/post-training-openrlhf

name: openrlhf-training
description: High-performance RLHF framework with Ray+vLLM acceleration. Use for PPO, GRPO, RLOO, DPO training of large models (7B-70B+). Built on Ray, vLLM, ZeRO-3. 2× faster than DeepSpeedChat with distributed architecture and GPU resource sharing.
version: 1.0.0
author: Orchestra Research
license: MIT
tags: [Post-Training, OpenRLHF, RLHF, PPO, GRPO, RLOO, DPO, Ray, vLLM, Distributed Training, Large Models, ZeRO-3]
dependencies: [openrlhf, ray, vllm, torch, transformers, deepspeed]

OpenRLHF - High-Performance RLHF Training

Quick start

OpenRLHF is a Ray-based RLHF framework optimized for distributed training with vLLM inference acceleration.

**Installation**:

# Launch Docker container
docker run --runtime=nvidia -it --rm --shm-size="10g" --cap-add=SYS_ADMIN \
  -v $PWD:/openrlhf nvcr.io/nvidia/pytorch:25.02-py3 bash

# Uninstall conflicts
sudo pip uninstall xgboost transformer_engine flash_attn pynvml -y

# Install OpenRLHF with vLLM
pip install openrlhf[vllm]

**PPO Training** (Hybrid Engine):

ray start --head --node-ip-address 0.0.0.0 --num-gpus 8

ray job submit --address="http://127.0.0.1:8265" \
  --runtime-env-json='{"working_dir": "/openrlhf"}' \
  -- python3 -m openrlhf.cli.train_ppo_ray \
  --ref_num_nodes 1 --ref_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --reward_num_nodes 1 --reward_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --critic_num_nodes 1 --critic_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --actor_num_nodes 1 --actor_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --vllm_num_engines 4 --vllm_tensor_parallel_size 2 \
  --colocate_all_models \
  --vllm_gpu_memory_utilization 0.5 \
  --pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-sft-mixture \
  --reward_pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-rm-700k \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-rlhf \
  --micro_train_batch_size 8 --train_batch_size 128 \
  --micro_rollout_batch_size 16 --rollout_batch_size 1024 \
  --max_epochs 1 --prompt_max_len 1024 --generate_max_len 1024 \
  --zero_stage 3 --bf16 \
  --actor_learning_rate 5e-7 --critic_learning_rate 9e-6 \
  --init_kl_coef 0.01 --normalize_reward \
  --gradient_checkpointing --packing_samples \
  --vllm_enable_sleep --deepspeed_enable_sleep

**GRPO Training** (Group Normalized Policy Optimization):

# Same command as PPO, but add:
--advantage_estimator group_norm

Common workflows

Workflow 1: Full RLHF pipeline (SFT → Reward Model → PPO)

**Step 1: Train reward model** (DPO):

deepspeed --module openrlhf.cli.train_rm \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-rm \
  --save_steps -1 --logging_steps 1 \
  --eval_steps -1 --train_batch_size 256 \
  --micro_train_batch_size 1 --pretrain meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3-8B \
  --bf16 --max_epochs 1 --max_len 8192 \
  --zero_stage 3 --learning_rate 9e-6 \
  --dataset OpenRLHF/preference_dataset_mixture2_and_safe_pku \
  --apply_chat_template --chosen_key chosen \
  --rejected_key rejected --flash_attn --gradient_checkpointing

**Step 2: PPO training**:

ray start --head --node-ip-address 0.0.0.0 --num-gpus 8

ray job submit --address="http://127.0.0.1:8265" \
  -- python3 -m openrlhf.cli.train_ppo_ray \
  --ref_num_nodes 1 --ref_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --reward_num_nodes 1 --reward_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --critic_num_nodes 1 --critic_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --actor_num_nodes 1 --actor_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --vllm_num_engines 4 --vllm_tensor_parallel_size 2 \
  --colocate_all_models \
  --pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-sft-mixture \
  --reward_pretrain ./output/llama3-8b-rm \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-ppo \
  --micro_train_batch_size 8 --train_batch_size 128 \
  --micro_rollout_batch_size 16 --rollout_batch_size 1024 \
  --max_epochs 1 --prompt_max_len 1024 --generate_max_len 1024 \
  --zero_stage 3 --bf16 \
  --actor_learning_rate 5e-7 --critic_learning_rate 9e-6 \
  --init_kl_coef 0.01 --normalize_reward \
  --vllm_enable_sleep --deepspeed_enable_sleep

Workflow 2: GRPO training (no critic model needed)

Memory-efficient alternative to PPO:

ray job submit --address="http://127.0.0.1:8265" \
  -- python3 -m openrlhf.cli.train_ppo_ray \
  --advantage_estimator group_norm \
  --ref_num_nodes 1 --ref_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --reward_num_nodes 1 --reward_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --actor_num_nodes 1 --actor_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --vllm_num_engines 4 --vllm_tensor_parallel_size 2 \
  --colocate_all_models \
  --pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-sft-mixture \
  --reward_pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-rm-700k \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-grpo \
  --micro_train_batch_size 8 --train_batch_size 128 \
  --micro_rollout_batch_size 16 --rollout_batch_size 1024 \
  --max_epochs 1 --bf16 \
  --actor_learning_rate 5e-7 \
  --init_kl_coef 0.01 --use_kl_loss --kl_estimator k3 \
  --normalize_reward --no_advantage_std_norm

**Key GRPO parameters**:

• `--advantage_estimator group_norm` - Enables GRPO
• `--use_kl_loss` - KL loss from GRPO paper
• `--kl_estimator k3` - Loss function (k2 ≈ k1)
• `--no_advantage_std_norm` - Disables std normalization

Workflow 3: DPO training (preference optimization)

Simpler alternative without reward model:

deepspeed --module openrlhf.cli.train_dpo \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-dpo \
  --save_steps -1 --logging_steps 1 \
  --eval_steps -1 --train_batch_size 256 \
  --micro_train_batch_size 2 --pretrain meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3-8B \
  --bf16 --max_epochs 1 --max_len 8192 \
  --zero_stage 3 --learning_rate 5e-7 --beta 0.1 \
  --dataset OpenRLHF/preference_dataset_mixture2_and_safe_pku \
  --apply_chat_template --chosen_key chosen \
  --rejected_key rejected --flash_attn --gradient_checkpointing

When to use vs alternatives

**Use OpenRLHF when**:

• Training large models (7B-70B+) with RL
• Need vLLM inference acceleration
• Want distributed architecture with Ray
• Have multi-node GPU cluster
• Need PPO/GRPO/RLOO/DPO in one framework

**Algorithm selection**:

• **PPO**: Maximum control, best for complex rewards
• **GRPO**: Memory-efficient, no critic needed
• **RLOO**: Modified PPO with per-to