Allow users to specify kv cache memory size (#21489)

Signed-off-by: Boyuan Feng <boyuan@meta.com>
Signed-off-by: Harry Mellor <19981378+hmellor@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Harry Mellor <19981378+hmellor@users.noreply.github.com>

vllm/config/cache.py

@@ -113,6 +113,15 @@ class CacheConfig:
     necessary for implementing this optimization in some models (e.g. Gemma3n)
     """
 
+    kv_cache_memory_bytes: Optional[int] = None
+    """Size of KV Cache per GPU in bytes. By default, this is set to None
+    and vllm can automatically infer the kv cache size based on
+    gpu_memory_utilization. However, users may want to manually specify
+    the kv cache memory size. kv_cache_memory_bytes allows more fine-grain
+    control of how much memory gets used when compared with using
+    gpu_memory_memory_utilization. Note that kv_cache_memory_bytes
+    (when not-None) ignores gpu_memory_utilization"""
+
     def compute_hash(self) -> str:
         """
         WARNING: Whenever a new field is added to this config,

vllm/engine/arg_utils.py

@@ -227,8 +227,14 @@ def _compute_kwargs(cls: ConfigType) -> dict[str, Any]:
         elif contains_type(type_hints, int):
             kwargs[name]["type"] = int
             # Special case for large integers
-            if name in {"max_model_len", "max_num_batched_tokens"}:
+            human_readable_ints = {
+                "max_model_len",
+                "max_num_batched_tokens",
+                "kv_cache_memory_bytes",
+            }
+            if name in human_readable_ints:
                 kwargs[name]["type"] = human_readable_int
+                kwargs[name]["help"] += f"\n\n{human_readable_int.__doc__}"
         elif contains_type(type_hints, float):
             kwargs[name]["type"] = float
         elif (contains_type(type_hints, dict)
@@ -335,6 +341,7 @@ class EngineArgs:
     swap_space: float = CacheConfig.swap_space
     cpu_offload_gb: float = CacheConfig.cpu_offload_gb
     gpu_memory_utilization: float = CacheConfig.gpu_memory_utilization
+    kv_cache_memory_bytes: Optional[int] = CacheConfig.kv_cache_memory_bytes
     max_num_batched_tokens: Optional[
         int] = SchedulerConfig.max_num_batched_tokens
     max_num_partial_prefills: int = SchedulerConfig.max_num_partial_prefills
@@ -734,6 +741,8 @@ class EngineArgs:
         cache_group.add_argument("--block-size", **cache_kwargs["block_size"])
         cache_group.add_argument("--gpu-memory-utilization",
                                  **cache_kwargs["gpu_memory_utilization"])
+        cache_group.add_argument("--kv-cache-memory-bytes",
+                                 **cache_kwargs["kv_cache_memory_bytes"])
         cache_group.add_argument("--swap-space", **cache_kwargs["swap_space"])
         cache_group.add_argument("--kv-cache-dtype",
                                  **cache_kwargs["cache_dtype"])
@@ -1174,6 +1183,7 @@ class EngineArgs:
         cache_config = CacheConfig(
             block_size=self.block_size,
             gpu_memory_utilization=self.gpu_memory_utilization,
+            kv_cache_memory_bytes=self.kv_cache_memory_bytes,
             swap_space=self.swap_space,
             cache_dtype=self.kv_cache_dtype,
             is_attention_free=model_config.is_attention_free,

vllm/engine/llm_engine.py

@@ -278,7 +278,8 @@ class LLMEngine:
                     self.cache_config.block_size,
                     "gpu_memory_utilization":
                     self.cache_config.gpu_memory_utilization,
-
+                    "kv_cache_memory_bytes":
+                    self.cache_config.kv_cache_memory_bytes,
                     # Quantization
                     "quantization":
                     self.model_config.quantization,

