It is typically used solely as a resource manager with a scheduler making requests to it. Resources managers provide the low-level functionality to start, hold, cancel, and monitor jobs. Without these capabilities, a scheduler alone cannot control jobs.

SLURM is an open-source resource manager designed for Linux clusters of all sizes. It provides three key functions. First it allocates exclusive and/or non-exclusive access to resources (computer nodes) to users for some duration of time so they can perform work. Second, it provides a framework for starting, executing, and monitoring work (typically a parallel job) on a set of allocated nodes. Finally, it arbitrates contention for resources by managing a queue of pending work.