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Add preliminary Muon+M-FSDP support#4486

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janEbert wants to merge 32 commits into
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janEbert:muon-m-fsdp
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Add preliminary Muon+M-FSDP support#4486
janEbert wants to merge 32 commits into
NVIDIA:mainfrom
janEbert:muon-m-fsdp

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Introduce Muon support to M-FSDP. Currently 1.5×–2.7× as slow compared to an Adam baseline with a 1B–8B DeepSeek-V3 proxy model. Peak memory slightly lower than with Adam (4–7 % less).

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@cspades cspades left a comment

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Definitely many nits, ambiguities, and red flags. Will also test out on my side and comment on solutions. Good progress though! The step() implementation is as intended.

Comment thread megatron/core/optimizer/__init__.py Outdated
Comment thread megatron/core/optimizer/__init__.py Outdated
Comment thread megatron/core/optimizer/__init__.py Outdated
Comment thread megatron/core/optimizer/emerging_optimizers.py Outdated
Comment thread megatron/core/optimizer/emerging_optimizers.py Outdated
Comment thread megatron/core/optimizer/emerging_optimizers.py Outdated
Comment thread megatron/core/optimizer/emerging_optimizers.py Outdated
Comment thread megatron/training/arguments.py Outdated
Comment thread megatron/training/arguments.py Outdated
Comment thread megatron/training/arguments.py Outdated
@janEbert janEbert force-pushed the muon-m-fsdp branch 3 times, most recently from 3dbd0b4 to be93e7f Compare May 6, 2026 17:07
@janEbert janEbert force-pushed the muon-m-fsdp branch 3 times, most recently from de7dbb0 to a74bb57 Compare May 13, 2026 16:49
if cached_indices is not None:
return cached_indices

has_mfsdp_params = any(getattr(param, "orig_param", None) is not None for param in params)

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BTW this isn't a good way to tell if we are using Megatron-FSDP, plus we really only care that the DTensor.shape != DTensor._local_tensor.shape for when we need to all-gather, which does not care about MFSDP.

Comment thread megatron/core/optimizer/optimizer_config.py
local_chunks_info = [
{"shape": torch.Size(local_tensor.shape), "offset": tuple(local_chunk_metadata.offsets)}
]
shard_group = dtensor_ref.device_mesh.get_group(shard_mesh_dims[0])

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This doesn't look right, why is the shard group just the first mesh dim? HFSDP has 2 sharding groups, for instance? (Or you need to flatten them.)

torch.empty(chunk_info["numel"], dtype=local_tensor.dtype, device=local_tensor.device)
for chunk_info in plan["chunk_infos"]
]
torch.distributed.all_gather(group_tensors, local_buffer, group=plan["shard_group"])

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See above, I don't know how this could work with HFSDP. You need to all-gather across two groups, not one. chunk_info["numel"] looks to be a full-shard, and I assume this all-gathers into a partial shard, likely in the wrong order (inner first [1], then outer [0]).

janEbert and others added 16 commits May 21, 2026 09:45
Route the emerging-optimizer factory through a Megatron-FSDP-specific
path when `ddp_config.use_megatron_fsdp` is set. Megatron-FSDP attaches
grads via `finish_grad_sync()` on DTensor params instead of via DDP's
main_grad buffers, so the standard `Float16OptimizerWithFloat16Params`
wrapper does not apply; we always wrap with `FP32Optimizer` instead and
drive the FSDP step contract from a thin `FSDPMuonChainedOptimizer`
adapter that calls `finish_grad_sync()` and
`install_optimized_model_weights()` around the inner step.

For now this supports ZeRO-0 ("no_shard") only; ZeRO-1/2/3 will work
without errors on the wiring but require a sharding-aware Muon variant
for numerical correctness, added in a follow-up.