vllm/entrypoints/llm.py

@@ -110,6 +110,14 @@ class LLM:
             values will increase the KV cache size and thus improve the model's
             throughput. However, if the value is too high, it may cause out-of-
             memory (OOM) errors.
+        kv_cache_memory_bytes: Size of KV Cache per GPU in bytes. By default,
+            this is set to None and vllm can automatically infer the kv cache
+            size based on gpu_memory_utilization. However, users may want to
+            manually specify the kv cache memory size. kv_cache_memory_bytes
+            allows more fine-grain control of how much memory gets used when
+            compared with using gpu_memory_memory_utilization. Note that
+            kv_cache_memory_bytes (when not-None) ignores
+            gpu_memory_utilization
         swap_space: The size (GiB) of CPU memory per GPU to use as swap space.
             This can be used for temporarily storing the states of the requests
             when their `best_of` sampling parameters are larger than 1. If all
@@ -184,6 +192,7 @@ class LLM:
         hf_overrides: Optional[HfOverrides] = None,
         mm_processor_kwargs: Optional[dict[str, Any]] = None,
         override_pooler_config: Optional[PoolerConfig] = None,
+        kv_cache_memory_bytes: Optional[int] = None,
         compilation_config: Optional[Union[int, dict[str, Any],
                                            CompilationConfig]] = None,
         logits_processors: Optional[list[Union[str,
@@ -251,6 +260,7 @@ class LLM:
             tokenizer_revision=tokenizer_revision,
             seed=seed,
             gpu_memory_utilization=gpu_memory_utilization,
+            kv_cache_memory_bytes=kv_cache_memory_bytes,
             swap_space=swap_space,
             cpu_offload_gb=cpu_offload_gb,
             enforce_eager=enforce_eager,

vllm/utils/__init__.py

@@ -2791,7 +2791,10 @@ def memory_profiling(
     result.torch_peak_increase = diff_profile.torch_peak
     result.non_torch_increase = diff_from_create.non_torch_memory
     result.profile_time = diff_profile.timestamp
-    result.non_kv_cache_memory = result.non_torch_increase + result.torch_peak_increase + result.weights_memory  # noqa
+
+    non_torch_memory = result.non_torch_increase
+    peak_activation_memory = result.torch_peak_increase
+    result.non_kv_cache_memory = non_torch_memory + peak_activation_memory + result.weights_memory  # noqa
 
 
 # Adapted from: https://github.com/sgl-project/sglang/blob/v0.4.1/python/sglang/srt/utils.py#L630 # noqa: E501

vllm/v1/utils.py

@@ -355,7 +355,8 @@ def report_usage_stats(
             vllm_config.cache_config.block_size,
             "gpu_memory_utilization":
             vllm_config.cache_config.gpu_memory_utilization,
-
+            "kv_cache_memory_bytes":
+            vllm_config.cache_config.kv_cache_memory_bytes,
             # Quantization
             "quantization":
             vllm_config.model_config.quantization,

vllm/v1/worker/gpu_model_runner.py

@@ -3041,12 +3041,12 @@ class GPUModelRunner(LoRAModelRunnerMixin, KVConnectorModelRunnerMixin):
         self.encoder_cache.clear()
         gc.collect()
 
-    def capture_model(self) -> None:
+    def capture_model(self) -> int:
         if self.compilation_config.cudagraph_mode == CUDAGraphMode.NONE:
             logger.warning(
                 "Skipping CUDA graph capture. To turn on CUDA graph capture, "
                 "ensure `cudagraph_mode` was not manually set to `NONE`")
-            return
+            return 0
         else:
             self.initialize_cudagraph_capture()
 
