parameter_server.html



<!DOCTYPE html>
<!--[if IE 8]><html class="no-js lt-ie9" lang="en" > <![endif]-->
<!--[if gt IE 8]><!--> <html class="no-js" lang="en" > <!--<![endif]-->
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  
  <title>Design Doc: Operation Graph Based Parameter Server &mdash; PaddlePaddle  documentation</title>
  

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../_static/css/theme.css" type="text/css" />
  

        <link rel="index" title="Index"
              href="../../genindex.html"/>
        <link rel="search" title="Search" href="../../search.html"/>
    <link rel="top" title="PaddlePaddle  documentation" href="../../index.html"/> 

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/perfect-scrollbar/0.6.14/css/perfect-scrollbar.min.css" type="text/css" />
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../_static/css/override.css" type="text/css" />
  <script>
  var _hmt = _hmt || [];
  (function() {
    var hm = document.createElement("script");
    hm.src = "//hm.baidu.com/hm.js?b9a314ab40d04d805655aab1deee08ba";
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; 
    s.parentNode.insertBefore(hm, s);
  })();
  </script>

  
  <script src="../../_static/js/modernizr.min.js"></script>

</head>

<body class="wy-body-for-nav" role="document">

  
  <header class="site-header">
    <div class="site-logo">
      <a href="/"><img src="../../_static/images/PP_w.png"></a>
    </div>
    <div class="site-nav-links">
      <div class="site-menu">
        <a class="fork-on-github" href="https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle" target="_blank"><i class="fa fa-github"></i>Fork me on Github</a>
        <div class="language-switcher dropdown">
          <a type="button" data-toggle="dropdown">
            <span>English</span>
            <i class="fa fa-angle-up"></i>
            <i class="fa fa-angle-down"></i>
          </a>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu">
            <li><a href="/doc_cn">中文</a></li>
            <li><a href="/doc">English</a></li>
          </ul>
        </div>
        <ul class="site-page-links">
          <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
        </ul>
      </div>
      <div class="doc-module">
        
        <ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../getstarted/index_en.html">GET STARTED</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/index_en.html">HOW TO</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/index_en.html">API</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../mobile/index_en.html">MOBILE</a></li>
</ul>

        
<div role="search">
  <form id="rtd-search-form" class="wy-form" action="../../search.html" method="get">
    <input type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search docs" />
    <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" />
    <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" />
  </form>
</div>        
      </div>
    </div>
  </header>
  
  <div class="main-content-wrap">

    
    <nav class="doc-menu-vertical" role="navigation">
        
          
          <ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../getstarted/index_en.html">GET STARTED</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../getstarted/build_and_install/index_en.html">Install and Build</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../getstarted/build_and_install/pip_install_en.html">Install Using pip</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../getstarted/build_and_install/docker_install_en.html">Run in Docker Containers</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../getstarted/build_and_install/build_from_source_en.html">Build from Sources</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/index_en.html">HOW TO</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/usage/cmd_parameter/index_en.html">Set Command-line Parameters</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/usage/cmd_parameter/use_case_en.html">Use Case</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/usage/cmd_parameter/arguments_en.html">Argument Outline</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/usage/cmd_parameter/detail_introduction_en.html">Detail Description</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/usage/cluster/cluster_train_en.html">PaddlePaddle Distributed Training</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/usage/k8s/k8s_en.html">Paddle On Kubernetes</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/usage/k8s/k8s_aws_en.html">Distributed PaddlePaddle Training on AWS with Kubernetes</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/dev/new_layer_en.html">Write New Layers</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/dev/contribute_to_paddle_en.html">Contribute Code</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/dev/write_docs_en.html">Contribute Documentation</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/deep_model/rnn/index_en.html">RNN Models</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/deep_model/rnn/rnn_config_en.html">RNN Configuration</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../howto/optimization/gpu_profiling_en.html">Tune GPU Performance</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/index_en.html">API</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/model_configs.html">Model Configuration</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/config/activation.html">Activation</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/config/layer.html">Layers</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/config/evaluators.html">Evaluators</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/config/optimizer.html">Optimizer</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/config/pooling.html">Pooling</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/config/networks.html">Networks</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/config/attr.html">Parameter Attribute</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/data.html">Data Reader Interface and DataSets</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/data/data_reader.html">Data Reader Interface</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/data/image.html">Image Interface</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/data/dataset.html">Dataset</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/run_logic.html">Training and Inference</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid.html">Fluid</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/layers.html">Layers</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/data_feeder.html">DataFeeder</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/executor.html">Executor</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/initializer.html">Initializer</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/evaluator.html">Evaluator</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/nets.html">Nets</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/optimizer.html">Optimizer</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/param_attr.html">ParamAttr</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/profiler.html">Profiler</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/v2/fluid/regularizer.html">Regularizer</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../mobile/index_en.html">MOBILE</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../mobile/cross_compiling_for_android_en.html">Build PaddlePaddle for Android</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../mobile/cross_compiling_for_raspberry_en.html">Build PaddlePaddle for Raspberry Pi</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

