NPP Stream crash

Hi, I write an application that processes 3D volumes of image data. It splits its work among multiple CPU cores using a separate host thread for each volume. What we’re trying to do now is allow one or more of those host threads to transfer their volumes to a GPU when GPU memory permits. Our implementation is using a mix of CUDA, NPP, and cuFFT.

It seems to work fine when only one thread’s work is shifted to the GPU, but to allow more than one at a time, we’re trying to create a stream on each host thread… and that is throwing the following error when it hits an NPP call:

Unhandled exception at 0x00007FFBD2487788 in NppSetStream.exe: Microsoft C++ exception: NppStatus at memory location 0x000000FD306FF400.

Below is the NppSetStream test program that replicates the issue (for me, anyway). In debug mode, the crash occurs only in the sumImage function, at the nppsSumGetBufferSize_32f call, when using the program’s “scenario 2” (where it launches a thread, waits for it to finish, then launches the second one). In release mode, it crashes in all scenarios.

On the other hand, if I use only the default stream (i.e., replace the nppSetStream(cStream) call with nppSetStream(0)), it seems to work all right for this program, but presents its own set of issues in our production application when multiple host threads access the GPU concurrently (though that is a separate issue).

#include "cuda_runtime.h"
#include "curand.h"
#include "curand_kernel.h"
#include "npp.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <Windows.h>

__global__ void setRandom(float* dData, int size, long long randSeed);
void initImageData(float* dData, int size, cudaStream_t cStream);
DWORD WINAPI runNppStreamTest(LPVOID jobId);

float sumImage(float* dImage, int nSize, cudaStream_t cStream)
{
    Npp32f* dSum;
    NppStatus nppErr;
    cudaError_t cudaErr;

    nppSetStream(cStream);

    int bufferSize;
    nppErr = nppsSumGetBufferSize_32f((int)nSize, &bufferSize);    // CRASH OCCURS HERE IN SCENARIO 2
    if (nppErr != NppStatus::NPP_NO_ERROR)
    {
        printf("Error obtaining buffer size in sumImage\n");
        return 0.0f;
    }

    // allocate a device buffer to store sub-summations
    Npp8u* dSumArray = NULL;
    cudaErr = cudaMalloc((void**)&dSumArray, bufferSize);
    if (cudaErr != cudaSuccess)
    {
        printf("Unable to allocate working array in sumImage\n");
        return 0.0f;
    }

    // allocate a device pointer to store the final sum
    cudaErr = cudaMalloc((void**)&dSum, sizeof(Npp32f));
    if (cudaErr != cudaSuccess)
    {
        printf("Unable to allocate result buffer in sumImage\n");
        cudaFree(dSumArray);
        return 0.0f;
    }

    float hSum = 0.0f;

    // Compute the sum
    nppErr = nppsSum_32f(dImage, (int)nSize, dSum, dSumArray);
    if (nppErr != NppStatus::NPP_NO_ERROR)
    {
        printf("Error computing sum in sumImage\n");
    }
    else
    {
        // Copy the result to the host
        cudaMemcpy(&hSum, dSum, sizeof(Npp32f), cudaMemcpyDeviceToHost);
    }

    cudaFree(dSumArray);
    cudaFree(dSum);

    return hSum;
}

int main()
{
    cudaError_t cudaStatus;
    
    // Choose which GPU to run on, change this on a multi-GPU system.
    cudaStatus = cudaSetDevice(0);
    if (cudaStatus != cudaSuccess) {
        fprintf(stderr, "cudaSetDevice failed!  Do you have a CUDA-capable GPU installed?");
        return 1;
    }

    HANDLE hThreadArray[2];
    int jobId1 = 1;
    int jobId2 = 2;

    int test = -1;
    int err = 0;

    while ((test < 0) || (test > 2) || (err < 1))
    {
        printf("\nWhich test?\n\t0 = main thread sequential\n\t1 = background thread concurrent\n\t2 = background thread sequential\n: ");
        err = scanf("%d", &test);
        while (getchar() != '\n');
    }

    switch (test)
    {
    case 0:
        // Test scenario 0: Run NPP tests sequentially in main thread
        runNppStreamTest(&jobId1);
        runNppStreamTest(&jobId2);
        break;
    case 1:
        // Test scenario 1: Run NPP tests concurrently in new threads
        hThreadArray[0] = CreateThread(NULL, 0, &runNppStreamTest, &jobId1, 0, NULL);
        hThreadArray[1] = CreateThread(NULL, 0, &runNppStreamTest, &jobId2, 0, NULL);

        WaitForMultipleObjects(2, hThreadArray, TRUE, INFINITE);
        break;
    case 2:
        // Test scenario 2: Run NPP tests sequentally in new threads
        hThreadArray[0] = CreateThread(NULL, 0, &runNppStreamTest, &jobId1, 0, NULL);
        WaitForMultipleObjects(1, hThreadArray, TRUE, INFINITE);

        hThreadArray[0] = CreateThread(NULL, 0, &runNppStreamTest, &jobId2, 0, NULL);
        WaitForMultipleObjects(1, hThreadArray, TRUE, INFINITE);
        break;
    }