@@ -3117,6 +3117,7 @@ class GPUModelRunner(LoRAModelRunnerMixin, KVConnectorModelRunnerMixin):
         # This usually takes 5~20 seconds.
         logger.info("Graph capturing finished in %.0f secs, took %.2f GiB",
                     elapsed_time, cuda_graph_size / (1 << 30))
+        return cuda_graph_size
 
     def _capture_cudagraphs(self, compilation_cases: list[int],
                             cudagraph_runtime_mode: CUDAGraphMode,

vllm/v1/worker/gpu_worker.py

@@ -231,18 +231,40 @@ class Worker(WorkerBase):
             You may limit the usage of GPU memory
             by adjusting the `gpu_memory_utilization` parameter.
         """
+        GiB = lambda b: b / GiB_bytes
+        if kv_cache_memory_bytes := self.cache_config.kv_cache_memory_bytes:
+            # still need a profile run which compiles the model for
+            # max_num_batched_tokens
+            self.model_runner.profile_run()
+
+            msg = (
+                f"Initial free memory {GiB(self.init_snapshot.free_memory)} "
+                f"GiB, reserved {GiB(kv_cache_memory_bytes):.2f}GiB memory for "
+                "KV Cache as specified by kv_cache_memory_bytes config and "
+                "skipped memory profiling. This does does not respect the "
+                "gpu_memory_utilization config. Only use kv_cache_memory_bytes "
+                "config when you want manual control of KV cache memory "
+                "size. If OOM'ed, check the difference of initial free "
+                "memory between the current run and the previous run "
+                "where kv_cache_memory_bytes is suggested and update it "
+                "correspondingly.")
+            logger.info(msg)
+            return kv_cache_memory_bytes
+
         torch.cuda.empty_cache()
         torch.cuda.reset_peak_memory_stats()
-        GiB = lambda b: b / GiB_bytes
 
         # Execute a forward pass with dummy inputs to profile the memory usage
         # of the model.
         with memory_profiling(
                 self.init_snapshot,
-                weights_memory=int(
+                weights_memory=int(self.model_runner.model_memory_usage),
-                    self.model_runner.model_memory_usage)) as profile_result:
+        ) as profile_result:
             self.model_runner.profile_run()
 
+        self.non_torch_memory = profile_result.non_torch_increase
+        self.peak_activation_memory = profile_result.torch_peak_increase
+
         free_gpu_memory = profile_result.after_profile.free_memory
         # NOTE(woosuk): Here we assume that the other processes using the same
         # GPU did not change their memory usage during the profiling.
@@ -254,7 +276,7 @@ class Worker(WorkerBase):
             "release GPU memory while vLLM is profiling during initialization. "
             "To fix this, ensure consistent GPU memory allocation or "
             "isolate vLLM in its own container.")
-        available_kv_cache_memory = self.requested_memory \
+        self.available_kv_cache_memory_bytes = self.requested_memory \
             - profile_result.non_kv_cache_memory
 
         unrequested_memory = self.init_snapshot.free_memory \
@@ -274,10 +296,10 @@ class Worker(WorkerBase):
         )
         logger.debug(profile_result)
         logger.info("Available KV cache memory: %.2f GiB",
-                    GiB(available_kv_cache_memory))
+                    GiB(self.available_kv_cache_memory_bytes))
         gc.collect()
 
-        return int(available_kv_cache_memory)
+        return int(self.available_kv_cache_memory_bytes)
 
     def get_kv_cache_spec(self) -> dict[str, KVCacheSpec]:
         return self.model_runner.get_kv_cache_spec()
@@ -317,8 +339,56 @@ class Worker(WorkerBase):
         # cuda graph capture.
         kernel_warmup(self)
 
