feat: Support ZeRO-2 based on DistributedOptimizer

Chamberlain0w0 · Chamberlain0w0 · commit f15ccf9ac5f8 · 2026-03-11T15:47:24.000+08:00
diff --git a/example/gpt2/main.cc b/example/gpt2/main.cc
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ DEFINE_uint32(text_length, 64, "the length of the generated text");
 // optimization
 DEFINE_double(learning_rate, 1e-4, "learning rate warmup iterations");
 DEFINE_bool(use_distributed_optimizer, false, "Whether to enable DistributedOptimizer(only take effects when DP>1)");
+DEFINE_int32(zero_stage, 1, "ZeRO stage (1/2/3), default 1 (only take effects when use_distributed_optimizer=true)");
 // evaluation
 DEFINE_uint32(val_loss_every, 0, "every how many steps to evaluate val loss?");
 DEFINE_uint32(sample_every, 0, "how often to sample from the model?");
@@ -109,6 +110,7 @@ const std::unordered_map<std::string, GPT2::ModelType> kStrToModelType = {
 DEFINE_validator(model, [](const char *, const std::string &value) { return kSupportedModels.contains(value); });
 DEFINE_validator(device,
                  [](const char *, const std::string &value) { return value == kDeviceCPU || value == kDeviceCUDA; });
+DEFINE_validator(zero_stage, [](const char *, int32_t value) { return value >= 1 && value <= 3; });
 
 void Train(const nn::parallel::Rank &rank) {
     using namespace nn::parallel;
@@ -216,8 +218,8 @@ void Train(const nn::parallel::Rank &rank) {
             model, pp_world_size, num_micro_batches, shapes, pp_rank, device,
             std::dynamic_pointer_cast<GPT2>(model)->GetChunkSize());
         if (ddp_world_size > 1) {
-            auto ddp_config
-                = DistributedDataParallelConfig{.use_distributed_optimizer = FLAGS_use_distributed_optimizer};
+            auto ddp_config = DistributedDataParallelConfig{
+                .use_distributed_optimizer = FLAGS_use_distributed_optimizer, .zero_stage = FLAGS_zero_stage};
             auto *mutable_chunks = dynamic_cast<nn::parallel::PipelineParallel *>(model.get())->mutable_chunks();
             for (int chunk_id = 0; chunk_id < mutable_chunks->size(); ++chunk_id) {
                 (*mutable_chunks)[chunk_id]
@@ -229,7 +231,8 @@ void Train(const nn::parallel::Rank &rank) {
         // before wrapping the model with DistributedDataParallel (DDP).
         // Otherwise, DDP’s gradient hooks may be lost because new parameter tensors
         // are created during the conversion.
-        auto ddp_config = DistributedDataParallelConfig{.use_distributed_optimizer = FLAGS_use_distributed_optimizer};
+        auto ddp_config = DistributedDataParallelConfig{.use_distributed_optimizer = FLAGS_use_distributed_optimizer,
+                                                        .zero_stage = FLAGS_zero_stage};
         model = std::make_shared<DistributedDataParallel>(model, rank, ddp_config);
     }
 
diff --git a/example/llama3/main.cc b/example/llama3/main.cc
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ DEFINE_uint32(text_length, 64, "the length of the generated text");
 // optimization
 DEFINE_double(learning_rate, 1e-5, "learning rate warmup iterations");
 DEFINE_bool(use_distributed_optimizer, false, "Whether to enable DistributedOptimizer(only take effects when DP>1)");
+DEFINE_int32(zero_stage, 1, "ZeRO stage (1/2/3), default 1 (only take effects when use_distributed_optimizer=true)");
 // evaluation
 DEFINE_uint32(val_loss_every, 0, "every how many steps to evaluate val loss?");
 DEFINE_uint32(sample_every, 0, "how often to sample from the model?");
@@ -91,6 +92,7 @@ constexpr char kDtypeBF16[] = "bfloat16";
 DEFINE_validator(model, [](const char *, const std::string &value) { return kSupportedModels.contains(value); });
 DEFINE_validator(device,
                  [](const char *, const std::string &value) { return value == kDeviceCPU || value == kDeviceCUDA; });
+DEFINE_validator(zero_stage, [](const char *, int32_t value) { return value >= 1 && value <= 3; });
 
