Lightning-AI / Lightning-AI/pytorch-lightning

PyTorch Lightning DDP crashes with unused parameters

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bug ver: 2.0.x
Dominant language
Python
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Avg merge
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Description

### Bug description

When I try to run my code with PL2.0 and Pytorch2.0 using DDP strategy on 2 GPUs I receive the following error which did not happen with previous versions.
```
return forward_call(*args, **kwargs)
File "/home/nathanasiou/.venvs/space_updated/lib/python3.10/site-packages/torch/nn/parallel/distributed.py", line 1139, in forward
if torch.is_grad_enabled() and self.reducer._rebuild_buckets():
RuntimeError: It looks like your LightningModule has parameters that were not used in producing the loss returned by training_step. If this is intentional, you must enable the detection of unused parameters in DDP, either by setting the string value `strategy='ddp_find_unused_parameters_true'` or by setting the flag in the strategy with `strategy=DDPStrategy(find_unused_parameters=True)`.
```
Once I change the strategy to `strategy=ddp_find_unused_parameters_true` the code turns terribly slow i.e. 12 hours each epochs while it was taking 2 minutes or less before.

How can I deal with this? I want some of my parameters to stay frozen and also want to be able to train using DDP and get the speed advantages. Is there a way I can do something with these parameters and switch off `find unused parameters` flag?

### How to reproduce the bug

_No response_

### Error messages and logs

```
# Error messages and logs here please
```

### Environment

Current environment

```Collecting environment information...
PyTorch version: 2.0.0+cu117
Is debug build: False
CUDA used to build PyTorch: 11.7
ROCM used to build PyTorch: N/A

OS: Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS (x86_64)
GCC version: (Ubuntu 9.4.0-1ubuntu1~20.04.1) 9.4.0
Clang version: Could not collect
CMake version: version 3.26.0
Libc version: glibc-2.31

Python version: 3.10.10 (main, Feb 8 2023, 14:50:01) [GCC 9.4.0] (64-bit runtime)
Python platform: Linux-5.15.0-67-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.31
Is CUDA available: True
CUDA runtime version: 11.7.64
CUDA_MODULE_LOADING set to: LAZY
GPU models and configuration: GPU 0: Quadro RTX 5000
Nvidia driver version: 525.89.02
cuDNN version: Could not collect
HIP runtime version: N/A
MIOpen runtime version: N/A
Is XNNPACK available: True

CPU:
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
Address sizes: 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
CPU(s): 12
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-11
Thread(s) per core: 2
Core(s) per socket: 6
Socket(s): 1
NUMA node(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 85
Model name: Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-2133 CPU @ 3.60GHz
Stepping: 4
CPU MHz: 3600.000
CPU max MHz: 3900,0000
CPU min MHz: 1200,0000
BogoMIPS: 7200.00
Virtualization: VT-x
L1d cache: 192 KiB
L1i cache: 192 KiB
L2 cache: 6 MiB
L3 cache: 8,3 MiB
NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-11
Vulnerability Itlb multihit: KVM: Mitigation: VMX disabled
Vulnerability L1tf: Mitigation; PTE Inversion; VMX conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Mds: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Meltdown: Mitigation; PTI
Vulnerability Mmio stale data: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Vulnerability Retbleed: Mitigation; IBRS
Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
Vulnerability Spectre v1: Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Vulnerability Spectre v2: Mitigation; IBRS, IBPB conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS Not affected
Vulnerability Srbds: Not affected
Vulnerability Tsx async abort: Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb cat_l3 cdp_l3 invpcid_single pti intel_ppin ssbd mba ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm cqm mpx rdt_a avx512f avx512dq rdseed adx smap clflushopt clwb intel_pt avx512cd avx512bw avx512vl xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves cqm_llc cqm_occup_llc cqm_mbm_total cqm_mbm_local dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_pkg_req md_clear flush_l1d arch_capabilities

Versions of relevant libraries:
[pip3] numpy==1.22.3
[pip3] pytorch-lightning==2.0.0
[pip3] torch==2.0.0
[pip3] torchaudio==2.0.1
[pip3] torchmetrics==0.11.4
[pip3] torchvision==0.15.1
[pip3] triton==2.0.0
[conda] No relevant packages

```

### More info

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the reported DDP strategy settings, DDPStrategy(find_unused_parameters=True), and the training_step behavior described in the issue. Reproduce the failure using PyTorch Lightning 2.0 and PyTorch 2.0 on two GPUs, then compare it with frozen parameters and find-unused-parameters enabled. Done requires a confirmed explanation or reproducible fix that preserves DDP performance without incorrectly handling unused parameters.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python, pytorch
Domain
distributed-systems, machine-learning
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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