+        cuda_graph_memory_bytes = 0
         if not self.model_config.enforce_eager:
-            self.model_runner.capture_model()
+            cuda_graph_memory_bytes = self.model_runner.capture_model()
+
+        if (self.cache_config.kv_cache_memory_bytes is None
+                and hasattr(self, "peak_activation_memory")):
+            # Suggests optimal kv cache memory size if we rely on
+            # memory_profiling to guess the kv cache memory size which
+            # provides peak_activation_memory and a few other memory
+            # consumption. `memory_profiling` does not consider
+            # CUDAGraph memory size and may not utilize all gpu memory.
+            # Users may want fine-grained control to specify kv cache
+            # memory size.
+            GiB = lambda b: round(b / GiB_bytes, 2)
+
+            # empirically observed that the memory profiling may
+            # slightly underestimate the memory consumption.
+            # So leave a small buffer (=150MiB) to avoid OOM.
+            redundancy_buffer_memory = 150 * (1 << 20)
+            non_kv_cache_memory = (self.model_runner.model_memory_usage +
+                                   self.peak_activation_memory +
+                                   self.non_torch_memory +
+                                   cuda_graph_memory_bytes)
+            kv_cache_memory_bytes_to_gpu_limit = (
+                self.init_snapshot.free_memory - non_kv_cache_memory -
+                redundancy_buffer_memory)
+            kv_cache_memory_bytes_to_requested_limit = (
+                int(self.requested_memory) - non_kv_cache_memory -
+                redundancy_buffer_memory)
+
+            msg = (
+                f"Free memory on device "
+                f"({GiB(self.init_snapshot.free_memory)}/"
+                f"{GiB(self.init_snapshot.total_memory)} GiB) on startup. "
+                f"Desired GPU memory utilization is "
+                f"({self.cache_config.gpu_memory_utilization}, "
+                f"{GiB(self.requested_memory)} GiB). "
+                f"Actual usage is {GiB(self.model_runner.model_memory_usage)} "
+                f"GiB for weight, {GiB(self.peak_activation_memory)} GiB "
+                f"for peak activation, {GiB(self.non_torch_memory)} GiB "
+                f"for non-torch memory, and {GiB(cuda_graph_memory_bytes)} "
+                f"GiB for CUDAGraph memory. Replace gpu_memory_utilization "
+                f"config with `--kv-cache-memory="
+                f"{kv_cache_memory_bytes_to_requested_limit}` to fit into "
+                f"requested memory, or `--kv-cache-memory="
+                f"{kv_cache_memory_bytes_to_gpu_limit}` to fully "
+                f"utilize gpu memory. Current kv cache memory in use is "
+                f"{int(self.available_kv_cache_memory_bytes)} bytes.")
+
+            logger.info(msg)
 
         # Warm up sampler and preallocate memory buffer for logits and other
         # sampling related tensors of max possible shape to avoid memory

vllm/worker/model_runner.py

@@ -1337,8 +1337,9 @@ class GPUModelRunnerBase(ModelRunnerBase[TModelInputForGPU]):
         return self.lora_manager.list_adapters()
 
     @torch.inference_mode()
-    def capture_model(self, kv_caches: List[List[torch.Tensor]]) -> None:
+    def capture_model(self, kv_caches: List[List[torch.Tensor]]) -> int:
-        """Cuda graph capture a model.
+        """Cuda graph capture a model and return cudagraph memory
+        consumption in bytes.
 
         Note that CUDA graph's performance gain is negligible if number
         of batched tokens are larger than 200. And since CUDA graph
@@ -1505,6 +1506,7 @@ class GPUModelRunnerBase(ModelRunnerBase[TModelInputForGPU]):
         # This usually takes < 10 seconds.
         logger.info("Graph capturing finished in %.0f secs, took %.2f GiB",
                     elapsed_time, cuda_graph_size / GiB_bytes)
+        return cuda_graph_size
 
     def _update_inputs_to_capture_for_enc_dec_model(self,
                                                     capture_inputs: Dict[str,

vllm/worker/worker.py

@@ -229,6 +229,67 @@ class Worker(LocalOrDistributedWorkerBase):
         self.model_runner.save_tensorized_model(
             tensorizer_config=tensorizer_config, )
 
