Partitions¶
Partitions are Slurm's mechanism for dividing the cluster's limited GPU
resources fairly among jobs. Each partition applies a different combination of
resource limits, maximum run time, and priority. Use the Slurm flag
--partition/-p to select which partition a job runs in.
Partition details¶
Each job assigned with a priority can preempt jobs with a lower priority:
unkillable > main > long. Once preempted, the job is killed without notice
and is automatically re-queued on the same partition until resources are available.
To leverage a different preemption mechanism, see the
Handling preemption page.
| Partition | Max Resource Usage | Max Time | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
unkillable |
6 CPUs, mem=32G, 1 GPU | 2 days | |
unkillable-cpu |
2 CPUs, mem=16G | 2 days | CPU-only jobs |
short-unkillable |
mem=1000G, 4 GPUs | 3 hours | Large but short jobs. Restricted to 4-GPU nodes only |
main |
8 CPUs, mem=48G, 2 GPUs | 5 days | |
main-cpu |
8 CPUs, mem=64G | 5 days | CPU-only jobs |
long |
No limit of resources | 7 days | |
long-cpu |
No limit of resources | 7 days | CPU-only jobs |
Important: H100 GPUs Partition Restrictions
H100 GPUs are ONLY available in the short-unkillable partition.
The short-unkillable partition is restricted to 4-GPU nodes only,
specifically:
- cn-g nodes: A100 80GB GPUs (4 GPUs per node)
- cn-l nodes: L40S GPUs (4 GPUs per node)
As an exception, it also contains the H100 nodes:
- cn-n nodes: H100 GPUs (8 GPUs per node, but only 4 can be used per job)
For a complete list of node specifications and GPU details, see Node profile description.
Note
As a convenience, requesting the unkillable, main, or long
partition for a CPU-only job automatically translates it to the -cpu
equivalent.
When to use each partition and GPU availability¶
The following table provides a quick reference guide for choosing partitions and understanding GPU availability:
| Partition | When to use | Available GPUs |
|---|---|---|
unkillable |
High-priority jobs that cannot be interrupted. | All GPU types |
short-unkillable |
Large short jobs that need high priority and cannot be interrupted. | Restricted to 4-GPU nodes only |
main |
Standard priority jobs with moderate runtime needs. | All GPU types |
long |
Long-running jobs that can tolerate preemption. | All GPU types except H100 |
*-cpu |
CPU-only jobs (no GPU required). | N/A (CPU-only nodes) |