How to use Distributed data parallel in Multiple computers?

Lakshmana: <p>We are trying to use distributed data parallel for training with multiple computers and each one is having a GPU on it. They all are connected in LAN.</p>
<p>We used gloo backend and  shared file. It worked fine when I used this approach on single machine. When I am trying to use the same thing with multiple computers It is giving some error like “Data is invalid”. The way file is shared among different computers is Home group feature of Windows10.</p>
<p>We tried another approach with TCP, but it is giving deprecated TCP backend error.</p>
<p><strong>Server Code</strong></p>
<pre><code class="lang-auto">import os
from datetime import datetime
import argparse
import torch.multiprocessing as mp
import torchvision
import torchvision.transforms as transforms
import torch
import torch.nn as nn
import torch.distributed as dist
from torch.nn.parallel import DistributedDataParallel as DDP


def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('-n', '--nodes', default=2, type=int, metavar='N',
                        help='number of data loading workers (default: 4)')
    parser.add_argument('-g', '--gpus', default=1, type=int,
                        help='number of gpus per node')
    parser.add_argument('-nr', '--nr', default=0, type=int,
                        help='ranking within the nodes')
    parser.add_argument('--epochs', default=2, type=int, metavar='N',
                        help='number of total epochs to run')
    args = parser.parse_args()
    args.world_size = args.gpus * args.nodes
    os.environ['MASTER_ADDR'] = '10.0.45.44'
    os.environ['MASTER_PORT'] = '8888'
    mp.spawn(train, nprocs=args.gpus, args=(args,))


class ConvNet(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self, num_classes=10):
        super(ConvNet, self).__init__()
        self.layer1 = nn.Sequential(
            nn.Conv2d(1, 16, kernel_size=5, stride=1, padding=2),
            nn.BatchNorm2d(16),
            nn.ReLU(),
            nn.MaxPool2d(kernel_size=2, stride=2))
        self.layer2 = nn.Sequential(
            nn.Conv2d(16, 32, kernel_size=5, stride=1, padding=2),
            nn.BatchNorm2d(32),
            nn.ReLU(),
            nn.MaxPool2d(kernel_size=2, stride=2))
        self.fc = nn.Linear(7*7*32, num_classes)

    def forward(self, x):
        out = self.layer1(x)
        out = self.layer2(out)
        out = out.reshape(out.size(0), -1)
        out = self.fc(out)
        return out


def train(gpu, args):
    rank = args.nr * args.gpus + gpu
    dist.init_process_group(backend='gloo', init_method='file:///C:\\Users\\VIT\\BackEnd\\gloofile', world_size=args.world_size, rank=rank)
    torch.manual_seed(0)
    model = ConvNet()
    torch.cuda.set_device(gpu)
    model.cuda(gpu)
    batch_size = 100
    # define loss function (criterion) and optimizer C:\Users\VIT\Desktop\BackEnd  
    criterion = nn.CrossEntropyLoss().cuda(gpu)
    optimizer = torch.optim.SGD(model.parameters(), 1e-4)
    # Wrap the model
    model = nn.parallel.DistributedDataParallel(model, device_ids=[gpu])
    # Data loading code
    train_dataset = torchvision.datasets.MNIST(root='./data',
                                               train=True,
                                               transform=transforms.ToTensor(),
                                               download=True)
    train_sampler = torch.utils.data.distributed.DistributedSampler(train_dataset,
                                                                    num_replicas=args.world_size,
                                                                    rank=rank)
    train_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(dataset=train_dataset,
                                               batch_size=batch_size,
                                               shuffle=False,
                                               num_workers=0,
                                               pin_memory=True,
                                               sampler=train_sampler)

    start = datetime.now()
    total_step = len(train_loader)
    for epoch in range(args.epochs):
        for i, (images, labels) in enumerate(train_loader):
            images = images.cuda(non_blocking=True)
            labels = labels.cuda(non_blocking=True)
            # Forward pass
            outputs = model(images)
            loss = criterion(outputs, labels)

            # Backward and optimize
            optimizer.zero_grad()
            loss.backward()
            optimizer.step()
            if (i + 1) % 100 == 0 and gpu == 0:
                print('Epoch [{}/{}], Step [{}/{}], Loss: {:.4f}'.format(epoch + 1, args.epochs, i + 1, total_step,
                                                                         loss.item()))
    if gpu == 0:
        print("Training complete in: " + str(datetime.now() - start))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

