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User Management

Crusoe Managed Slurm allows you to create multiple Linux users with access to your Slurm cluster. Each user is provisioned across all Slurm components — login nodes, compute nodes, and the controller. Users are managed via the SlurmUser Kubernetes Custom Resource, and groups via the SlurmUserGroup Custom Resource.

info

CLI-based user management is coming soon. For now, users and groups are managed via kubectl.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Managed Slurm cluster (see Quickstart)
  • kubectl configured with access to the CMK cluster backing the Slurm cluster. Since the name of the backing CMK cluster matches the name of your Slurm cluster, the following command will give kubectl the correct credentials:
    crusoe kubernetes clusters get-credentials <slurm-cluster-name>

Get Your Cluster Name​

Run the following command to find the SlurmCluster name used as the clusterReference in user and group resources:

kubectl get slurmclusters -n slurm

Example output:

NAMESPACE   NAME                        AGE
slurm       my-slurm-cluster            4h25m

Limitations​

  • By default, all users have sudo access (via the slurm-admin group). Set disableSudo: true in the user spec to remove sudo access.
  • Usernames must be valid POSIX usernames: max 32 characters, start with a lowercase letter, contain only lowercase letters, digits, or hyphens, and not end with a hyphen
  • UIDs are automatically assigned from the range 10000–29999. Group GIDs are assigned from the range 50000–65533.
  • Changes to users or groups take approximately one minute to propagate through the cluster

Managing Users​

Creating a User​

Create a file named user-alice.yaml:

apiVersion: slurm.crusoe.ai/v1alpha1
kind: SlurmUser
metadata:
  name: alice # POSIX username (max 32 chars, lowercase + digits + hyphens)
  namespace: slurm
spec:
  clusterReference: my-slurm-cluster # Must match your SlurmCluster name (immutable after creation)
  fullName: "Alice Johnson" # Optional — GECOS field
  shell: /bin/bash # Optional — defaults to /bin/bash
  sshPublicKeys: # One or more SSH public keys
    - ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3... alice@laptop
  disableSudo: false # Optional — set to true to remove sudo access (default: false)

Apply it:

kubectl apply -f user-alice.yaml

The user can now SSH into the login nodes:

ssh -i <path-to-private-key> alice@<login-node-endpoint>
tip

Find the login node IP using crusoe slurm clusters get <cluster-name> and looking at the login node endpoint field. You can also find the login node IP in the UI in the Slurm cluster detail view. Alternatively:

kubectl get svc -n slurm

The EXTERNAL-IP of the login service is the login node IP.

Listing Users​

kubectl get slurmusers -n slurm

Example output:

NAMESPACE   NAME    USERNAME   UID     GID     CLUSTER              CREATED   AGE
slurm       alice   alice      10001   10001   my-slurm-cluster     True      8s

Updating a User​

The sshPublicKeys, fullName, shell, and disableSudo fields can be updated after creation. The clusterReference field is immutable. Use the following command:

kubectl edit slurmuser -n slurm alice
tip

Use kubectl explain slurmusers.spec to see all available fields and their descriptions directly from the cluster.

Deleting a User​

kubectl delete slurmuser -n slurm alice

The user immediately loses access to the Slurm cluster.

Managing Groups​

SlurmUserGroup resources let you organize users into groups for features like partition access control.

Creating a Group​

Create a file named group-ml-team.yaml:

apiVersion: slurm.crusoe.ai/v1alpha1
kind: SlurmUserGroup
metadata:
  name: ml-team # POSIX group name (max 32 chars, same naming rules as users)
  namespace: slurm
spec:
  clusterReference: my-slurm-cluster # Must match your SlurmCluster name (immutable after creation)
  members: # List of SlurmUser names
    - alice
    - bob

Apply it:

kubectl apply -f group-ml-team.yaml
note

Users must reconnect their SSH session to pick up new group membership.

Listing Groups​

kubectl get slurmusergroups -n slurm

Example output:

NAMESPACE   NAME      GROUPNAME   GID     MEMBERS   CLUSTER              CREATED   AGE
slurm       ml-team   ml-team     50000   2         my-slurm-cluster     True      80s

Updating a Group​

Add or remove users by editing the spec.members list:

kubectl edit slurmusergroup -n slurm ml-team

Deleting a Group​

kubectl delete slurmusergroup -n slurm ml-team

Next Steps​