oss.rst

Optimizer state sharding
========================

Using torch.nn.parallel.DistributedDataParallel leads to some wasted communications in the case of OSS, but it is possible and makes OSS a drop in solution in your existing torch distributed code.
Let's suppose that your trainer looks like

.. code-block:: python


    import torch
    from torch.nn.parallel import DistributedDataParallel as DDP


    def train(
        rank: int,
        world_size: int,
        epochs: int):

        # DDP
        dist_init(rank, world_size)

        # Problem statement
        model = myAwesomeModel().to(rank)
        model = DDP(model, device_ids=[rank])
        dataloader = mySuperFastDataloader()
        loss_ln = myVeryRelevantLoss()

        # optimizer specific arguments e.g. LR, momentum, etc...
        base_optimizer_arguments = { "lr": 1e-4}
        optimizer = torch.optim.SGD(
            params=model.parameters(),
            **base_optimizer_arguments)

        # Any relevant training loop, nothing specific to OSS. For example:
        model.train()
        for e in range(epochs):
            for (data, target) in dataloader:
                data, target = data.to(rank), target.to(rank)
                # Train
                model.zero_grad()
                outputs = model(data)
                loss = loss_fn(outputs, target)
                loss.backward()
                optimizer.step()


Then sharding the optimizer state is merely a matter of wrapping your optimizer in fairscale.optim.OSS, as follows

.. code-block:: python


    import torch
    from fairscale.optim.oss import OSS
    from torch.nn.parallel import DistributedDataParallel as DDP

    def train(
        rank: int,
        world_size: int,
        epochs: int):

        # DDP
        dist_init(rank, world_size)

        # Problem statement
        model = myAwesomeModel().to(rank)
        model = DDP(model, device_ids=[rank])
        dataloader = mySuperFastDataloader()
        loss_ln = myVeryRelevantLoss()

        # optimizer specific arguments e.g. LR, momentum, etc...
        base_optimizer_arguments = { "lr": 1e-4}

        # ** NEW ** Wrap a base optimizer into OSS
        base_optimizer = torch.optim.SGD  # any pytorch compliant optimizer
        optimizer = OSS(
            params=model.parameters(),
            optim=base_optimizer,
            **base_optimizer_arguments)

        # Any relevant training loop, nothing specific to OSS. For example:
        model.train()
        for e in range(epochs):
            for (data, target) in dataloader:
                data, target = data.to(rank), target.to(rank)
                # Train
                model.zero_grad()
                outputs = model(data)
                loss = loss_fn(outputs, target)
                loss.backward()
                optimizer.step()


The above `train` function will then need to be run via a `multiprocessing.spawn` function.

.. code-block:: python


    mp.spawn(
            train,
            args=(WORLD_SIZE, EPOCHS),
            nprocs=WORLD_SIZE,
            join=True
        )


to see it in action, you can test it with the following script `here <../../../examples/tutorial_oss.py>`_.

Using PyTorch Automatic Mixed Precision is possible, but it requires a shard-aware GradScaler, which is available in
`fairscale.optim.grad_scaler`. Autocast can be used as is, and the loss will be scaled and handled in the same way.
See [the original documentation] (https://pytorch.org/docs/stable/notes/amp_examples.html?highlight=automatic%20mixed%20precision)
for more information.

.. code-block:: python



    from fairscale.optim.grad_scaler import ShardedGradScaler


    # Creates model and optimizer in default precision
    model = Net().cuda()
    optimizer = optim.SGD(model.parameters(), ...)

    # Creates a ShardedGradScaler once at the beginning of training.
    scaler = ShardedGradScaler()

    for epoch in epochs:
        for input, target in data:
            optimizer.zero_grad()

            # Runs the forward pass with autocasting.
            with autocast():
                output = model(input)
                loss = loss_fn(output, target)

            # Scales loss.  Calls backward() on scaled loss to create scaled gradients.
            # Backward passes under autocast are not recommended.
            # Backward ops run in the same dtype autocast chose for corresponding forward ops.
            scaler.scale(loss).backward()

            # scaler.step() first unscales the gradients of the optimizer's assigned params.
            # If these gradients do not contain infs or NaNs, optimizer.step() is then called,
            # otherwise, optimizer.step() is skipped.
            scaler.step(optimizer)

            # Updates the scale for next iteration.
            scaler.update()