 void Train(const nn::parallel::Rank &rank) {
     using namespace nn::parallel;
@@ -195,8 +197,8 @@ void Train(const nn::parallel::Rank &rank) {
             model, pp_world_size, num_micro_batches, shapes, pp_rank, device,
             std::dynamic_pointer_cast<LLaMA3>(model)->GetChunkSize());
         if (ddp_world_size > 1) {
-            auto ddp_config
-                = DistributedDataParallelConfig{.use_distributed_optimizer = FLAGS_use_distributed_optimizer};
+            auto ddp_config = DistributedDataParallelConfig{
+                .use_distributed_optimizer = FLAGS_use_distributed_optimizer, .zero_stage = FLAGS_zero_stage};
             auto *mutable_chunks = dynamic_cast<nn::parallel::PipelineParallel *>(model.get())->mutable_chunks();
             for (int chunk_id = 0; chunk_id < mutable_chunks->size(); ++chunk_id) {
                 (*mutable_chunks)[chunk_id]
@@ -209,7 +211,8 @@ void Train(const nn::parallel::Rank &rank) {
         // Otherwise, DDP’s gradient hooks may be lost because new parameter tensors
         // are created during the conversion.
 
-        auto ddp_config = DistributedDataParallelConfig{.use_distributed_optimizer = FLAGS_use_distributed_optimizer};
+        auto ddp_config = DistributedDataParallelConfig{.use_distributed_optimizer = FLAGS_use_distributed_optimizer,
+                                                        .zero_stage = FLAGS_zero_stage};
         model = std::make_shared<DistributedDataParallel>(model, rank, ddp_config);
     }
 
diff --git a/infini_train/include/nn/parallel/ddp/distributed_data_parallel_config.h b/infini_train/include/nn/parallel/ddp/distributed_data_parallel_config.h
@@ -40,6 +40,12 @@ class DistributedDataParallelConfig {
     // In this case, grad reduce is triggered immediately when a grad is ready or till all grads are ready.
     bool overlap_grad_reduce = true;
 
+    // ZeRO-DP Stage for memory optimization (Only take effects when use_distributed_optimizer=true)
+    //   ZeRO-1: Optimizer states partitioning, by default
+    //   ZeRO-2: Gradients partitioning
+    //   ZeRO-3: Parameters partitioning
+    int zero_stage = 1;
+
     // Whether to overlap parameter all-gather with forward compute.
     bool overlap_param_gather = true;
 
@@ -59,7 +65,7 @@ class DistributedDataParallelConfig {
     // Maximum number of parameters in each ParamAndGradBucket.
     // NOTE(zbl): This is distinct from DDP Reducer's MB-based bucket caps.
     // TODO(zbl): To unify the definition of bucket_size argument for users
-    size_t bucket_size_in_elements = 40000000;
+    size_t bucket_size_in_elements = 1000000;
 
     // Whether to pad bucket sizes to improve NCCL bus bandwidth utilization.
     bool pad_buckets_for_high_nccl_busbw = false;
diff --git a/infini_train/include/nn/parallel/ddp/param_and_grad_buffer.h b/infini_train/include/nn/parallel/ddp/param_and_grad_buffer.h
@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ namespace infini_train::nn::parallel {
 class ParamAndGradBucket {
 public:
     ParamAndGradBucket(const std::vector<std::shared_ptr<Tensor>> &params, const std::shared_ptr<Tensor> &param_data,
-                       const std::shared_ptr<Tensor> &grad_data, size_t offset, size_t num_elements_unpadded,
-                       float gradient_scaling_factor, size_t bucket_id);
+                       DataType param_dtype, const std::shared_ptr<Tensor> &grad_data, DataType grad_dtype,
+                       size_t offset, size_t num_elements_unpadded, float gradient_scaling_factor, size_t bucket_id);
 
