Interactive SLURM SSH Sessions

A streamlined solution for running interactive SSH sessions on SLURM compute nodes, designed for seamless integration with VSCode Remote-SSH and other development tools.

🚀 Quick Start

Setup (One Command)

git clone https://github.com/aihpi/interactive-slurm.git
cd interactive-slurm
./setup.sh

The setup script automatically:

• ✅ Generates SSH keys and configures access
• ✅ Installs scripts on your HPC cluster
• ✅ Sets up VSCode integration
• ✅ Handles container options if needed

Connect

ssh slurm-cpu

That's it! You now have access to a compute node with:

• VSCode Remote-SSH support
• Automatic updates (runs in background)
• Full SLURM integration
• Optional container support
• Multiple GPU types (A30 and H100)

✨ Features

• 🚀 One-Command Setup: Fully automated installation
• 🆙 Auto-Updates: Scripts update themselves automatically from GitHub
• 🎯 VSCode Ready: Perfect Remote-SSH integration
• 🔧 Simple Management: Use remote commands for all operations
• 🔐 Secure: Automatic SSH key management
• 🖥️ Multiple GPU Types: Support for A30 (gpuswap) and H100 GPUs
• ⚡ H100 Performance: Access to high-performance H100 GPUs on aisc-shortrun partition

📋 Prerequisites

• Access to a SLURM-managed HPC cluster
• SSH access to the cluster's login node
• VSCode with Remote-SSH extension (optional)

🖥️ Basic Usage

Connect to CPU Environment

ssh slurm-cpu

VSCode Integration

1. Install Extension: Get "Remote-SSH" from VSCode marketplace
2. Connect: Press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P → "Remote-SSH: Connect to Host"
3. Select Host: Choose slurm-cpu from the list
4. Start Coding: VSCode connects to the compute node automatically!

Manage Sessions

# List running jobs
remote list

# Switch to A30 GPU environment
remote gpuswap

# Reserve H100 GPUs (default: 1 GPU)
remote h100

# Reserve multiple H100 GPUs
remote h100 4

# Use H100 with container image
remote h100 2 /path/to/container.sqsh

# Exit all interactive sessions
remote exit

# Check for updates
remote check

# Update to latest version
remote update

🆙 Auto-Updates

Automatic: When you connect, scripts check for updates in the background (once daily) and apply them automatically.

Manual Control:

# Check for updates
remote check

# Force update
remote update

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Connection takes too long (>5 minutes):

# Check job status
ssh login.hpc.yourcluster.edu
squeue --me

VSCode connection fails:

1. Test command line first: ssh slurm-cpu
2. Check VSCode timeout settings: remote.SSH.connectTimeout ≥ 300
3. View logs: VSCode → Output → Remote-SSH

Get help:

remote help

📚 More Information

• Testing Guide: TESTING.md
• Technical Details: DEV.md
• Change Log: CHANGELOG.md

Based on

Interactive SLURM builds upon vscode-remote-hpc with enhanced automation and auto-update capabilities.