---
id: superbench-config
---

import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs';
import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem';


# SuperBench Config File

[YAML](https://yaml.org/spec/1.2/spec.html) format configuration file is an efficient method to take full advantage of SuperBench.
You can put it in any place and specify the path to config file through `-c /path/to/config.yaml` in `sb` CLI.

This document covers schema of SuperBench configuration YAML file.
You can learn YAML basics from [Learn YAML in Y minutes](https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/yaml/).
SuperBench configuration supports most of the YAML features, including anchors and aliases, merge key, etc.

## Conventions

Here lists syntax conventions used in this document:

* The schema and example are in YAML format.

* In YAML mappings which use a colon `:` to mark `key: value` pair.

  The left side of colon is a literal keyword defined in configuration,
  if it is surrounded by `${}`, like `${name}`, then the key is a string that can be defined by user.

  The right side of colon is a data type, which may be Python built-in types (like `string`, `dict`),
  or a rich structure defined in this document (first character capitalized).

* The notation `[ datatype ]` indicates a YAML sequence of the mentioned data type.
  For example, `[ string ]` is a list of strings.

* The notation `|` indicates there are multiple optional data types.
  For example, `string | [ string ]` means either a string or a list of strings is allowed.

## Configuration Schema

The configuration file describes all benchmarks running by SuperBench.
There will be one or more benchmarks, each benchmark has its own settings and parameters.
One benchmark may have one or more modes, which indicates how to run benchmarks in all given machines.

Here is an overview of SuperBench configuration structure:

<Tabs
  defaultValue='schema'
  values={[
    {label: 'Schema', value: 'schema'},
    {label: 'Example', value: 'example'},
  ]
}>
<TabItem value='schema'>

```yaml
version: string
superbench:
  enable: string | [ string ]
  monitor:
    enable: bool
    sample_duration: int
    sample_interval: int
  var:
    ${var_name}: dict
  benchmarks:
    ${benchmark_name}: Benchmark
```

</TabItem>
<TabItem value='example'>

```yaml
version: v0.9
superbench:
  enable: benchmark_1
  monitor:
    enable: false
    sample_duration: 10
    sample_interval: 1
  var:
    var_1: value
  benchmarks:
    benchmark_1:
      enable: true
      modes:
      - name: local
```

</TabItem>
</Tabs>

### `version`

Version of the configuration file.
Lower version `sb` CLI may not understand higher version config.

### `superbench`

SuperBench configuration for all benchmarks.

### `superbench.enable`

Enable which benchmark to run, could be one or multiple benchmarks' name.
If not specified, will use [`${benchmark_name}.enable`](#enable) in each benchmark as default.

* value from: benchmark names defined in `superbench.benchmarks`
* default value: `null`

### `superbench.monitor`

Enable monitor to collect system metrics periodically, currently only support CUDA platform. There are three settings:

#### `enable`

Whether enable the monitor module or not.

#### `sample_duration`

Calculate the average metrics during sample_duration seconds, such as CPU usage and NIC bandwidth.

#### `sample_interval`

Do sampling every sample_interval seconds.

### `superbench.var`

User-defined variables to be used in the configuration.
Leveraging YAML [anchors and aliases](https://yaml.org/spec/1.2/spec.html#id2765878),
common settings can be defined here to avoid config duplication.

Here is a usage example:

```yaml {3-6,11,15}
superbench:
  var:
    common_param: &param
      num_warmup: 16
      num_steps: 128
      batch_size: 128
  benchmarks:
    model-benchmarks:foo:
      models:
        - resnet50
      parameters: *param
    model-benchmarks:bar:
      models:
        - vgg19
      parameters: *param
```

The above configuration equals to the following:
```yaml {6-9,13-16}
superbench:
  benchmarks:
    model-benchmarks:foo:
      models:
        - resnet50
      parameters:
        num_warmup: 16
        num_steps: 128
        batch_size: 128
    model-benchmarks:bar:
      models:
        - vgg19
      parameters:
        num_warmup: 16
        num_steps: 128
        batch_size: 128
```

### `superbench.benchmarks`

Mappings of `${benchmark_name}: Benchmark`.

There are three types of benchmarks,
[micro-benchmark](./user-tutorial/benchmarks/micro-benchmarks.md),
[model-benchmark](./user-tutorial/benchmarks/model-benchmarks.md),
and [docker-benchmark](./user-tutorial/benchmarks/docker-benchmarks.md).
Each benchmark has its own unique name listed in docs.