     size_t bucket_id() const { return bucket_id_; }
 
@@ -33,6 +33,10 @@ class ParamAndGradBucket {
 
     const std::shared_ptr<Tensor> &grad_data() const { return grad_data_; }
 
+    DataType param_dtype() const { return param_dtype_; }
+
+    DataType grad_dtype() const { return grad_dtype_; }
+
     size_t offset() const { return offset_; }
 
     size_t num_elements_unpadded() const { return num_elements_unpadded_; }
@@ -49,6 +53,8 @@ class ParamAndGradBucket {
     std::vector<std::shared_ptr<Tensor>> params_;
     std::shared_ptr<Tensor> param_data_;
     std::shared_ptr<Tensor> grad_data_;
+    DataType param_dtype_;
+    DataType grad_dtype_;
 
     size_t offset_ = 0;
     size_t num_elements_unpadded_ = 0;
@@ -73,6 +79,11 @@ class ParamAndGradBucketGroup {
     // Start grad reduce
     void StartGradSync();
 
+    // Accumulate a parameter grad into bucket buffer
+    // ZeRO-2: Use this funtion to take over autograd::AccumulateGrad::Backward
+    void AccumulateParamGrad(const std::shared_ptr<Tensor> &parameter, const std::shared_ptr<Tensor> &grad,
+                             bool overwrite, float learning_rate);
+
     // Wait for gradient reduce to complete
     void FinishGradSync();
 
@@ -87,6 +98,9 @@ class ParamAndGradBucketGroup {
 
     const std::vector<std::shared_ptr<ParamAndGradBucket>> &buckets() const { return buckets_; }
 
+    // ZeRO-2: Get a bucket's local grad shard buffer
+    std::shared_ptr<Tensor> GetLocalGradShardBuffer(size_t bucket_idx) const;
+
     const DistributedDataParallelConfig &config() const { return ddp_config_; }
 
 private:
@@ -98,12 +112,20 @@ class ParamAndGradBucketGroup {
 
     std::unordered_set<Tensor *> params_;
     std::unordered_set<Tensor *> params_with_grad_;
+    // Tensor -> (Bucket, Bucket Index)
+    std::unordered_map<Tensor *, std::pair<std::shared_ptr<ParamAndGradBucket>, size_t>> param_to_bucket_;
 
     // TODO(zbl): Implement CoalescedWork for aggregate works
     //            According to Megatron-LM's _coalescing_manager
     std::vector<std::shared_ptr<Work>> grad_reduce_work_list_;
+    std::vector<size_t> grad_reduce_bucket_indices_;
     std::vector<std::shared_ptr<Work>> param_gather_work_list_;
 
+    // ZeRO-2: persistent grad shard buffers and temporary full grad buffers
+    std::vector<std::shared_ptr<Tensor>> grad_shard_buffer_list_;
+    std::vector<std::shared_ptr<Tensor>> temp_full_grad_buffer_list_;
+    std::vector<bool> temp_full_grad_initialized_;
+
     std::shared_ptr<ParamAndGradBucketGroup> next_param_gather_bucket_group_ = nullptr;
 
     std::vector<std::vector<std::shared_ptr<Tensor>>> param_buffer_shard_list_;
diff --git a/infini_train/include/tensor.h b/infini_train/include/tensor.h
@@ -226,6 +226,12 @@ class Tensor : public std::enable_shared_from_this<Tensor> {
     std::shared_ptr<autograd::AccumulateGrad> grad_accumulator();
     void ResetAccumulator();
 
+    // ZeRO-2: Use this function to take over AccumulateGrad::Backward
+    using GradAccumulateBypass
+        = std::function<bool(const std::shared_ptr<Tensor> &grad_output, bool overwrite, float learning_rate)>;
+    GradAccumulateBypass grad_accumulate_bypass();
+    void SetGradAccumulateBypass(GradAccumulateBypass);
+
     void RegisterPostAccumulateGradHook(std::shared_ptr<autograd::PostAccumulateGradHook> hook);
 