+    @torch.inference_mode()
+    def determine_available_kv_cache_memory(self,
+                                            total_gpu_memory: int) -> float:
+        if kv_cache_memory_bytes := self.cache_config.kv_cache_memory_bytes:
+            # still need a profile run which compiles the model for
+            # max_num_batched_tokens
+            self.model_runner.profile_run()
+
+            GiB = lambda b: b / GiB_bytes
+            msg = (
+                f"Initial free memory "
+                f"{GiB(self.baseline_snapshot.free_memory):.2f} "
+                f"GiB, reserved {GiB(kv_cache_memory_bytes):.2f}GiB memory for "
+                "KV Cache as specified by kv_cache_memory_bytes config and "
+                "skipped memory profiling. This does does not respect the "
+                "gpu_memory_utilization config. Only use kv_cache_memory_bytes "
+                "config when you want manual control of KV cache memory "
+                "size. If OOM'ed, check the difference of initial free "
+                "memory between the current run and the previous run "
+                "where kv_cache_memory_bytes is suggested and update it "
+                "correspondingly.")
+            logger.info(msg)
+            return self.cache_config.kv_cache_memory_bytes
+
+        # Execute a forward pass with dummy inputs to profile the memory usage
+        # of the model.
+        with memory_profiling(
+                self.baseline_snapshot,
+                weights_memory=self.model_runner.model_memory_usage) as result:
+            self.model_runner.profile_run()
+
+        self.non_torch_memory = result.non_torch_increase
+        self.peak_activation_memory = result.torch_peak_increase
+
+        self._assert_memory_footprint_increased_during_profiling()
+
+        self.requested_memory = total_gpu_memory * \
+            self.cache_config.gpu_memory_utilization
+
+        self.available_kv_cache_memory = (self.requested_memory -
+                                          result.non_kv_cache_memory)
+
+        msg = (f"Memory profiling takes {result.profile_time:.2f} seconds\n"
+               "the current vLLM instance can use "
+               "total_gpu_memory "
+               f"({(total_gpu_memory / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB)"
+               " x gpu_memory_utilization "
+               f"({self.cache_config.gpu_memory_utilization:.2f})"
+               f" = {(self.requested_memory / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB\n"
+               "model weights take "
+               f"{(result.weights_memory / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB;"
+               " non_torch_memory takes "
+               f"{(result.non_torch_increase / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB;"
+               " PyTorch activation peak memory takes "
+               f"{(result.torch_peak_increase / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB;"
+               " the rest of the memory reserved for KV Cache is "
+               f"{(self.available_kv_cache_memory / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB.")
+
+        logger.info(msg)
+        return self.available_kv_cache_memory
+
     @torch.inference_mode()
     def determine_num_available_blocks(self) -> Tuple[int, int]:
         """Profiles the peak memory usage of the model to determine how many
@@ -248,20 +309,8 @@ class Worker(LocalOrDistributedWorkerBase):
         torch.cuda.reset_peak_memory_stats()
 
         free_memory_pre_profile, total_gpu_memory = torch.cuda.mem_get_info()
-
+        available_kv_cache_memory = self.determine_available_kv_cache_memory(
-        # Execute a forward pass with dummy inputs to profile the memory usage
+            total_gpu_memory)
-        # of the model.
-        with memory_profiling(
-                self.baseline_snapshot,
-                weights_memory=self.model_runner.model_memory_usage) as result:
-            self.model_runner.profile_run()
-
-        self._assert_memory_footprint_increased_during_profiling()
-
-        memory_for_current_instance = total_gpu_memory * \
-            self.cache_config.gpu_memory_utilization
-        available_kv_cache_memory = (memory_for_current_instance -
-                                     result.non_kv_cache_memory)
 
         # Calculate the number of blocks that can be allocated with the
         # profiled peak memory.
@@ -276,23 +325,6 @@ class Worker(LocalOrDistributedWorkerBase):
         num_gpu_blocks = max(num_gpu_blocks, 0)
         num_cpu_blocks = max(num_cpu_blocks, 0)
 
