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On-Premises clusters

Connect your own infrastructure to Vantage using Ansible, Terraform, Kubernetes, Juju, Multipass, or manual setup.

On-Premises clusters

On-premises clusters run on infrastructure you control — bare-metal servers, local VMs, or LXD containers. Vantage supports multiple methods for connecting your infrastructure, each suited to a different use case and level of automation.

Ansible
Terraform
Kubernetes
Juju
Multipass
Manual

Prerequisites​

All on-premises methods require:

Use the vantage-agents Ansible role to automate connecting your Slurm cluster to Vantage. The role installs and configures both vantage-agent and jobbergate-agent on your controller node.

Prerequisites​

  • An existing Slurm cluster with SSH access to the controller node
  • Ansible 2.9+ installed on your workstation
  • OIDC credentials from your Vantage cluster (client ID and client secret)

1. Create a Slurm cluster in Vantage​

  1. Open Clusters — Click Clusters in the left sidebar, then click Slurm in the cluster type navigation, then click Prepare Cluster.

  2. Configure the cluster:

    • Enter a Cluster Name (max 27 characters, must be unique).
    • Select your On-Premises or LXD cloud account.

  3. Submit — Click Create Cluster. Note the OIDC Client ID and OIDC Client Secret from the cluster detail page — you will need these in the next step.

2. Install the Ansible role​

ansible-galaxy install git+https://github.com/vantagecompute/ansible-role-vantage_agents.git,vantage_agents

3. Create a playbook​

- hosts: util_node
  become: true
  vars:
    oidc_client_id: "<your-oidc-client-id>"
    oidc_client_secret: "<your-oidc-client-secret>"
    cluster_name: "<your-cluster-name>"
    install_type: "snap"   # or "pypi"
  roles:
    - role: vantage_agents

4. Run the playbook​

ansible-playbook -i your_inventory your_playbook.yml

5. Verify the connection​

Once the playbook completes:

  • The cluster transitions from preparing to ready in the Vantage UI
  • Nodes appear in the cluster detail page as they register
  • You can submit jobs and launch notebooks immediately
tip

The Ansible role supports both Snap (default) and PyPI installation methods. Set install_type: "pypi" in your playbook vars to use Python virtual environments with systemd services instead of Snap packages.

Next steps​

Which method should I use?​

  • Ansible — You manage your Slurm infrastructure with Ansible and want automated, repeatable deployments.
  • Terraform — You manage your Slurm infrastructure with Terraform and want infrastructure-as-code deployments.
  • Kubernetes — You have an existing Kubernetes cluster and want to connect it to Vantage.
  • Juju (Charmed HPC) — You want a multi-node Slurm environment that simulates a production HPC cluster, running locally in LXD containers.
  • Multipass — You want a quick, single-node Slurm environment on your laptop for development and testing.
  • Manual — You have existing servers or bare-metal hardware and want full control over the installation process. Supports both Slurm and Kubernetes.
tip

Ansible, Terraform, and Juju clusters are configured through their respective tooling. Manual clusters are configured through the Vantage web UI. Multipass clusters are created through the Vantage CLI.

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