ray/doc/source/ray-core/gotchas.rst
Jiajun Yao cd2e590567
Support placement_group=None in PlacementGroupSchedulingStrategy (#27370)
We decided to allow escaping the parent pg via `PlacementGroupSchedulingStrategy(placement_group=None)` instead of using "DEFAULT". Our doc is updated with that but in the code it's still not allowed.
2022-08-02 12:49:41 -07:00

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.. _gotchas:
Ray Gotchas
===========
Ray sometimes has some aspects of its behavior that might catch
users off guard. There may be sound arguments for these design choices.
In particular, users think of Ray as running on their local machine, and
while this is mostly true, this doesn't work.
Environment variables are not passed from the driver to workers
---------------------------------------------------------------
**Issue**: If you set an environment variable at the command line, it is not passed to all the workers running in the cluster
if the cluster was started previously.
**Example**: If you have a file ``baz.py`` in the directory you are running Ray in, and you run the following command:
.. literalinclude:: doc_code/gotchas.py
:language: python
:start-after: __env_var_start__
:end-before: __env_var_end__
**Expected behavior**: Most people would expect (as if it was a single process on a single machine) that the environment variables would be the same in all workers. It wont be.
**Fix**: Use runtime environments to pass environment variables explicity.
If you call ``ray.init(runtime_env=...)``,
then the workers will have the environment variable set.
.. literalinclude:: doc_code/gotchas.py
:language: python
:start-after: __env_var_fix_start__
:end-before: __env_var_fix_end__
Filenames work sometimes and not at other times
-----------------------------------------------
**Issue**: If you reference a file by name in a task or actor,
it will sometimes work and sometimes fail. This is
because if the task or actor runs on the head node
of the cluster, it will work, but if the task or actor
runs on another machine it won't.
**Example**: Let's say we do the following command:
.. code-block:: bash
% touch /tmp/foo.txt
And I have this code:
.. code-block:: python
import os
ray.init()
@ray.remote
def check_file():
foo_exists = os.path.exists("/tmp/foo.txt")
print(f"Foo exists? {foo_exists}")
futures = []
for _ in range(1000):
futures.append(check_file.remote())
ray.get(futures)
then you will get a mix of True and False. If
``check_file()`` runs on the head node, or we're running
locally it works. But if it runs on a worker node, it returns ``False``.
**Expected behavior**: Most people would expect this to either fail or succeed consistently.
It's the same code after all.
**Fix**
- Use only shared paths for such applications -- e.g. if you are using a network file system you can use that, or the files can be on s3.
- Do not rely on file path consistency.
Placement groups are not composable
-----------------------------------
**Issue**: If you have a task that is called from something that runs in a placement
group, the resources are never allocated and it hangs.
**Example**: You are using Ray Tune which creates placement groups, and you want to
apply it to an objective function, but that objective function makes use
of Ray Tasks itself, e.g.
.. code-block:: python
from ray import air, tune
def create_task_that_uses_resources():
@ray.remote(num_cpus=10)
def sample_task():
print("Hello")
return
return ray.get([sample_task.remote() for i in range(10)])
def objective(config):
create_task_that_uses_resources()
tuner = tune.Tuner(objective, param_space={"a": 1})
tuner.fit()
This will error with message:
ValueError: Cannot schedule create_task_that_uses_resources.<locals>.sample_task with the placement group
because the resource request {'CPU': 10} cannot fit into any bundles for the placement group, [{'CPU': 1.0}].
**Expected behavior**: The above executes.
**Fix**: In the ``@ray.remote`` declaration of tasks
called by ``create_task_that_uses_resources()`` , include a
``scheduling_strategy=PlacementGroupSchedulingStrategy(placement_group=None)``.
.. code-block:: diff
def create_task_that_uses_resources():
+ @ray.remote(num_cpus=10, scheduling_strategy=PlacementGroupSchedulingStrategy(placement_group=None))
- @ray.remote(num_cpus=10)