Also patch `LayerWiseDistributedOptimizer._allgather_helper` to read
DTensor-backed params via `_local_tensor`, so the layer-wise + FSDP
combination can flatten the local shard rather than the global DTensor.
Add `FSDPZeROTensorParallelMuon`, a TensorParallelMuon subclass that:

1. Extracts the `Shard(0)` local tensor from each gradient
   DTensor: (`finish_grad_sync` produces a row-shard per DP rank for
   `optim`, `optim_grads` and `optim_grads_params`).
2. Allgathers the shards across the DP group to reconstruct the
   TP-local, DP-full gradient matrix.
3. Trims FSDP bucket-padding rows using the DTensor's declared global
   shape.
4. Delegates Newton-Schulz to the parent class (which handles the TP
   dimension via `newton_schulz_tp`).
5. Re-shards the orthogonalized result back to a `Shard(0)` DTensor with
   matching placements so the in-place update in
   `OrthogonalizedOptimizer.step` does not promote to `Replicate` and
   trip the global-shape check.

The FSDP factory in `_build_megatron_fsdp_emerging_optimizer` now picks
`FSDPZeROTensorParallelMuon` for any sharded inner-DP strategy and
passes `pg_collection.dp_cp` for dense params and
`pg_collection.expt_dp` for expert params (since expert grads
reduce-scatter over a different group). "no_shard" continues to use
plain `TensorParallelMuon`.

DTensor is imported at module scope with a `_HAVE_DTENSOR` guard so the
isinstance checks stay cheap and the module still imports on stacks
without `torch.distributed.tensor`.
Three phases of tests for the Muon + Megatron-FSDP integration:

- Phase 1: `FSDPMuonChainedOptimizer` adapter (single-rank, mock-based).
  Verifies the step contract – finish_grad_sync -> inner step ->
  install_optimized_model_weights – and attribute delegation.
- Phase 2: `FSDPZeROTensorParallelMuon.orthogonalize` (multi-rank).
  Asserts the allgather -> Newton-Schulz -> reshard cycle is numerically
  equivalent to running NS on the full gradient and extracting the local
  row-shard, including FSDP padding edge cases. Includes a DTensor
  round-trip test that catches the `p.add_(orthogonalized_dtensor)`
  placement-promotion bug.
- Phase 3: `_build_megatron_fsdp_emerging_optimizer` factory. Confirms
  the factory dispatches plain `TensorParallelMuon` for `no_shard` and
  `FSDPZeROTensorParallelMuon` for sharded strategies, and that expert
  vs. non-expert Muon instances receive `expt_dp` vs. `dp_cp` as their
  allgather group.
Signed-off-by: Cory Ye <cye@nvidia.com>
Signed-off-by: Cory Ye <cye@nvidia.com>
The `full_tensor` should be reconstructed fully.
Also
- fix `--empty-unused-memory-level` default. Setting it to 1 is too
  detrimental to performance; setting it to 0 still has relatively
  stable throughput,
- assert that the full tensor reconstruction actually covers the full
  tensor.
Trade peak memory for slightly increased throughput.
Also make batched gathering optional due to its effect on peak memory.
- Improve boundary detection
- Do not perform NS on ranks with empty shards
janEbert and others added 14 commits May 21, 2026 09:45
... by replacing `DTensor.to_local()` with `DTensor._local_tensor`.

As suggested by @cspades.
Keeps M-FSDP gradients as DTensors when collecting grads for
norm/zero-count stats, then makes the grad-stat helpers reduce over the
actual DTensor shard mesh dimensions. This fixes incorrect or duplicated
reductions for FSDP/HSDP/HFSDP, especially avoiding double-counting
replicated outer-DP ranks while still including all sharded data.
Fixes an HSDP/HFSDP numerics bug where the inner-DP gradient reduction
could complete without the required outer-DP reduction before optimizer
gradients were attached. It tracks buckets that still need outer-DP
reduction and completes that work during gradient synchronization/reset,
so HSDP/HFSDP see correctly reduced gradients before optimizer steps.
When using Muon, we also have to use Adam. Using both leads to calling
`install_optimized_model_weights` twice, once after each optimizer. We
now delay the call until all `chained_optimizers` in the
`ChainedOptimizer` have run.
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