? Or, will a yum update "correctly" put the files
> > where they are on my system, using settings from the existing 20.02
> version?
> >
> > We purchased the system from a vendor, and of course they use custom
> > scripts to build and install Slurm, and those are tailored for an
> > initial installation, not an upgrade. Their advice to us was, don't
> > upgrade if you don't need to, which seems reasonable, except that many
> > of you respond to initial requests for help by recommending an upgrade.
> > And in any case, Slurm doesn't upgrade nicely from more than two major
> > versions back, so I'm hesitant to go too long without patching.
> >
> > I'm terribly sorry for my ignorance of all this. But I really lament how
> > terrible most resources are about all this. They assume that you have
> > built the RPMs already, without offering any real guidance as to how to
> > adjust relevant options, or even whether that is a requirement for an
> > upgrade vs. a fresh installation.
> >
> > Any guidance would be most welcome.
>
>
>
>

-- 
*Jason L. Simms, Ph.D., M.P.H.*
Manager of Research and High-Performance Computing
XSEDE Campus Champion
Lafayette College
Information Technology Services
710 Sullivan Rd | Easton, PA 18042
Office: 112 Skillman Library
p: (610) 330-5632
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.schedmd.com/pipermail/slurm-users/attachments/20201204/477de970/attachment.htm>