diff --git a/ansible/cheaha.yml b/ansible/cheaha.yml
index 0f283d26e6ecbc106e12370ddf9de9c3e262efe7..910268e05f7923f1a20b6828fa30ea11cf4cec2e 100644
--- a/ansible/cheaha.yml
+++ b/ansible/cheaha.yml
@@ -7,4 +7,4 @@
     - { name: 'cheaha.node', tags: 'cheaha.node' }
     - { name: 'nfs_mounts', tags: 'nfs_mounts' }
     - { name: 'ldap_config', tags: 'ldap_config' }
-    - { name: 'slurm_client', tags: 'slurm_client', when: "'proxy' not in group_names" }
+    - { name: 'slurm_client', tags: 'slurm_client', when: enable_slurm_client }
diff --git a/ansible/group_vars/all b/ansible/group_vars/all
index c3cb579071cdc214c1c0d311f35d7258ee9126c8..d1d270fa523e65f3c10a5a10ad271916431c8a99 100644
--- a/ansible/group_vars/all
+++ b/ansible/group_vars/all
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
   yum_repo_files: []
   pkg_list: []
   slurm_version: 18.08.9
+  enable_slurm_client: false
 
 # NHC related
   nhc_download_url: "https://github.com/mej/nhc/releases/download/1.4.3/lbnl-nhc-1.4.3-1.el7.noarch.rpm"