-        msg = (f"Memory profiling takes {result.profile_time:.2f} seconds\n"
-               "the current vLLM instance can use "
-               "total_gpu_memory "
-               f"({(total_gpu_memory / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB)"
-               " x gpu_memory_utilization "
-               f"({self.cache_config.gpu_memory_utilization:.2f})"
-               f" = {(memory_for_current_instance / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB\n"
-               "model weights take "
-               f"{(result.weights_memory / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB;"
-               " non_torch_memory takes "
-               f"{(result.non_torch_increase / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB;"
-               " PyTorch activation peak memory takes "
-               f"{(result.torch_peak_increase / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB;"
-               " the rest of the memory reserved for KV Cache is "
-               f"{(available_kv_cache_memory / GiB_bytes):.2f}GiB.")
-
-        logger.info(msg)
         # Final cleanup
         gc.collect()
 
@@ -382,8 +414,58 @@ class Worker(LocalOrDistributedWorkerBase):
         for size in sorted(warmup_sizes, reverse=True):
             logger.info("Compile and warming up model for size %d", size)
             self.model_runner._dummy_run(size)
+
+        cuda_graph_memory_bytes = 0
         if not self.model_config.enforce_eager:
-            self.model_runner.capture_model(self.gpu_cache)
+            cuda_graph_memory_bytes = self.model_runner.capture_model(
+                self.gpu_cache)
+
+        if (self.cache_config.kv_cache_memory_bytes is None
+                and hasattr(self, "peak_activation_memory")):
+            # Suggests optimal kv cache memory size if we rely on
+            # memory_profiling to guess the kv cache memory size which
+            # provides peak_activation_memory and a few other memory
+            # consumption. `memory_profiling` does not consider
+            # CUDAGraph memory size and may not utilize all gpu memory.
+            # Users may want fine-grained control to specify kv cache
+            # memory size.
+            GiB = lambda b: round(b / GiB_bytes, 2)
+            non_kv_cache_memory = (self.model_runner.model_memory_usage +
+                                   self.peak_activation_memory +
+                                   self.non_torch_memory +
+                                   cuda_graph_memory_bytes)
+
+            # empirically observed that the memory profiling may
+            # slightly underestimate the memory consumption.
+            # So leave a small buffer (=150MiB) to avoid OOM.
+            redundancy_buffer_memory = 150 * (1 << 20)
+            kv_cache_memory_bytes_to_gpu_limit = (
+                self.baseline_snapshot.free_memory - non_kv_cache_memory -
+                redundancy_buffer_memory)
+            kv_cache_memory_bytes_to_requested_limit = (
+                int(self.requested_memory) - non_kv_cache_memory -
+                redundancy_buffer_memory)
+
+            msg = (
+                f"Free memory on device "
+                f"({GiB(self.baseline_snapshot.free_memory)}/"
+                f"{GiB(self.baseline_snapshot.total_memory)} GiB) on startup. "
+                f"Desired GPU memory utilization is "
+                f"({self.cache_config.gpu_memory_utilization}, "
+                f"{GiB(self.requested_memory)} GiB). "
+                f"Actual usage is {GiB(self.model_runner.model_memory_usage)} "
+                f"GiB for weight, {GiB(self.peak_activation_memory)} GiB "
+                f"for peak activation, {GiB(self.non_torch_memory)} GiB "
+                f"for non-torch memory, and {GiB(cuda_graph_memory_bytes)} "
+                f"GiB for CUDAGraph memory. Replace gpu_memory_utilization "
+                f"config with `--kv-cache-memory="
+                f"{kv_cache_memory_bytes_to_requested_limit}` to fit into "
+                f"requested memory, or `--kv-cache-memory="
+                f"{kv_cache_memory_bytes_to_gpu_limit}` to fully "
+                f"utilize gpu memory. Current kv cache memory in use is "
+                f"{int(self.available_kv_cache_memory)} bytes.")
+            logger.info(msg)
+
         # Reset the seed to ensure that the random state is not affected by
         # the model initialization and profiling.
         set_random_seed(self.model_config.seed)