        
    </nav>
    
    <section class="doc-content-wrap">

      
<div role="navigation" aria-label="breadcrumbs navigation">
  <ul class="wy-breadcrumbs">
      
    <li>Design Doc: Operation Graph Based Parameter Server</li>
  </ul>
</div>
      
      <div class="wy-nav-content" id="doc-content">
        <div class="rst-content">
          <div role="main" class="document" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article">
           <div itemprop="articleBody">
            
  <div class="section" id="design-doc-operation-graph-based-parameter-server">
<span id="design-doc-operation-graph-based-parameter-server"></span><h1>Design Doc: Operation Graph Based Parameter Server<a class="headerlink" href="#design-doc-operation-graph-based-parameter-server" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<div class="section" id="abstract">
<span id="abstract"></span><h2>Abstract<a class="headerlink" href="#abstract" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>We propose an approach to implement the parameter server. In this
approach, there is no fundamental difference between the trainer and
the parameter server: they both run subgraphs, but subgraphs of
different purposes.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="background">
<span id="background"></span><h2>Background<a class="headerlink" href="#background" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The previous implementations of the parameter server does not run a
subgraph. parameter initialization, optimizer computation, network
communication and checkpointing are implemented twice on both the
trainer and the parameter server.</p>
<p>It would be great if we can write code once and use them on both the
trainer and the parameter server: reduces code duplication and
improves extensibility. Given that after the current refactor, we are
representing everything as a computing graph on the
trainer. Representing everything as a computing graph on the parameter
server becomes a natural extension.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="design">
<span id="design"></span><h2>Design<a class="headerlink" href="#design" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<div class="section" id="graph-converter">
<span id="graph-converter"></span><h3>Graph Converter<a class="headerlink" href="#graph-converter" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>The <em>graph converter</em> converts the user-defined operation (OP) graph
into subgraphs to be scheduled on different nodes with the following
steps:</p>
<ol class="simple">
<li>OP placement: the OPs will be placed on different nodes according
to heuristic that minimizes estimated total computation
time. Currently we will use a simple heuristic that puts parameter
varable on parameter server workers and everything else on trainer
workers.</li>
<li>Add communication OPs to enable the communication between nodes.</li>
</ol>
<p>We will need these OPs: <em>Send</em>, <em>Recv</em>, <em>Enqueue</em>, <em>Dequeue</em>.</p>
<p>Below is an example of converting the user defined graph to the
subgraphs for the trainer and the parameter server:</p>
<p><img src="src/local-graph.png" width="300"/></p>
<p>After converting:</p>
<p><img src="src/dist-graph.png" width="700"/></p>
<ol class="simple">
<li>The parameter variable W and it&#8217;s optimizer subgraph are placed on the parameter server.</li>
<li>Operators are added to the subgraphs.<ul>
<li><em>Send</em> sends data to the connected <em>Recv</em> operator.  The
scheduler on the receive node will only schedule <em>Recv</em> operator
to run when the <em>Send</em> operator has ran (the <em>Send</em> OP will mark
the <em>Recv</em> OP runnable automatically).</li>
<li><em>Enueue</em> enqueues the input variable, it can block until space
become available in the queue.</li>
<li><em>Dequeue</em> outputs configurable numbers of tensors from the
queue. It will block until the queue have the required number of
tensors.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="section" id="benefits">