    // cudaDeviceReset must be called before exiting in order for profiling and
    // tracing tools such as Nsight and Visual Profiler to show complete traces.
    cudaStatus = cudaDeviceReset();
    if (cudaStatus != cudaSuccess) {
        fprintf(stderr, "cudaDeviceReset failed!");
        return 1;
    }

    printf("Press enter to exit");
    while (getchar() != '\n');

    return 0;
}

DWORD WINAPI runNppStreamTest(LPVOID jobId)
{
    cudaError_t cudaStatus;
    float* image;
    int dims[] = { 512, 512, 256 };

    int size = dims[0] * dims[1] * dims[2];

    cudaStream_t myStream;
    cudaStatus = cudaStreamCreate(&myStream);
    if (cudaStatus != cudaSuccess) {
        fprintf(stderr, "cudaStreamCreate failed in runNppStreamTest on job %d!\n", *(int*)(jobId));
        return 1;
    }

    cudaStatus = cudaMalloc((void**)&image, size * sizeof(float));
    if (cudaStatus != cudaSuccess) {
        fprintf(stderr, "cudaMalloc failed in runNppStreamTest on job %d!\n", *(int*)(jobId));
        return 1;
    }

    initImageData(image, size, myStream);
    float sumValue = sumImage(image, size, myStream);

    printf("Sum = %f on job %d\n", sumValue, *(int*)(jobId));

    cudaFree(image);

    cudaStatus = cudaSuccess;
    if (myStream != NULL)
    {
        cudaStatus = cudaStreamDestroy(myStream);
    }

    return (cudaStatus != cudaSuccess) ? 1 : 0;
}

__global__ void setRandom(float* dData, int size, long long randSeed)
{
    const int numThreads = blockDim.x * gridDim.x;
    const int threadID = blockIdx.x * blockDim.x + threadIdx.x;

    curandState_t state;
    curand_init(randSeed, 0, 0, &state);

    for (int i = threadID; i < size; i += numThreads)
    {
        dData[i] = (float)(curand_uniform(&state));
    }
}

void initImageData(float* dData, int size, cudaStream_t cStream)
{
    setRandom << < 128, 256, 0, cStream >> >(dData, size, GetCurrentThreadId());
}

you may wish to read this:

[url]https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/895161/gpu-accelerated-libraries/npp-row-and-column-filters/post/4746520/#4746520[/url]

which was accurate when I wrote it (I reviewed it with the NPP team before posting).

Which version of CUDA/NPP are you using?

Oh right, version would be useful. I’m using CUDA/NPP 8.0, with VS2013 as the IDE.

Thank you for the suggestion - I tried placing a call to cudaDeviceSynchronize() immediately before nppSetStream (so it basically went into line 17 in the above sample). Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to change the outcome. I still seem to get the crashes under the same circumstances. Hopefully, I didn’t misinterpret the suggestion.

Thank you again for taking a look!

That wouldn’t fix it. In a multithreaded scenario you could still have a race condition:

threadA: cudaDeviceSynchronize()
threadB: cudaDeviceSynchronize()
threadA: nppSetStream(A);
threadB: nppSetStream(B);
threadA: issue npp work, but it is now going into stream B instead of stream A

If this behavior is still in effect in CUDA 8 (I would have to check), then I think the only solution in the multithreaded case would be either:

  1. Issue all work into the default stream
  2. Place a inter-thread mutex/lock/critical section around each instance of streamed npp usage, in every thread:

threadX: enter critical section
threadX: nppSetStream(X);
threadX: issue npp work
threadX: cudaDeviceSynchronize();
threadX: leave critical section

I’ve checked with the development team; the behavior in CUDA 8 should be similar to what I mentioned here:

[url]https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/895161/gpu-accelerated-libraries/npp-row-and-column-filters/post/4746520/#4746520[/url]

Even though that thread starts out suggesting a multi-threaded case, after the first few posts its clarified (and example given) for the single thread case.

For the single thread case, just adding cudaDeviceSynchronize() is enough to avoid the hazard.

In the multi-threaded case, I don’t think it would be as I mentioned previously. Probably the simplest workaround would be to issue all npp work into the same stream. You could probably also come up with other more involved refactoring that could e.g. move all npp work issuance into a npp master thread, and then use multiple streams if you wanted to with cudaDeviceSynchronize

Thank you for your help, txbob. In reading the threads you’ve linked, as well as in doing some earlier Googling, I’ve gotten the distinct sense that NPP does not play terribly well with multiple host threads.

In order to avoid large architectural changes, it may actually be easier to try and convert the NPP calls to hand-coded kernels. We’ll evaluate the suggestions you’ve made against that and see what seems to make the most sense.

Thanks again!