spark-training-gotchas

name: spark-training-gotchas
description: Preflight and diagnose the ten known failure modes for ML training on NVIDIA DGX Spark. Use when a training run on DGX Spark fails to start, OOMs below the 128GB limit, slows down mid-run, or before any multi-hour training job on GB10.

Spark Training Gotchas

DGX Spark's GB10 chip (Grace Blackwell, SM121, 128GB unified

memory, aarch64) has ten recurring failure modes across

launch, memory, thermals, bandwidth, and precision. Each is

named G1–G10 so it can be checked by number — the numbering

is load-bearing for tooling that runs these checks. Read this

before a long run, not after hour six.

When to Use This Skill

• A training run fails to start, with an import error or a

segfault that doesn't point at the real cause.

• A run OOMs while nvidia-smi still shows headroom.
• Throughput degrades partway through a run that started fine.
• Before any multi-hour or multi-epoch job on GB10.
• Wiring two Sparks together, before picking a parallelism

strategy.

• Choosing between FP8 and NVFP4 for a Spark-hosted run.

Common Issues Quick Reference

The Ten Gotchas

G1: CUDA 12/13 ABI Mismatch

• SYMPTOM: ImportError: undefined symbol naming a CUDA

function, or a segfault on the first .cuda() call.

• CAUSE: most PyPI wheels link libcudart.so.12; Spark

ships CUDA 13. pip never checks CUDA ABI, so it surfaces

only at import or first kernel launch.

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md G1 — the wheel's

CUDA build tag.

• FIX: reinstall from download.pytorch.org/whl/cu130 or

use a matched container.

G2: flash-attn — Skip the pip Build, Watch Unsloth's Auto-Detect

• SYMPTOM: pip install flash-attn still fails/hangs.

Unsloth may also silently train flash-attn over an

explicitly requested SDPA.

• CAUSE: no aarch64/sm_121 wheel for bare pip — but NGC

containers ship a working SM121 flash-attn, and Unsloth

auto-prefers it, dropping attn_implementation="sdpa".

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md G2 — is flash-attn

already present and working.

• FIX: bare pip — skip flash-attn, use SDPA (unchanged). On

NGC — the only reliable override is the monkeypatch in

references/gotcha-checks.md G2.

G3: UMA OOM Below 128GB

• SYMPTOM: OOM during model load/training while

nvidia-smi still reports free memory under the 128GB cap

— or, on some setups, [N/A] outright instead of a number.

• CAUSE: mmap and the CUDA allocator double-count pages

during safetensors load; QLoRA can OOM *earlier* than bf16

since dequantization adds transient allocs.

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md G3 — read free -g

and /proc/meminfo, not nvidia-smi.

• FIX: drop the page cache with

sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches — needs root, a

between-run reset, not a mid-training step.

G4: Thermal Throttling

• SYMPTOM: throughput drops partway through a multi-hour

run, or the box spontaneously reboots under sustained load.

• CAUSE: sustained power draw caps around 100W versus the

240W rated figure; long runs push into that ceiling and

throttle or, sometimes, reboot.

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md G4 — sample

nvidia-smi --query-gpu=temperature.gpu,power.draw.

• FIX: if power plateaus under 240W while temperature

climbs, treat throttling as the cause; improve cooling or

cap run length.

G5: Bandwidth Ceiling

• SYMPTOM: memory-bound workloads, decode-heavy RL loops

especially, plateau well below expected throughput.

• CAUSE: 273 GB/s is a spec ceiling, not sustained;

measured bandwidth runs 180–192 GB/s.

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md G5 — observed step

time vs. the measured range, not spec.

• FIX: budget throughput from 180–192 GB/s; revise a plan

built on the 273 GB/s figure.

G6: Global UMA Resource Contention

• SYMPTOM: a process's KV cache/weights get evicted

mid-run silently, no OOM in its own logs.

• CAUSE: unified memory is

one global pool; an uncapped

or near-capacity process

competes with anything else

and can evict it. A small,

bounded workload doesn't — a

<4GB LoRA coexists fine

alongside vLLM capped at

gpu-memory-utilization<=0.5.

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md

G6 — other GPU-resident

processes and whether

capped.

• FIX: the one-heavy-job

rule applies to **uncapped or

near-capacity** workloads —

cap or stop unrelated servers

first. A small, capped

workload need not

stop.

G7: NVFP4 Slower Than FP8 on SM121

• SYMPTOM: switching an inference workload from FP8 to

NVFP4 on Spark makes it slower, not faster.

• CAUSE: SM121 lacks cvt.e2m1x2 unless kernels target

sm_121a; NVFP4 runs ~32% slower without it.

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md G7 — capability

reports (12, 1); does the build target sm_121a?

• FIX: stay on FP8 unless the build targets sm_121a.

G8: Stale Official Playbooks

• SYMPTOM: following an official DGX Spark playbook still

fails, with no local misconfiguration explaining it.

• CAUSE: official playbooks have shipped broken before;

the stack moves faster than the docs.

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md G8 — the playbook

repo's recent issues.

• FIX: check github.com/NVIDIA/dgx-spark-playbooks issues

before trusting a recipe for an expensive run.

G9: Container-First, Not Bare Pip

• SYMPTOM: a bare-pip environment that worked yesterday

breaks after an unrelated pip install, or two "identical"

environments behave differently.

• CAUSE: bare pip lets Triton, xformers, and transformers

drift independently; nothing pins them to GB10's SM121

target.

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md

G9 — container or bare pip?

• FIX: prefer an NGC container (see spark-environment-setup

for tag guidance) or Unsloth's container. If bare pip is

unavoidable, follow the NVIDIA install order, including

--no-deps on Unsloth.

G10: Dual-Spark Is DDP/FSDP Only

• SYMPTOM: a tensor-parallel launch across two Sparks

hangs, runs far slower than single-Spark, or errors out.

• CAUSE: ConnectX-7 is fast enough for gradient/parameter

sync (DDP, FSDP) but too thin for TP's fine-grained traffic.

• CHECK: references/gotcha-checks.md G10 — the

configured parallelism strategy.

• FIX: on a two-Spark setup, choose DDP or FSDP, never

tensor parallelism — TP is single-node only here.

Fast Triage

The cheapest checks to run before anything else:

python3 -c "import torch; print(torch.version.cuda)"  # expect 13.x (G1); NGC builds have no +cu130 tag — that's not a failure

import torch; print(torch.cuda.get_device_capability())  # expect (12, 1) (G7)

{ [ -f /.dockerenv -o -f /run/.containerenv ] || grep -qE 'docker|containerd' /proc/1/cgroup; } 2>/dev/null && echo container || echo unknown  # G9

assets/preflight.sh runs G1, G3, G4, G7, G9 and produces one

output line per gotcha in a fixed format: G-number first, then

PASS/FAIL/WARN where automatable, SKIP when unavailable, or

INFO: for a raw reading (G3, G4). Full commands:

references/gotcha-checks.md. See also

spark-environment-setup for the environment assumed working.