diff --git a/cookbooks/aws-parallelcluster-slurm/libraries/update.rb b/cookbooks/aws-parallelcluster-slurm/libraries/update.rb
index d4747d502c..a2df691e76 100644
--- a/cookbooks/aws-parallelcluster-slurm/libraries/update.rb
+++ b/cookbooks/aws-parallelcluster-slurm/libraries/update.rb
@@ -19,10 +19,13 @@
 require 'timeout'
 
 # Verify if Scheduling section of cluster configuration and compute node bootstrap_timeout have been updated
+# If the previous cluster config file does not exists, it assumes that queues have not been updated.
 def are_queues_updated?
   require 'yaml'
   config = YAML.safe_load(File.read(node['cluster']['cluster_config_path']))
-  previous_config = YAML.safe_load(File.read(node['cluster']['previous_cluster_config_path']))
+  previous_cluster_config_path = node['cluster']['previous_cluster_config_path']
+  return false unless File.exist?(previous_cluster_config_path)
+  previous_config = YAML.safe_load(File.read(previous_cluster_config_path))
   config["Scheduling"] != previous_config["Scheduling"] or is_compute_node_bootstrap_timeout_updated?(previous_config, config)
 end
 
diff --git a/cookbooks/aws-parallelcluster-slurm/spec/unit/libraries/update_spec.rb b/cookbooks/aws-parallelcluster-slurm/spec/unit/libraries/update_spec.rb
index c4e9c8297b..22a8f28f3d 100644
--- a/cookbooks/aws-parallelcluster-slurm/spec/unit/libraries/update_spec.rb
+++ b/cookbooks/aws-parallelcluster-slurm/spec/unit/libraries/update_spec.rb
@@ -59,4 +59,81 @@
     }
     include_examples "the correct method", changeset, true
   end
+
+  describe "aws-parallelcluster-slurm:libraries:are_queues_updated" do
+    CLUSTER_CONFIG_PATH = "/CLUSTER_CONFIG_PATH".freeze
+    PREVIOUS_CLUSTER_CONFIG_PATH = "/PREVIOUS_CLUSTER_CONFIG_PATH".freeze
+
+    let(:node) do
+      {
+        "cluster" => {
+          "cluster_config_path" => CLUSTER_CONFIG_PATH,
+          "previous_cluster_config_path" => PREVIOUS_CLUSTER_CONFIG_PATH,
+        },
+      }
+    end
+
+    shared_examples "the correct result" do |config, previous_config, file_exists, expected_result|
+      it "returns #{expected_result}" do
+        allow(File).to receive(:exist?).with(PREVIOUS_CLUSTER_CONFIG_PATH).and_return(file_exists)
+        allow(File).to receive(:read).with(CLUSTER_CONFIG_PATH).and_return(YAML.dump(config))
+        if file_exists
+          allow(File).to receive(:read).with(PREVIOUS_CLUSTER_CONFIG_PATH).and_return(YAML.dump(previous_config))
+        end
+        result = are_queues_updated?
+        expect(result).to eq(expected_result)
+      end
+    end
+
+    context "when previous cluster config file does not exist" do
+      config = {
+        "Scheduling" => { "SlurmQueues" => [] },
+      }
+      previous_config = nil
+      include_examples "the correct result", config, previous_config, false, false
+    end
+
+    context "when Scheduling sections are identical and bootstrap timeout unchanged" do
+      config = {
+        "Scheduling" => { "SlurmQueues" => [{ "Name" => "queue1" }] },
+      }
+      previous_config = {
+        "Scheduling" => { "SlurmQueues" => [{ "Name" => "queue1" }] },
+      }
+      include_examples "the correct result", config, previous_config, true, false
+    end
+
+    context "when Scheduling sections are identical and bootstrap timeout is updated" do
+      config = {
+        "Scheduling" => { "SlurmQueues" => [{ "Name" => "queue1" }] },
+        "DevSettings" => { "Timeouts" => { "ComputeNodeBootstrapTimeout" => 3600 } },
+      }
+      previous_config = {
+        "Scheduling" => { "SlurmQueues" => [{ "Name" => "queue1" }] },
+        "DevSettings" => { "Timeouts" => { "ComputeNodeBootstrapTimeout" => 1800 } },
+      }
+      include_examples "the correct result", config, previous_config, true, true
+    end
+
+    context "when Scheduling sections are identical and bootstrap timeout changes from default to explicit value" do
+      config = {
+        "Scheduling" => { "SlurmQueues" => [{ "Name" => "queue1" }] },
+        "DevSettings" => { "Timeouts" => { "ComputeNodeBootstrapTimeout" => 3600 } },
+      }
+      previous_config = {
+        "Scheduling" => { "SlurmQueues" => [{ "Name" => "queue1" }] },
+      }
+      include_examples "the correct result", config, previous_config, true, true
+    end
+
+    context "when Scheduling sections are different" do
+      config = {
+        "Scheduling" => { "SlurmQueues" => [{ "Name" => "queue2" }] },
+      }
+      previous_config = {
+        "Scheduling" => { "SlurmQueues" => [{ "Name" => "queue1" }] },
+      }
+      include_examples "the correct result", config, previous_config, true, true
+    end
+  end
 end