diff --git a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
index 7803d7916aa2240d2fbf82d5fc0d54da8d627170..06ed83622abf49584050f74f41b0561045b246f5 100755
--- a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
+++ b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
@@ -125,7 +125,10 @@ class DeepSpeedEngine(Module):
         if dist_init_required is None:
             dist_init_required = not dist.is_initialized()
 
-        self._mpi_check(args, dist_init_required)
+        if self._in_aml():
+            self._set_environment_variables_for_nccl_backend(args)
+        else:
+            self._mpi_check(args, dist_init_required)
 
         self.dist_backend = "nccl"
         if dist_init_required:
@@ -199,6 +202,49 @@ class DeepSpeedEngine(Module):
         self.flatten = util_ops.flatten
         self.unflatten = util_ops.unflatten
 
+    def _in_aml(self):
+        # read and environment variable to detect if we are using an Azure ML environment
+        if 'AZUREML_EXPERIMENT_ID' in os.environ:
+            return True
+        else:
+            return False
+
+    def _set_environment_variables_for_nccl_backend(self,
+                                                    args,
+                                                    master_port=6105,
+                                                    verbose=True):
+        """Helper routine to get and set environment variables.
+        This is adapted from Azure ML's documentation available from:
+        https://azure.github.io/azureml-web/docs/cheatsheet/distributed-training/#environment-variables-from-openmpi
+        """
+        os.environ["RANK"] = os.environ["OMPI_COMM_WORLD_RANK"]
+        os.environ["WORLD_SIZE"] = os.environ["OMPI_COMM_WORLD_SIZE"]
+        single_node = int(os.environ["OMPI_COMM_WORLD_LOCAL_SIZE"]) == int(
+            os.environ["WORLD_SIZE"])
+        if not single_node:
+            master_node_params = os.environ["AZ_BATCH_MASTER_NODE"].split(":")
+            os.environ["MASTER_ADDR"] = master_node_params[0]
+            # Do not overwrite master port with that defined in AZ_BATCH_MASTER_NODE
+            if "MASTER_PORT" not in os.environ:
+                os.environ["MASTER_PORT"] = str(master_port)
+        else:
+            os.environ["MASTER_ADDR"] = os.environ["AZ_BATCHAI_MPI_MASTER_NODE"]
+            os.environ["MASTER_PORT"] = "54965"
+        print("NCCL_SOCKET_IFNAME original value = {}".format(
+            os.environ["NCCL_SOCKET_IFNAME"]))
+
+        os.environ["NCCL_SOCKET_IFNAME"] = "^docker0,lo"
+        args.local_rank = int(os.environ["OMPI_COMM_WORLD_LOCAL_RANK"])
+
+        if verbose:
+            logger.info(
+                "Discovered AzureML settings of world_rank={}, local_rank={}, world_size={}, master_addr={}, master_port={}"
+                .format(os.environ['RANK'],
+                        args.local_rank,
+                        os.environ['WORLD_SIZE'],
+                        os.environ['MASTER_ADDR'],
+                        os.environ['MASTER_PORT']))
+
     def _mpi_check(self, args, dist_init_required):
         if hasattr(args, 'deepspeed_mpi') and args.deepspeed_mpi:
             from mpi4py import MPI