diff --git a/src/slurmctld/node_scheduler.c b/src/slurmctld/node_scheduler.c
index c997ceb69d1fc1517ea6c36c1b25cd76fc0d8486..7dcf0bc7e239e3f0a0b0087eb71eb324158a18be 100644
--- a/src/slurmctld/node_scheduler.c
+++ b/src/slurmctld/node_scheduler.c
@@ -159,6 +159,7 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])
  * this is a simple prototype for testing 
  * globals: node_record_count - number of nodes in the system
  *	node_record_table_ptr - pointer to global node table
+ *	last_node_update - last update time of node table
  */
 void 
 allocate_nodes (unsigned *bitmap) 
@@ -209,6 +210,8 @@ deallocate_nodes (unsigned *bitmap)
 {
 	int i;
 
+	last_node_update = time (NULL);
+
 	for (i = 0; i < node_record_count; i++) {
 		if (bit_test (bitmap, i) == 0)
 			continue;