The directories below contain solutions for provisioning Slurm clusters using the latest VM families from Google Cloud

• A3 High
• A3 Mega
• A3 Ultra
• A4
• A4X
• A4X Max
• TPU7x

Further documentation for A3 High, A3 Mega, A3 Ultra, A4 and A4X solutions are available at Create a self-managed Slurm cluster for AI workloads.

You can control which groups in a blueprint are deployed or destroyed using the --only and --skip flags with the gcluster deploy and gcluster destroy commands. This is useful for saving time by not acting on components unnecessarily or for more granular control over resources.

A blueprint is divided into logical groups (the exact group names depend on the blueprint YAML). Check the blueprint file (e.g., ...-blueprint.yaml) for the exact group names for that blueprint.

Use the --only flag to have the command act on only the specified, comma-separated groups. Other groups will be untouched.

Examples:

• Deploy only the base group (for a3high-slurm-blueprint.yaml, which has groups base, build-script, image, cluster; a3mega-slurm-blueprint.yaml uses primary, build_script, slurm-build, cluster):

./gcluster deploy -d examples/machine-learning/a3-highgpu-8g/a3high-slurm-deployment.yaml examples/machine-learning/a3-highgpu-8g/a3high-slurm-blueprint.yaml --only base

• Destroy only the image group:

./gcluster destroy deployment-name --only image

• Deploy only the cluster-env group (for a3ultra-slurm-blueprint.yaml, a4high-slurm-blueprint.yaml, a4xhigh-slurm-blueprint.yaml, and tpu7x-slurm-blueprint.yaml, which have groups cluster-env and cluster; a4xmax-bm-slurm-blueprint.yaml has groups image-env, image, cluster-env, and cluster):

./gcluster deploy -d examples/machine-learning/a4-highgpu-8g/a4high-slurm-deployment.yaml examples/machine-learning/a4-highgpu-8g/a4high-slurm-blueprint.yaml --only cluster-env

Use the --skip flag to have the command act on all groups except those specified in the comma-separated list.

Examples:

• Deploy everything except the image group (on a3high-slurm-blueprint.yaml):

./gcluster deploy -d examples/machine-learning/a3-highgpu-8g/a3high-slurm-deployment.yaml examples/machine-learning/a3-highgpu-8g/a3high-slurm-blueprint.yaml --skip image

• Destroy only cluster while keeping cluster-env (networking and Managed Lustre) intact:

./gcluster destroy deployment-name --skip cluster-env

Use cases:

• Faster iteration: When developing, only deploy the group you are modifying (e.g., --only base).
• Partial teardown: Selectively destroy parts of a deployment without affecting others (e.g., --only image to remove image but keep networking and other things).
• Avoiding unchanged parts: Use --skip to not redeploy parts you know are stable or should be preserved (e.g., --skip cluster,image).
• Retry failed operations: If a deploy or destroy fails on a specific group, rerun the command targeting just that group using --only.

Notes:

• The exact group names vary by blueprint. Always consult the blueprint YAML used in the command for the correct names.
• The initial deployment may have additional constraints (for example, images may always need to be built the first time). Check the blueprint-specific README for blueprint-specific restrictions.