`${benchmark_name}` can be one of the followings:
* `${benchmark_unique_name}`, it can be the exact same as benchmark's own unique name;
* `${benchmark_unique_name}:${annotation}`, or if there's a need to run one benchmark with different settings,
  an annotation separated by `:` can be appended after benchmark's unique name.

See [`Benchmark` Schema](#benchmark-schema) for benchmark definition.

## `Benchmark` Schema

Definition for each benchmark, here is an overview of `Benchmark` configuration structure:

<Tabs
  defaultValue='schema'
  values={[
    {label: 'Schema', value: 'schema'},
    {label: 'Example', value: 'example'},
  ]
}>
<TabItem value='schema'>

#### Micro-Benchmark

```yaml
${benchmark_name}:
  enable: bool
  timeout: int
  modes: [ Mode ]
  frameworks: [ enum ]
  parameters:
    run_count: int
    duration: int
    log_raw_data: bool
    ${argument}: bool | str | int | float | list
```

#### Model-Benchmark

```yaml
model-benchmarks:${annotation}:
  enable: bool
  timeout: int
  modes: [ Mode ]
  frameworks: [ enum ]
  models: [ enum ]
  parameters:
    run_count: int
    duration: int
    log_raw_data: bool
    num_warmup: int
    num_steps: int
    sample_count: int
    batch_size: int
    precision: [ enum ]
    model_action: [ enum ]
    pin_memory: bool
    ${argument}: bool | str | int | float | list
```

</TabItem>
<TabItem value='example'>

#### Micro-Benchmark

```yaml
kernel-launch:
  enable: true
  timeout: 120
  modes:
    - name: local
      proc_num: 8
      prefix: CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES={proc_rank}
      parallel: yes
  parameters:
    num_warmup: 100
    num_steps: 2000000
    interval: 2000
```

#### Model-Benchmark

```yaml
model-benchmarks:resnet:
  enable: true
  timeout: 1800
  modes:
    - name: torch.distributed
      proc_num: 8
      node_num: 1
  frameworks:
    - pytorch
  models:
    - resnet50
    - resnet101
    - resnet152
  parameters:
    duration: 0
    num_warmup: 16
    num_steps: 128
    batch_size: 128
    precision:
      - float32
      - float16
    model_action:
      - train
```

</TabItem>
</Tabs>

### `enable`

Enable current benchmark or not, can be overwritten by [`superbench.enable`](#superbenchenable).

* default value: `true`

### `timeout`

Set the timeout value in seconds, the benchmarking will stop early if timeout is triggerred.

* default value: none

### `modes`

A list of modes in which the benchmark runs.
Currently only one mode is supported for each benchmark.

See [`Mode` Schema](#mode-schema) for mode definition.

### `frameworks`

A list of frameworks in which the benchmark runs.
Some benchmarks can support multiple frameworks while others only support one.

* accepted values: `[ onnxruntime | pytorch | tf1 | tf2 | none ]`
* default value: `[ none ]`

### `models`

A list of models to run, only supported in model-benchmark.

* accepted values:
  ```yaml
  # pytorch framework
  [ alexnet | densenet121 | densenet169 | densenet201 | densenet161 | googlenet | inception_v3 |
    mnasnet0_5 | mnasnet0_75 | mnasnet1_0 | mnasnet1_3 | mobilenet_v2 |
    resnet18 | resnet34 | resnet50 | resnet101 | resnet152 |
    resnext50_32x4d | resnext101_32x8d | wide_resnet50_2 | wide_resnet101_2 |
    shufflenet_v2_x0_5 | shufflenet_v2_x1_0 | shufflenet_v2_x1_5 | shufflenet_v2_x2_0 |
    squeezenet1_0 | squeezenet1_1 |
    vgg11 | vgg11_bn | vgg13 | vgg13_bn | vgg16 | vgg16_bn | vgg19_bn | vgg19 |
    bert-base | bert-large | gpt2-small | gpt2-medium | gpt2-large | gpt2-xl ]
  ```
* default value: `[ ]`

### `parameters`

Parameters for benchmark to use, varying for different benchmarks.

There have four common parameters for all benchmarks:
* run_count: how many times do user want to run this benchmark, default value is 1.
* duration: the elapsed time of benchmark in seconds. It can work for all model-benchmark. But for micro-benchmark, benchmark authors should consume it by themselves.
* log_raw_data: log raw data into file instead of saving it into result object, default value is `False`.  Benchmarks who have large raw output may want to set it as `True`, such as `nccl-bw`/`rccl-bw`.
* log_flushing: real-time log flushing, default value is `False`.