<span id="benefits"></span><h3>Benefits<a class="headerlink" href="#benefits" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Model parallelism become easier to implement: it&#8217;s an extension to
the trainer - parameter server approach. we already have the
communication OPs, but need to extend the graph converter&#8217;s
placement functionality.</li>
<li>User-defined optimizer is easier to add - user can now express it as
a subgraph.</li>
<li>No more duplication logic inside the trainer and the parameter
server mentioned in the background section.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="challenges">
<span id="challenges"></span><h3>Challenges<a class="headerlink" href="#challenges" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li>It might be hard for the graph converter to cut a general graph
(without any hint for which subgraph is the optimizer). We may need
to label which subgraph inside the OP graph is the optimizer.</li>
<li>It&#8217;s important to balance the parameter shards of on multiple
parameter server. If a single parameter is very big (some
word-embedding, fully connected, softmax layer), we need to
automatically partition the single parameter onto different
parameter servers when possible (only element-wise optimizer depends
on the parameter variable).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="discussion">
<span id="discussion"></span><h3>Discussion<a class="headerlink" href="#discussion" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li>In the &#8220;Aync SGD&#8221; figure, the &#8220;W&#8221; variable on the parameter server
could be read and wrote concurrently, what is our locking strategy?
E.g., each variable have a lock cpp method to be invoked by every
OP, or, have a lock OP.</li>
<li>Can the Enqueue OP be implemented under our current tensor design
(puts the input tensor into the queue tensor)?</li>
<li><em>Dequeue</em> OP will have variable numbers of output (depends on the
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">min_count</span></code> attribute), does our current design support it? (similar
question for the <em>Add</em> OP)</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="references">
<span id="references"></span><h3>References:<a class="headerlink" href="#references" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>[1] <a class="reference external" href="https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/45166.pdf">TensorFlow: Large-Scale Machine Learning on Heterogeneous Distributed Systems</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>


           </div>
          </div>
          <footer>
  

  <hr/>

  <div role="contentinfo">
    <p>
        &copy; Copyright 2016, PaddlePaddle developers.

    </p>
  </div>
  Built with <a href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> using a <a href="https://github.com/snide/sphinx_rtd_theme">theme</a> provided by <a href="https://readthedocs.org">Read the Docs</a>. 

</footer>

        </div>
      </div>

    </section>

  </div>
  

    <script type="text/javascript">
        var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = {
            URL_ROOT:'../../',
            VERSION:'',
            COLLAPSE_INDEX:false,
            FILE_SUFFIX:'.html',
            HAS_SOURCE:  true,
            SOURCELINK_SUFFIX: ".txt",
        };
    </script>
      <script type="text/javascript" src="../../_static/jquery.js"></script>
      <script type="text/javascript" src="../../_static/underscore.js"></script>
      <script type="text/javascript" src="../../_static/doctools.js"></script>
      <script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.0/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML"></script>
       
  
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../../_static/js/theme.js"></script>
  
  
  <script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-Tc5IQib027qvyjSMfHjOMaLkfuWVxZxUPnCJA7l2mCWNIpG9mGCD8wGNIcPD7Txa" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/perfect-scrollbar/0.6.14/js/perfect-scrollbar.jquery.min.js"></script>
  <script src="../../_static/js/paddle_doc_init.js"></script> 

</body>
</html>