SFT on multi-host TPUs

SFT on multi-host TPUs#

Supervised fine-tuning (SFT) is a process where a pre-trained large language model is fine-tuned on a labeled dataset to adapt the model to perform better on specific tasks.

This tutorial demonstrates step-by-step instructions for setting up the multi-host TPU environment and then training the model on the Hugging Face dataset using SFT. In this tutorial we use a multi-host TPU such as v6e-256.

We use Tunix, a JAX-based library designed for post-training tasks, to perform SFT.

Let’s get started!

Prerequisites#

Before starting, ensure you have:

Access to a Google Cloud Project with TPU quotas.
A Hugging Face account with an access token for downloading models.
Permissions for Google Artifact Registry (Artifact Registry Writer role).
Prerequisites for XPK installed (follow official documentation).
A Pathways-ready GKE cluster (see create GKE cluster).
Docker installed and configured for sudoless use. Follow the steps to configure sudoless Docker.

Build and upload MaxText Docker image#

For instructions on building and uploading the MaxText Docker image with post-training dependencies, please refer to the official documentation.

Create GKE cluster#

Use a pathways ready GKE cluster as described here.

Environment configuration#

# -- Google Cloud Configuration --
export PROJECT=<Google Cloud Project ID>
export CLUSTER_NAME=<Name of GKE Cluster>
export ZONE=<GKE Cluster Zone>

# -- Workload Configuration --
export WORKLOAD_NAME=<Name of Workload> # e.g., sft-$(date +%s)
export TPU_TYPE=<TPU Type> # e.g., v6e-256
export TPU_SLICE=<number of slices>

# -- MaxText Configuration --
export OUTPUT_PATH=<GCS Path for Output/Logs> # e.g., gs://my-bucket/my-output-directory
export STEPS=<Fine-Tuning Steps> # e.g., 1000
export HF_TOKEN=<Hugging Face Access Token>

# -- Model Configuration --
export MODEL=<MaxText Model> # e.g., deepseek3-671b

# -- Dataset configuration --
export DATASET_NAME=<Hugging Face Dataset Name> # e.g., HuggingFaceH4/ultrachat_200k
export TRAIN_SPLIT=<Data Split for Train> # e.g., train_sft
export TRAIN_DATA_COLUMNS=<Data Columns to Train on> # e.g., ['messages']

Get MaxText model checkpoint#

This section explains how to prepare your model checkpoint for use with MaxText. You have two options: using an existing MaxText checkpoint or converting a Hugging Face checkpoint.

Option 1: Using an existing MaxText checkpoint#

If you already have a MaxText-compatible model checkpoint, simply set the following environment variable and move on to the next section.

export MAXTEXT_CKPT_PATH=<gcs path for MaxText checkpoint> # e.g., gs://my-bucket/my-model-checkpoint/0/items

Note: Make sure that MAXTEXT_CKPT_PATH has the checkpoints created using the correct storage flags:

export USE_PATHWAYS=0  # Set to 1 for Pathways, 0 for McJAX.
checkpoint_storage_use_zarr3=$((1 - USE_PATHWAYS))
checkpoint_storage_use_ocdbt=$((1 - USE_PATHWAYS))

Option 2: Converting a Hugging Face checkpoint#

Refer the steps in Hugging Face to MaxText to convert a hugging face checkpoint to MaxText. Make sure you have correct checkpoint files converted and saved. Similar as Option 1, you can set the following environment and move on.

export MAXTEXT_CKPT_PATH=<gcs path for MaxText checkpoint> # gs://my-bucket/my-checkpoint-directory/0/items

Submit workload on GKE cluster#

This section provides the command to run SFT on a GKE cluster.

SFT with Multi-Controller JAX (McJAX)#

xpk workload create \
--cluster=${CLUSTER_NAME?} \
--project=${PROJECT?} \
--zone=${ZONE?} \
--docker-image=gcr.io/${PROJECT_ID?}/${CLOUD_IMAGE_NAME?} \
--workload=${WORKLOAD_NAME?} \
--tpu-type=${TPU_TYPE?} \
--num-slices=${TPU_SLICE?} \
--command "python3 -m maxtext.trainers.post_train.sft.train_sft run_name=${WORKLOAD_NAME?} base_output_directory=${OUTPUT_PATH?} model_name=${MODEL?} load_parameters_path=${MAXTEXT_CKPT_PATH?} hf_access_token=${HF_TOKEN?}  per_device_batch_size=1 steps=${STEPS?} profiler=xplane hf_path=${DATASET_NAME?} train_split=${TRAIN_SPLIT?} train_data_columns=${TRAIN_DATA_COLUMNS?}"

Once the fine-tuning is completed, you can access your model checkpoints at $OUTPUT_PATH/$WORKLOAD_NAME/checkpoints.

SFT with Pathways#

export USE_PATHWAYS=1

xpk workload create-pathways \
--cluster=${CLUSTER_NAME?} \
--project=${PROJECT?} \
--zone=${ZONE?} \
--docker-image=gcr.io/${PROJECT_ID?}/${CLOUD_IMAGE_NAME?} \
--workload=${WORKLOAD_NAME?} \
--tpu-type=${TPU_TYPE?} \
--num-slices=${TPU_SLICE?} \
--command="JAX_PLATFORMS=proxy JAX_BACKEND_TARGET=grpc://127.0.0.1:29000 ENABLE_PATHWAYS_PERSISTENCE=1 python3 -m maxtext.trainers.post_train.sft.train_sft run_name=${WORKLOAD_NAME?} base_output_directory=${OUTPUT_PATH?} model_name=${MODEL?} load_parameters_path=${MAXTEXT_CKPT_PATH?} hf_access_token=${HF_TOKEN?} per_device_batch_size=1 steps=${STEPS?} profiler=xplane checkpoint_storage_use_zarr3=$((1 - USE_PATHWAYS)) checkpoint_storage_use_ocdbt=$((1 - USE_PATHWAYS)) enable_single_controller=True"