     autograd::PostAccumulateGradHook *post_accumulate_grad_hook() const;
@@ -240,6 +246,8 @@ class Tensor : public std::enable_shared_from_this<Tensor> {
     // a strong reference to the accumulator to manage its lifetime.
     std::shared_ptr<autograd::AccumulateGrad> grad_accumulator_ = nullptr;
     std::shared_ptr<autograd::PostAccumulateGradHook> post_accumulate_grad_hook_ = nullptr;
+    // ZeRO-2: Use this function to take over AccumulateGrad::Backward
+    GradAccumulateBypass grad_accumulate_bypass_ = nullptr;
 
     bool grad_overwrite_once_ = false;
 };
diff --git a/infini_train/src/autograd/accumulate.cc b/infini_train/src/autograd/accumulate.cc
@@ -26,8 +26,16 @@ AccumulateGrad::Backward(const std::vector<std::shared_ptr<Tensor>> &grad_output
     core::DeviceGuard guard(device);
 
     if (grad_output) {
+        const bool overwrite = tensor_->ConsumeGradOverwriteFlag();
+        // ZeRO-2: Use a bypass function to perform grad accumulation in temp full grad buffer
+        auto bypass = tensor_->grad_accumulate_bypass();
+        if (bypass && bypass(grad_output, overwrite, learning_rate_)) {
+            tensor_->ResetAccumulator();
+            return {};
+        }
+
         if (grad) {
-            if (tensor_->ConsumeGradOverwriteFlag()) {
+            if (overwrite) {
                 // If the tensor is marked to overrite its current grad on next grad update
                 // See notes in `infini_train::nn::parallel::Reducer::PrepareForBackward()`
                 // NOTE(zbl): must copy, cannot change grad buffer address
diff --git a/infini_train/src/nn/parallel/ddp/distributed_data_parallel.cc b/infini_train/src/nn/parallel/ddp/distributed_data_parallel.cc
@@ -24,6 +24,16 @@ DistributedDataParallel::DistributedDataParallel(std::shared_ptr<nn::Module> mod
                                                  const DistributedDataParallelConfig ddp_config)
     : ddp_config_(ddp_config),
       ddp_pg_(ProcessGroupFactory::Instance()->Get(GetDataParallelProcessGroupName(rank.GlobalRank()))) {
+    CHECK(ddp_config_.zero_stage >= 1 && ddp_config_.zero_stage <= 3)
+        << "DistributedDataParallel: zero_stage must be in 1/2/3.";
+    if (ddp_config_.zero_stage >= 3) {
+        LOG(FATAL) << "DistributedDataParallel: ZeRO-3 is not implemented yet.";
+    }
+    if (!ddp_config_.use_distributed_optimizer && ddp_config_.zero_stage >= 1) {
+        LOG(WARNING) << "DistributedDataParallel: zero_stage is ignored because "
+                        "use_distributed_optimizer is false.";
+        ddp_config_.zero_stage = 1;
+    }
     for (auto &param : module->Parameters()) {
         auto device = param->GetDevice();
         CHECK_EQ(device.index(), rank.thread_rank()) << "All parameters must be on the same device as the module";
@@ -80,6 +90,7 @@ void DistributedDataParallel::BuildParamAndGradBuffers() {
             continue;
         }
 
+        // At the point, zero_stage is already aligned with use_distributed_optimizer.
         auto buffer = std::make_shared<ParamAndGradBuffer>(param_list, param_dtype, grad_dtype, ddp_pg_, ddp_config_);
 
         param_grad_buffers_.push_back(buffer);
@@ -113,6 +124,32 @@ void DistributedDataParallel::BuildParamAndGradBuffers() {
 }
 