</code></pre>
<p><strong>Client code</strong></p>
<pre><code class="lang-auto">  
import os
from datetime import datetime
import argparse
import torch.multiprocessing as mp
import torchvision
import torchvision.transforms as transforms
import torch
import torch.nn as nn
import torch.distributed as dist
from torch.nn.parallel import DistributedDataParallel as DDP


def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('-n', '--nodes', default=2, type=int, metavar='N',
                        help='number of data loading workers (default: 4)')
    parser.add_argument('-g', '--gpus', default=1, type=int,
                        help='number of gpus per node')
    parser.add_argument('-nr', '--nr', default=1, type=int,
                        help='ranking within the nodes')
    parser.add_argument('--epochs', default=2, type=int, metavar='N',
                        help='number of total epochs to run')
    args = parser.parse_args()
    args.world_size = args.gpus * args.nodes
    
    
  
    mp.spawn(train, nprocs=args.gpus, args=(args,))
    

class ConvNet(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self, num_classes=10):
        super(ConvNet, self).__init__()
        self.layer1 = nn.Sequential(
            nn.Conv2d(1, 16, kernel_size=5, stride=1, padding=2),
            nn.BatchNorm2d(16),
            nn.ReLU(),
            nn.MaxPool2d(kernel_size=2, stride=2))
        self.layer2 = nn.Sequential(
            nn.Conv2d(16, 32, kernel_size=5, stride=1, padding=2),
            nn.BatchNorm2d(32),
            nn.ReLU(),
            nn.MaxPool2d(kernel_size=2, stride=2))
        self.fc = nn.Linear(7*7*32, num_classes)

    def forward(self, x):
        out = self.layer1(x)
        out = self.layer2(out)
        out = out.reshape(out.size(0), -1)
        out = self.fc(out)
        return out


def train(gpu, args):
    #file:///ftp:\\10.0.45.44\\gloo\\gloofile.py
    rank = args.nr * args.gpus + gpu
    os.environ['MASTER_ADDR'] = '10.0.45.44'
    os.environ['MASTER_PORT'] = '8888'
    dist.init_process_group(backend='gloo',world_size=args.world_size, rank=rank)
    torch.manual_seed(0)
    model = ConvNet()
    torch.cuda.set_device(gpu)
    model.cuda(gpu)
    batch_size = 100
    # define loss function (criterion) and optimizer
    criterion = nn.CrossEntropyLoss().cuda(gpu)
    optimizer = torch.optim.SGD(model.parameters(), 1e-4)
    # Wrap the model
    model = nn.parallel.DistributedDataParallel(model, device_ids=[gpu])
    # Data loading code
    train_dataset = torchvision.datasets.MNIST(root='./data',
                                               train=True,
                                               transform=transforms.ToTensor(),
                                               download=True)
    train_sampler = torch.utils.data.distributed.DistributedSampler(train_dataset,
                                                                    num_replicas=args.world_size,
                                                                    rank=rank)
    train_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(dataset=train_dataset,
                                               batch_size=batch_size,
                                               shuffle=False,
                                               num_workers=0,
                                               pin_memory=True,
                                               sampler=train_sampler)

    start = datetime.now()
    total_step = len(train_loader)
    for epoch in range(args.epochs):
        for i, (images, labels) in enumerate(train_loader):
            images = images.cuda(non_blocking=True)
            labels = labels.cuda(non_blocking=True)
            # Forward pass
            outputs = model(images)
            loss = criterion(outputs, labels)

            # Backward and optimize
            optimizer.zero_grad()
            loss.backward()
            optimizer.step()
            if (i + 1) % 100 == 0 and gpu == 0:
                print('Epoch [{}/{}], Step [{}/{}], Loss: {:.4f}'.format(epoch + 1, args.epochs, i + 1, total_step,
                                                                         loss.item()))
    if gpu == 0:
        print("Training complete in: " + str(datetime.now() - start))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()
</code></pre>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>

rvarm1: <p>Hi, TCP initialization should not be deprecated and you should be able to use TCP initialization as per the documentation here: <a href="https://pytorch.org/docs/stable/distributed.html#tcp-initialization" class="inline-onebox" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">Distributed communication package - torch.distributed — PyTorch 1.7.0 documentation</a>.</p>
<p>In order to debug the file initialization issue, could you paste the specific exception stack that you’re running into? Would be very helpful to understand the exact sort of error that is expected.</p>
<p>However, looking at your current code I’m not sure if the process group initialization is set up correctly. The server appears to use a file (which should be a shared networked file handle as you mention) but the client appears to use environment variable initialization with a master address and port. All participating processes should use the same init.</p>