427b17e2da
### What this PR does / why we need it? This PR introduces a new model loader called Netloader, which leverages high-bandwidth P2P direct transfer between NPU cards to achieve weight loading. Netloader is implemented as a plugin through the newly added 'register_model_loader' function in vLLM 0.10. It facilitates the process of weight loading by sending weights from a pre-loaded model (server) to an empty model of a newly started instance (client). The server operates concurrently with normal inference tasks through sub-threads and the 'stateless_init_torch_distributed_process_group' in vLLM. The client initiates a transfer request after verifying that the model and partitioning method are the same as the server's, and uses HCCL's collective communication (send/recv) to load the weights in the order they are stored in the model. Application Scenarios: 1. Significantly Reduces Inference Instance Startup Time By reusing the weights of already loaded instances and performing high-speed transfers directly between computing cards, this method reduces model loading latency compared to traditional remote/local pull methods. 2. Reduces Network and Storage Pressure Avoids the need to repeatedly download weight files from remote repositories, reducing the impact on centralized storage and network traffic, thereby enhancing overall system stability and service quality. 3. Improves Resource Utilization and Reduces Costs Accelerating the loading process reduces reliance on redundant computing pools, allowing computing resources to be elastically scaled and reclaimed as needed. 4. Enhances Business Continuity and High Availability In fault recovery scenarios, new instances can quickly take over existing services, avoiding prolonged business interruptions and improving the system's high availability and user experience. ### Does this PR introduce _any_ user-facing change? Netloader utilizes the existing --load-format=netloader and --model-loader-extra-config to be activated. The model-loader-extra-config needs to be input as a JSON string (as it is now) Afterwards, you can check whether the outputs for the same sentence are consistent when the temperature is set to 0. Signed-off-by: destinysky <kangrui10@126.com> - vLLM version: v0.11.0rc3 - vLLM main: https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/commit/v0.11.0 --------- Signed-off-by: destinysky <kangrui10@126.com>
vLLM Ascend Plugin
| About Ascend | Documentation | #sig-ascend | Users Forum | Weekly Meeting |
English | 中文
Latest News 🔥
- [2025/09] We released the new official version v0.9.1! Please follow the official guide to start deploy large scale Expert Parallelism (EP) on Ascend.
- [2025/08] We hosted the vLLM Beijing Meetup with vLLM and Tencent! Please find the meetup slides here.
- [2025/06] User stories page is now live! It kicks off with LLaMA-Factory/verl//TRL/GPUStack to demonstrate how vLLM Ascend assists Ascend users in enhancing their experience across fine-tuning, evaluation, reinforcement learning (RL), and deployment scenarios.
- [2025/06] Contributors page is now live! All contributions deserve to be recorded, thanks for all contributors.
- [2025/05] We've released first official version v0.7.3! We collaborated with the vLLM community to publish a blog post sharing our practice: Introducing vLLM Hardware Plugin, Best Practice from Ascend NPU.
- [2025/03] We hosted the vLLM Beijing Meetup with vLLM team! Please find the meetup slides here.
- [2025/02] vLLM community officially created vllm-project/vllm-ascend repo for running vLLM seamlessly on the Ascend NPU.
- [2024/12] We are working with the vLLM community to support [RFC]: Hardware pluggable.
Overview
vLLM Ascend (vllm-ascend) is a community maintained hardware plugin for running vLLM seamlessly on the Ascend NPU.
It is the recommended approach for supporting the Ascend backend within the vLLM community. It adheres to the principles outlined in the [RFC]: Hardware pluggable, providing a hardware-pluggable interface that decouples the integration of the Ascend NPU with vLLM.
By using vLLM Ascend plugin, popular open-source models, including Transformer-like, Mixture-of-Expert, Embedding, Multi-modal LLMs can run seamlessly on the Ascend NPU.
Prerequisites
- Hardware: Atlas 800I A2 Inference series, Atlas A2 Training series, Atlas 800I A3 Inference series, Atlas A3 Training series, Atlas 300I Duo (Experimental)
- OS: Linux
- Software:
- Python >= 3.9, < 3.12
- CANN >= 8.2.rc1 (Ascend HDK version refers to here)
- PyTorch >= 2.7.1, torch-npu >= 2.7.1.dev20250724
- vLLM (the same version as vllm-ascend)
Getting Started
Please use the following recommended versions to get started quickly:
| Version | Release type | Doc |
|---|---|---|
| v0.11.0rc0 | Latest release candidate | QuickStart and Installation for more details |
| v0.9.1 | Latest stable version | QuickStart and Installation for more details |
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING for more details, which is a step-by-step guide to help you set up development environment, build and test.
We welcome and value any contributions and collaborations:
- Please let us know if you encounter a bug by filing an issue
- Please use User forum for usage questions and help.
Branch
vllm-ascend has main branch and dev branch.
- main: main branch，corresponds to the vLLM main branch, and is continuously monitored for quality through Ascend CI.
- vX.Y.Z-dev: development branch, created with part of new releases of vLLM. For example,
v0.7.3-devis the dev branch for vLLMv0.7.3version.
Below is maintained branches:
| Branch | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| main | Maintained | CI commitment for vLLM main branch and vLLM v0.11.0 tag |
| v0.7.1-dev | Unmaintained | Only doc fixed is allowed |
| v0.7.3-dev | Maintained | CI commitment for vLLM 0.7.3 version, only bug fix is allowed and no new release tag any more. |
| v0.9.1-dev | Maintained | CI commitment for vLLM 0.9.1 version |
| rfc/feature-name | Maintained | Feature branches for collaboration |
Please refer to Versioning policy for more details.
Weekly Meeting
- vLLM Ascend Weekly Meeting: https://tinyurl.com/vllm-ascend-meeting
- Wednesday, 15:00 - 16:00 (UTC+8, Convert to your timezone)
License
Apache License 2.0, as found in the LICENSE file.