 void DistributedDataParallel::RegisterBackwardHooks() {
+    if (ddp_config_.zero_stage >= 2) {
+        auto &module = modules_.at(kModuleName);
+        for (auto &param : module->Parameters()) {
+            if (!param->requires_grad()) {
+                continue;
+            }
+            auto it = param_to_bucket_group_.find(param.get());
+            if (it == param_to_bucket_group_.end()) {
+                continue;
+            }
+            std::weak_ptr<ParamAndGradBucketGroup> weak_group = it->second;
+            param->SetGradAccumulateBypass(
+                [weak_group, param](const std::shared_ptr<Tensor> &grad_output, bool overwrite, float learning_rate) {
+                    if (auto group = weak_group.lock()) {
+                        group->AccumulateParamGrad(param, grad_output, overwrite, learning_rate);
+                        if (group->config().overlap_grad_reduce) {
+                            group->RegisterGradReady(param);
+                        }
+                        return true;
+                    }
+                    return false;
+                });
+        }
+        return;
+    }
+
     class DDPPostAccumulateHook final : public autograd::PostAccumulateGradHook {
     public:
         DDPPostAccumulateHook(DistributedDataParallel *ddp, const std::weak_ptr<Tensor> param)
@@ -144,7 +181,7 @@ void DistributedDataParallel::OnGradReady(const std::shared_ptr<Tensor> &param)
     auto it = param_to_bucket_group_.find(param.get());
     if (it != param_to_bucket_group_.end()) {
         CHECK(param->requires_grad());
-        if (ddp_config_.overlap_grad_reduce) {
+        if (ddp_config_.overlap_grad_reduce && (ddp_config_.zero_stage < 2)) {
             CHECK(param->grad()) << "param.grad being None is not safe when overlap_grad_reduce is True";
         }
 
diff --git a/infini_train/src/nn/parallel/ddp/distributed_optimizer.cc b/infini_train/src/nn/parallel/ddp/distributed_optimizer.cc
@@ -35,10 +35,13 @@ void DistributedOptimizer::BuildShardParamsAndBindGrads() {
     shard_params_.clear();
 
     for (const auto &group : bucket_groups_) {
-        for (const auto &bucket : group->buckets()) {
+        const bool use_grad_shard = group->config().zero_stage >= 2;
+        const auto &buckets = group->buckets();
+        for (size_t bucket_idx = 0; bucket_idx < buckets.size(); ++bucket_idx) {
+            const auto &bucket = buckets[bucket_idx];
 
             auto bucket_param = bucket->param_data();
-            auto bucket_grad = bucket->grad_data();
+            auto bucket_grad = use_grad_shard ? group->GetLocalGradShardBuffer(bucket_idx) : bucket->grad_data();
 
             CHECK(bucket_param) << "DistributedOptimizer requires param buffer.";
             CHECK(bucket_grad) << "DistributedOptimizer requires grad buffer.";
@@ -65,7 +68,9 @@ void DistributedOptimizer::BuildShardParamsAndBindGrads() {
                 CHECK_GT(piece_numel, 0);
 
                 const size_t param_piece_offset_bytes = local_start * kDataTypeToSize.at(bucket_param->Dtype());
-                const size_t grad_piece_offset_bytes = local_start * kDataTypeToSize.at(bucket_grad->Dtype());
+                // Adjust the offset since bucket_grad is already the shard of grad under ZeRO-2.
+                auto offset = use_grad_shard ? (local_start - bucket_shard_start) : local_start;
+                size_t grad_piece_offset_bytes = offset * kDataTypeToSize.at(bucket_grad->Dtype());
 
                 auto param_piece = std::make_shared<Tensor>(*bucket_param, param_piece_offset_bytes,
                                                             std::vector<int64_t>{static_cast<int64_t>(piece_numel)});
@@ -74,6 +79,12 @@ void DistributedOptimizer::BuildShardParamsAndBindGrads() {
                                                            std::vector<int64_t>{static_cast<int64_t>(piece_numel)});
 
                 param_piece->set_grad(grad_piece);
+                // if (use_grad_shard) {
+                //     // NOTE(zbl): Under ZeRO-2, param->grad() is the shard of grad, not the full grad.
+                //     //            The binding is done in the construnctor of DistributedOptimizer.
+                //     //            Not until backward is finished, the value of param->grad() will be updated.
+                //     param->set_grad(grad_piece);
+                // }
                 shard_params_.push_back(param_piece);
             }
         }
diff --git a/infini_train/src/nn/parallel/ddp/param_and_grad_buffer.cc b/infini_train/src/nn/parallel/ddp/param_and_grad_buffer.cc
diff --git a/infini_train/src/tensor.cc b/infini_train/src/tensor.cc
diff --git a/scripts/test_config.json b/scripts/test_config.json
