serving-llms-vllm

Files (5)

• SKILL.md
• optimization.md · references/
• quantization.md · references/
• server-deployment.md · references/
• troubleshooting.md · references/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# vLLM - High-Performance LLM Serving

## Quick start

vLLM achieves 24x higher throughput than standard transformers through PagedAttention (block-based KV cache) and continuous batching (mixing prefill/decode requests).

**Installation**:
```bash
pip install vllm
```

**Basic offline inference**:
```python
from vllm import LLM, SamplingParams

llm = LLM(model="meta-llama/Llama-3-8B-Instruct")
sampling = SamplingParams(temperature=0.7, max_tokens=256)

outputs = llm.generate(["Explain quantum computing"], sampling)
print(outputs[0].outputs[0].text)
```

**OpenAI-compatible server**:
```bash
vllm serve meta-llama/Llama-3-8B-Instruct

# Query with OpenAI SDK
python -c "
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url='http://localhost:8000/v1', api_key='EMPTY')
print(client.chat.completions.create(
    model='meta-llama/Llama-3-8B-Instruct',
    messages=[{'role': 'user', 'content': 'Hello!'}]
).choices[0].message.content)
"
```

## Common workflows

### Workflow 1: Production API deployment

Copy this checklist and track progress:

```
Deployment Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Configure server settings
- [ ] Step 2: Test with limited traffic
- [ ] Step 3: Enable monitoring
- [ ] Step 4: Deploy to production
- [ ] Step 5: Verify performance metrics
```

**Step 1: Configure server settings**

Choose configuration based on your model size:

```bash
# For 7B-13B models on single GPU
vllm serve meta-llama/Llama-3-8B-Instruct \
  --gpu-memory-utilization 0.9 \
  --max-model-len 8192 \
  --port 8000

# For 30B-70B models with tensor parallelism
vllm serve meta-llama/Llama-2-70b-hf \
  --tensor-parallel-size 4 \
  --gpu-memory-utilization 0.9 \
  --quantization awq \
  --port 8000

# For production with caching and metrics
vllm serve meta-llama/Llama-3-8B-Instruct \
  --gpu-memory-utilization 0.9 \
  --enable-prefix-caching \
  --enable-metrics \
  --metrics-port 9090 \
  --port 8000 \
  --host 0.0.0.0
```

**Step 2: Test with limited traffic**

Run load test before production:

```bash
# Install load testing tool
pip install locust

# Create test_load.py with sample requests
# Run: locust -f test_load.py --host http://localhost:8000
```

Verify TTFT (time to first token) < 500ms and throughput > 100 req/sec.

**Step 3: Enable monitoring**

vLLM exposes Prometheus metrics on port 9090:

```bash
curl http://localhost:9090/metrics | grep vllm
```

Key metrics to monitor:
- `vllm:time_to_first_token_seconds` - Latency
- `vllm:num_requests_running` - Active requests
- `vllm:gpu_cache_usage_perc` - KV cache utilization

**Step 4: Deploy to production**

Use Docker for consistent deployment:

```bash
# Run vLLM in Docker
docker run --gpus all -p 8000:8000 \
  vllm/vllm-openai:latest \
  --model meta-llama/Llama-3-8B-Instruct \
  --gpu-memory-utilization 0.9 \
  --enable-prefix-caching
```

From Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs, MIT.

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