Clusters
Clusters are the compute environments where all Vantage workloads run — from Workbench sessions and training jobs to HPC batch pipelines. Vantage provisions and manages clusters on your behalf across public cloud, partner, and on-premises infrastructure.
Vantage supports three cluster types:
- Slurm — Traditional HPC batch scheduler. Best for simulations, MPI workloads, batch pipelines, and any workload that needs a queue-based scheduler with fine-grained partition control.
- Kubernetes — Managed platform cluster for Workbench sessions, ML training, model serving, and containerized workloads. Runs MicroK8s with Vantage-managed control plane, autoscaling, and observability.
- Slurm on Kubernetes — A Slurm scheduler deployed inside an existing Kubernetes cluster. Gives you HPC scheduling on cloud-native, auto-scaled infrastructure without managing a separate Slurm controller fleet.
- On-Premises — Connect your own infrastructure using Ansible, Terraform, manual setup, Multipass, or Juju (Charmed HPC). Manual and automated (Ansible/Terraform) clusters support both Slurm and Kubernetes. Multipass and Juju provide local Slurm environments for development and testing.
Getting started
Start with the quickstart to create your first cluster in minutes, then choose a guide based on your workload:
| If you want... | Start here |
|---|---|
| Batch HPC jobs with Slurm | Slurm overview |
| Interactive ML development | Kubernetes overview |
| HPC on cloud-native infra | Slurm on Kubernetes |
| On-premises HPC without cloud | On-Premises overview |
Supported providers
Vantage provisions clusters on five infrastructure types:
| Provider | Slurm | Kubernetes | Slurm on K8s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Azure | Yes | Yes | — |
| Google Cloud Platform | Yes | Yes | — |
| On-premises / LXD / Multipass / Juju | Yes | Yes | — |
| Vantage partners (atNorth, BuzzHPC, RCI) | Yes | Yes | — |
Not every combination is available. See the provider-specific pages for details.
On-premises clusters
On-premises clusters run on infrastructure you control. Vantage supports three methods:
- Manual — Connect existing servers via the Vantage connector. Supports both Slurm and Kubernetes.
- Multipass — Single-node Slurm cluster in a local VM. Terminal only.
- Juju (Charmed HPC) — Multi-node Slurm cluster in LXD containers. Terminal only.
See On-Premises clusters for setup guides.
How clusters relate to other Vantage concepts
- Cloud accounts are the credential bindings that let Vantage provision infrastructure. One account backs multiple clusters. See Compute Providers.
- Compute profiles define the shape of compute (GPU type, count, instance class) and are shared across Workbench sessions, training jobs, and endpoints.
- Workspaces provide quota, RBAC, and cost isolation. A cluster can be shared across workspaces.