ADLR/megatron-lm!2414 - Remove all-gather before first iteration to n…

…ot spread corrupted values

megatron/core/distributed/distributed_data_parallel.py

@@ -297,9 +297,10 @@ def enable_forward_pre_hook(self):
                 self._make_forward_pre_hook()
             )
 
-    def disable_forward_pre_hook(self):
+    def disable_forward_pre_hook(self, param_sync: bool = True):
         """
         Disable forward pre-hooks needed for param all-gather overlap with forward compute.
+        Skip synchronous param all-gather if `param_sync` is False.
         """
         assert self.use_forward_hook
         # De-register forward pre-hook for all sub-modules.
@@ -310,7 +311,8 @@ def disable_forward_pre_hook(self):
         assert len(self.remove_forward_pre_hook_handles) == 0
 
         # Force synchronize parameters.
-        self.start_param_sync(force_sync=True)
+        if param_sync:
+            self.start_param_sync(force_sync=True)
 
     def _make_forward_pre_hook(self):
         """

megatron/core/distributed/param_and_grad_buffer.py

@@ -270,13 +270,12 @@ def start_grad_sync(self):
         if self.ddp_config.average_in_collective:
             reduce_op = torch.distributed.ReduceOp.AVG
 
-        # Stream synchronization logic of the CUDA streams that is
-        # implemented below for the gradient reduction within and across
-        # distributed optimizer instances.
+        # We use the following stream synchronization for the gradient reduction
+        # within and across DistOpt instances.
 
-        # Compute Stream - -------------Gradient Compute-------------------
-        # Comm. Stream   - ------(wait for nccl)-----(wait for nccl)-------
-        # NCCL Stream    -       -------RS------     -------AR------
+        # Compute Stream: -------------Gradient compute-------------------
+        # Comm. Stream:   ------(wait for NCCL)-----(wait for NCCL)-------
+        # NCCL Stream:          -------RS------     -------AR------
 
         # Use async communications only when overlap_grad_reduce is True.
         async_op = (
@@ -287,13 +286,13 @@ def start_grad_sync(self):
             self.ddp_config.num_distributed_optimizer_instances > 1
             and self.ddp_config.overlap_grad_reduce
         ):
-            # Assign a communication stream if we use partial DP DistOpt and we
-            # need to overlap communication
+            # Assign a communication stream if we have multiple DistOpt instances and we
+            # need to overlap communication.
             stream_context = torch.cuda.stream(self.communication_stream)
 
             # The RS/AR communication stream needs to wait for the default stream
             # to complete its gradient computation before launching the next
-            # gradient reduction collective
+            # gradient reduction collective.
             self.communication_stream.wait_stream(torch.cuda.default_stream())
         else:
             stream_context = nullcontext()
@@ -314,24 +313,21 @@ def start_grad_sync(self):
                         local_data_view,
                         bucket.grad_data,
                         op=reduce_op,
-                        group=self.intra_distributed_optimizer_instance_group,
+                        group=communication_group,
                         async_op=async_op,
                     )
                 else:
                     torch.distributed.all_reduce(
-                        bucket.grad_data,
-                        op=reduce_op,
-                        group=self.data_parallel_group,
-                        async_op=async_op,
+                        bucket.grad_data, op=reduce_op, group=communication_group, async_op=async_op
                     )
 
-        # When enabling partial DP domain DistOpt, we need to All-Reduce across all partial domains
+        # With multiple DistOpt instances, we need to all-reduce across instances.
         if (
             self.ddp_config.use_distributed_optimizer
             and self.ddp_config.num_distributed_optimizer_instances > 1
         ):
 
-            # Create a new coalescing facility for the inter partial DP-AllReduce here
+            # Create a new coalescing manager for the inter-instance all-reduce.
             with stream_context, _coalescing_manager(
                 self.inter_distributed_optimizer_instance_group, async_ops=async_op
             ) as cm:
@@ -366,13 +362,13 @@ def finish_grad_sync(self):
         communication call to complete. When ddp_config.overlap_grad_reduce is set to False,
         makes synchronous call.
         """
-        # If overlap_grad_reduce is False, start (and finish) synchronous communication call here.
         self.param_gather_dispatched = False
+        # If overlap_grad_reduce is False, start (and finish) synchronous communication call here.
         if not self.ddp_config.overlap_grad_reduce:
             self.start_grad_sync()
             return
-        # When using partial DP DistOpt, we don't need to sync as we launch comms on a separate
-        # communication stream
+        # When using multiple DistOpt instances, we don't need to sync here as we launch
+        # communications on a separate communication stream.
         if self.ddp_config.num_distributed_optimizer_instances > 1:
             torch.cuda.default_stream().wait_stream(self.communication_stream)
             return

megatron/core/optimizer/optimizer.py

@@ -213,13 +213,6 @@ def scale_loss(self, loss: torch.Tensor) -> torch.Tensor:
         """Simple scaling."""
         return self.get_loss_scale() * loss
 
