# Step 5 – Configure the connection to the AWS PCS cluster
<a name="working-with_login-nodes_standalone_configure-connection"></a>

To establish a connection to the AWS PCS cluster, launch `sackd` as a system service by following these steps.

**Note**  
 If you use Slurm 25.05 or later, you can use a script to set up your login node to connect to multiple clusters instead. For more information, see [Connecting a standalone login node to multiple clusters in AWS PCS](multi-cluster-login-script.md). 

1. Set up the environment file for the `sackd` service with the command that follows. Before running the command, replace *ip-address* and *port* with the values retrieved from endpoints in [Step 1](working-with_login-nodes_standalone_get-addr.md).

   ```
   sudo echo "SACKD_OPTIONS='--conf-server=ip-address:port'" > /etc/sysconfig/sackd
   ```

1. Create a `systemd` service file for managing the `sackd` process.

   ```
   sudo cat << EOF > /etc/systemd/system/sackd.service
   [Unit]
   Description=Slurm auth and cred kiosk daemon
   After=network-online.target remote-fs.target
   Wants=network-online.target
   ConditionPathExists=/etc/sysconfig/sackd
   
   [Service]
   Type=notify
   EnvironmentFile=/etc/sysconfig/sackd
   User=slurm
   Group=slurm
   RuntimeDirectory=slurm
   RuntimeDirectoryMode=0755
   ExecStart=/opt/aws/pcs/scheduler/slurm-25.11/sbin/sackd --systemd \$SACKD_OPTIONS
   ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP \$MAINPID
   KillMode=process
   LimitNOFILE=131072
   LimitMEMLOCK=infinity
   LimitSTACK=infinity
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target
   EOF
   ```

1. Set ownership of the `sackd` service file.

   ```
   sudo chown root:root /etc/systemd/system/sackd.service && \
       sudo chmod 0644 /etc/systemd/system/sackd.service
   ```

1. Enable the `sackd` service.

   ```
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable sackd
   ```

1. Start the `sackd` service.

   ```
   sudo systemctl start sackd
   ```