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Fix GPUDirect RDMA bandwidth bottleneck in TENT backend#1463

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copilot/fix-gpu-rdma-bandwidth
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Fix GPUDirect RDMA bandwidth bottleneck in TENT backend#1463
Copilot wants to merge 7 commits intomainfrom
copilot/fix-gpu-rdma-bandwidth

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Copilot AI commented Jan 29, 2026

Description

GPUDirect RDMA transfers achieved only ~15 GB/s instead of line rate (~47 GB/s) due to missing IBV_ACCESS_RELAXED_ORDERING flag in TENT backend memory registration. This flag enables PCIe relaxed ordering, critical for GPU memory transfer performance.

Changes:

  • Core fix: Add IBV_ACCESS_RELAXED_ORDERING to getAccessFlags() in TENT buffers

    • Modified LocalBufferManager to propagate relaxed ordering flag
    • Auto-detect support via ibv_reg_mr_iova2 symbol
    • Input validation with strtol() and warning for invalid values
  • Configuration: MC_IB_PCI_RELAXED_ORDERING environment variable

    • 0 (default): disabled for backward compatibility
    • 1 or 2: enable if driver supports (functionally identical)
  • Documentation: Updated existing documentation files with configuration guidance and troubleshooting information

Usage:

export MC_IB_PCI_RELAXED_ORDERING=1
# GPU RDMA bandwidth: 15 GB/s → 47 GB/s

Requirements:

  • RDMA driver with ibv_reg_mr_iova2 (MLNX_OFED 4.9+)
  • GPUDirect RDMA capable hardware

Type of Change

  • Types
    • Bug fix
    • New feature
      • Transfer Engine
      • Mooncake Store
      • Mooncake EP
      • Integration
      • P2P Store
      • Python Wheel
    • Breaking change
    • CI/CD
    • Documentation update
    • Other

How Has This Been Tested?

Manual code review and static analysis (CodeQL) passed. Real hardware testing recommended with GPU memory transfers over RDMA to verify 3x bandwidth improvement.

Checklist

  • I have performed a self-review of my own code.
  • I have formatted my own code using ./scripts/code_format.sh before submitting.
  • I have updated the documentation.
  • I have added tests to prove my changes are effective.
Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>[Performance]: Low GPUDirect RDMA Bandwidth (~15 GB/s) compared to CPU RDMA (~47 GB/s).</issue_title>
<issue_description>### Describe your performance question

Description:

Hi there,

We are benchmarking the transfer engine on two machines, each equipped with 8 GPUs and 8 RDMA NICs (400 Gbps). Our test configuration targets a 1-to-1 mapping using GPU 0 and NIC mlx5_0. We observed a significant performance discrepancy between CPU and GPU memory settings:

Test Results:

CPU RDMA (DRAM): When compiled with default options, the benchmark allocates memory in DRAM. We achieved a bandwidth of approximately 47 GB/s, which is consistent with the hardware's line rate.

GPU RDMA (VRAM): When compiled with -DUSE_CUDA=ON, the benchmark allocates VRAM on the GPU. In this case, the bandwidth drops to approximately 15 GB/s.

Environment & Configuration:

Hardware: 8x 400Gbps NICs, 8x GPUs.

Software Config: Benchmark pinned to mlx5_0 and gpu:0. All other parameters are kept at default.

Expectation: We expected GPUDirect RDMA to achieve performance closer to the CPU RDMA results(We achieve this result when use UCCL or NIXL with UCX backend).

Questions:

Are there specific compilation flags or runtime environment variables (e.g., UCX, NCCL, or PeerDirect settings) required to fully enable GPUDirect RDMA optimizations?

Does the transfer engine require specific PCIe topology awareness to avoid the observed 15 GB/s bottleneck?

We are looking for your insights or any advice on tuning the GPU RDMA performance. Thanks

Before submitting a new issue...

  • Make sure you already searched for relevant issues and read the documentation</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)


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Copilot AI and others added 4 commits January 29, 2026 12:24
- Enable IBV_ACCESS_RELAXED_ORDERING flag for GPU memory registrations
- Add relaxed ordering detection in TENT rdma_transport
- Update LocalBufferManager to support relaxed ordering flag
- Add comprehensive documentation for MC_IB_PCI_RELAXED_ORDERING
- Add troubleshooting section for low GPU RDMA bandwidth issue

Co-authored-by: XucSh <107600043+XucSh@users.noreply.github.com>
Document the importance of MC_IB_PCI_RELAXED_ORDERING for optimal GPU RDMA performance.

Co-authored-by: XucSh <107600043+XucSh@users.noreply.github.com>
- Created detailed troubleshooting guide for GPU RDMA performance
- Includes symptoms, root cause, solution, and verification steps
- Added performance comparison table and examples
- Documented technical background and alternative solutions

Co-authored-by: XucSh <107600043+XucSh@users.noreply.github.com>
- Fix log message inconsistencies in documentation
- Clarify modes 1 and 2 are functionally identical
- Add input validation and warning for invalid env var values
- Use strtol instead of atoi for better error detection

Co-authored-by: XucSh <107600043+XucSh@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] Fix low GPUDirect RDMA bandwidth issue Fix GPUDirect RDMA bandwidth bottleneck in TENT backend Jan 29, 2026
Copilot AI requested a review from XucSh January 29, 2026 12:33
@alogfans
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Looks interesting.

Removed docs/source/performance/gpu-rdma-bandwidth-optimization.md as requested.

Co-authored-by: XucSh <107600043+XucSh@users.noreply.github.com>
@XucSh XucSh marked this pull request as ready for review January 30, 2026 11:09
@XucSh
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XucSh commented Jan 30, 2026

@copilot use scripts/code_format.sh to format your code

Applied code formatting as requested using scripts/code_format.sh

Co-authored-by: XucSh <107600043+XucSh@users.noreply.github.com>
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Copilot AI commented Jan 30, 2026

@copilot use scripts/code_format.sh to format your code

Code formatted with clang-format-20 in commit f98640b.

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[Performance]: Low GPUDirect RDMA Bandwidth (~15 GB/s) compared to CPU RDMA (~47 GB/s).

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