diff --git a/src/slurmctld/job_mgr.c b/src/slurmctld/job_mgr.c
index f0485e490eaad192b3efb93687dea78b1ebcb57b..4624d5f799523084b9a5d0347ac6718723b5879b 100644
--- a/src/slurmctld/job_mgr.c
+++ b/src/slurmctld/job_mgr.c
@@ -4284,7 +4284,10 @@ static void _suspend_job(struct job_record *job_ptr, uint16_t op)
 
 	agent_args = xmalloc(sizeof(agent_arg_t));
 	agent_args->msg_type = REQUEST_SUSPEND;
-	agent_args->retry = 1;
+	agent_args->retry = 0;	/* don't resend or gang schedulers
+				 * (sched/gang or sched/wiki) can
+				 * can quickly induce huge backlog
+				 * of agent.c RPCs */
 	agent_args->hostlist = hostlist_create("");
 	sus_ptr = xmalloc(sizeof(suspend_msg_t));
 	sus_ptr->job_id = job_ptr->job_id;
diff --git a/src/slurmctld/node_scheduler.c b/src/slurmctld/node_scheduler.c
index 3c3891dc408b48d2bbe13f8a5421cf7a5caad86a..686c4808ed8c1cada2ba39dc1964a450442bf185 100644
--- a/src/slurmctld/node_scheduler.c
+++ b/src/slurmctld/node_scheduler.c
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ extern void deallocate_nodes(struct job_record *job_ptr, bool timeout,
 		agent_args->msg_type = REQUEST_KILL_TIMELIMIT;
 	else
 		agent_args->msg_type = REQUEST_TERMINATE_JOB;
-	agent_args->retry = 1;
+	agent_args->retry = 0;	/* re_kill_job() resends as needed */
 	agent_args->hostlist = hostlist_create("");
 	kill_job = xmalloc(sizeof(kill_job_msg_t));
 	last_node_update = time(NULL);