For Model-Benchmark, there have some parameters that can control the elapsed time.
* duration: the elapsed time of benchmark in seconds.
* num_warmup: the number of warmup step, should be positive integer.
* num_steps: the number of test step.

If `duration > 0` and `num_steps > 0`, then benchmark will take the least as the elapsed time. Otherwise only one of them will take effect.

## `Mode` Schema

Definition for each benchmark mode, here is an overview of `Mode` configuration structure:

<Tabs
  defaultValue='schema'
  values={[
    {label: 'Schema', value: 'schema'},
    {label: 'Example', value: 'example'},
  ]
}>
<TabItem value='schema'>

```yaml
name: enum
proc_num: int
node_num: int
env: dict
mca: dict
prefix: str
parallel: bool
```

</TabItem>
<TabItem value='example'>

```yaml
name: local
proc_num: 8
prefix: CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES={proc_rank}
parallel: yes
```

</TabItem>
</Tabs>

### `name`

Mode name to use. Here lists available modes:
+ `local`: run benchmark as local process.
+ `torch.distributed`: launch benchmark through [PyTorch DDP](https://pytorch.org/docs/stable/distributed.html#launch-utility), each process will run on one GPU.
+ `mpi`: launch benchmark through MPI, the benchmark implementation could leverage MPI interface.

Some attributes may only be suitable for specific mode.

|            | `local` | `torch.distributed` | `mpi` |
| ---------: | :-----: | :-----------------: | :---: |
| `proc_num` |    ✓    |          ✓          |   ✓   |
| `node_num` |    ✘    |          ✓          |   ✓   |
| `prefix`   |    ✓    |          ✘          |   ✘   |
| `env`      |    ✓    |          ✓          |   ✓   |
| `mca`      |    ✘    |          ✘          |   ✓   |
| `parallel` |    ✓    |          ✘          |   ✘   |
| `pattern`  |    ✘    |          ✘          |   ✓   |

* accepted values: `local | torch.distributed | mpi`
* default value: `local`

### `proc_num`

Process number to run per node.
Each process will run an individual benchmark, how processes communicate depends on the mode.

* default value: `1`

### `node_num`

Node number to run in the mode. Defaults to all nodes provided by host file in the run.
Will be ignored in `local` mode.

For example, assuming you are running model benchmark on 4 nodes,
`proc_num: 8, node_num: 1` will run 8-GPU distributed training on each node,
while `proc_num: 8, node_num: null` will run 32-GPU distributed training on all nodes.

* default value: `null`

### `prefix`

Command prefix to use in the mode, in Python formatted string.

Available variables in formatted string includes:
+ `proc_rank`
+ `proc_num`

So `prefix: CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES={proc_rank}` will be expressed as `CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0`, `CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=1`, etc.

### `env`

Environment variables to use in the mode, in a flatten key-value dictionary.
The value needs to be string, any integer or boolean values need to be enclosed in quotes.

Formatted string is also supported in value, available variables include:
+ `proc_rank`
+ `proc_num`

### `mca`

MCA (Modular Component Architecture) frameworks, components, or modules to use in MPI,
in a flatten key-value dictionary.
Only available for `mpi` mode.

### `parallel`

Whether run benchmarks in parallel (all ranks at the same time) or in sequence (one rank at a time).
Only available for `local` mode.

* default value: `yes`

### `pattern`

Pattern variables to run benchmarks with nodes in specified traffic pattern combination, in a flatten key-value dictionary.
Only available for `mpi` mode.

Available variables in formatted string includes:
+ `type(str)`: the traffic pattern type, required.
    * accepted values: `all-nodes`, `pair-wise`, `k-batch`, `topo-aware`
+ `mpi_pattern(bool)`: generate pattern config file in `./output/mpi_pattern.txt` for diagnosis, required.
+ `batch(int)`: the scale of batch, required in `k-batch` pattern.
+ `ibstat(str)`: the path of ibstat output, wil be auto-generated in `./output/ibstat_file.txt` if not specified, optional in `topo-aware` pattern
+ `ibnetdiscover(str)`: the path of ibnetdiscover output `ibnetdiscover_file.txt`, required in `topo-aware` pattern.
+ `min_dist(int)`: minimum distance of VM pair, required in `topo-aware` pattern.
+ `max_dist(int)`: maximum distance of VM pair, required in `topo-aware` pattern.