-    def start_param_sync(self, model_index: int, *unused):
-        """
-        Start parameter synchronization for all optimizers.
-        This is a no-op for all non-distributed optimizers.
-        """
-        pass
-
     @abstractmethod
     def reload_model_params(self):
         """Refreshes any internal state from the current model parameters.
@@ -1062,8 +1055,3 @@ def load_parameter_state(self, filename: str, *, update_legacy_format: bool = Fa
             optimizer.load_parameter_state_from_dp_zero(
                 state_dict, update_legacy_format=update_legacy_format
             )
-
-    def start_param_sync(self, model_index: int, *unused):
-        """Start parameter synchronization for all optimizers."""
-        for optimizer in self.chained_optimizers:
-            optimizer.start_param_sync(model_index, *unused)

megatron/training/training.py

@@ -1113,10 +1113,10 @@ def enable_forward_pre_hook(model_chunks):
         model_chunk.enable_forward_pre_hook()
 
 
-def disable_forward_pre_hook(model_chunks):
+def disable_forward_pre_hook(model_chunks, param_sync=True):
     for model_chunk in model_chunks:
         assert isinstance(model_chunk, DDP)
-        model_chunk.disable_forward_pre_hook()
+        model_chunk.disable_forward_pre_hook(param_sync=param_sync)
 
 
 def save_checkpoint_and_time(iteration, model, optimizer, opt_param_scheduler,
@@ -1412,6 +1412,23 @@ def get_e2e_base_metrics():
         with_stack=True)
         prof.start()
 
+    start_iteration = iteration
+    # Disable forward pre-hook to start training to ensure that errors in checkpoint loading
+    # or random initialization don't propagate to all ranks in first all-gather (which is a
+    # no-op if things work correctly).
+    if args.use_distributed_optimizer and args.overlap_param_gather:
+        disable_forward_pre_hook(model, param_sync=False)
+        # Also remove param_sync_func temporarily so that sync calls made in
+        # `forward_backward_func` are no-ops.
+        param_sync_func = config.param_sync_func
+        config.param_sync_func = None
+    # Also, check weight hash across DP replicas to be very pedantic.
+    if args.check_weight_hash_across_dp_replicas_interval is not None:
+        assert check_param_hashes_across_dp_replicas(model, cross_check=True), \
+            "Parameter hashes not matching across DP replicas"
+        torch.distributed.barrier()
+        print_rank_0(f">>> Weight hashes match after {iteration} iterations...")
+
     # Run training iterations till done.
     while iteration < args.train_iters:
         if args.profile and torch.distributed.get_rank() in args.profile_ranks:
@@ -1456,7 +1473,24 @@ def get_e2e_base_metrics():
                                      checkpointing_context, train_data_iterator=train_data_iterator)
         if should_exit:
             break
-        # why is skipped_iter ignored?
+
+        # Enable forward pre-hooks after first set of forward and backward passes.
+        # When running in fp16, skip all NaN iterations until steady-state loss scaling value
+        # is reached.
+        if iteration == start_iteration:
+            if skipped_iter:
+                # Only enable forward pre-hook after a training step has successfully run. Relevant
+                # for fp16 codepath where first XX iterations are skipped until steady-state loss
+                # scale value is reached.
+                start_iteration = iteration + 1
+            else:
+                # Enable forward pre-hook after training step has successfully run. All subsequent
+                # forward passes will use the forward pre-hook / `param_sync_func` in
+                # `forward_backward_func`.
+                if args.use_distributed_optimizer and args.overlap_param_gather:
+                    enable_forward_pre_hook(model)
+                    config.param_sync_func = param_sync_func
+
         iteration += 1
         batch_size = mpu.get_data_parallel_world_size() * \
                      args.micro_batch_size * \