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cuMemImportFromShareableHandle Fails (CUDA error 101)

P2P fabric-handle import between containers on a multi-node NVLink (MNNVL) GPU fails with CUDA 'invalid device ordinal' due to a CUDA driver bug, not NCCL.

Quick answer

P2P fabric-handle import between containers on a multi-node NVLink (MNNVL) GPU fails with CUDA 'invalid device ordinal' due to a CUDA driver bug, not NCCL.

Symptom
transport/p2p.cc NCCL WARN Cuda failure 101 'invalid device ordinal'
Root cause
CUDA UMD bug in driver 570.00. Fabric handle export/import across container/PID namespaces breaks when both see the GPU as device 0.
Recommended fix
Upgrade the CUDA driver beyond 570.00
How Denpex helps
Denpex investigates cuMemImportFromShareableHandle Fails (CUDA error 101) using the evidence you provide or your connected workload collects. Earlier rank, host or application evidence is needed to distinguish an initiating failure from a downstream report.
Hardware#cuda#fabric#mnnvl#gh200#error-101#driver-bug

What this failure is

cuMemImportFromShareableHandle Fails (CUDA error 101) is a Hardware failure seen during ML training runs. P2P fabric-handle import between containers on a multi-node NVLink (MNNVL) GPU fails with CUDA 'invalid device ordinal' due to a CUDA driver bug, not NCCL. Common tags: Cuda, Fabric, Mnnvl, Gh200.

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Why it happens (the mechanism)

CUDA UMD bug in driver 570.00. Fabric handle export/import across container/PID namespaces breaks when both see the GPU as device 0. Not an NCCL bug. Taken together, these mechanisms explain why the failure is reproducible, why it tends to surface on specific workloads or scales, and why generic mitigation attempts often fall short without addressing the underlying cause.

What you'll observe

  • P2P send/recv between containers on the same GH200 node fails
  • Both containers see the GPU as device 0
  • Error is in fabric handle import

Common symptoms and what they mean

SymptomWhy it happens
transport/p2p.cc NCCL WARN Cuda failure 101 'invalid device ordinal'CUDA UMD bug in driver 570.00
cuMemImportFromShareableHandle with CU_MEM_HANDLE_TYPE_FABRIC failsFabric handle export/import across container/PID namespaces breaks when both see the GPU as device 0
P2P ncclSend/ncclRecv across containers failsNot an NCCL bug

Which systems are affected

  • GH200 / MNNVL nodes
  • Containerized multi-process jobs sharing a GPU across PID namespaces
  • CUDA driver 570.00

How to confirm this is the problem

Use this checklist to test the hypothesis against a small reproduction. No single line proves the root cause, so preserve the preceding events and compare one variable at a time.

  • ✓Reproduce the failure from a clean checkpoint/seed: the symptom must appear without warm-up state from a previous run.
  • ✓Verified signal present: transport/p2p.cc NCCL WARN Cuda failure 101 'invalid device ordinal'
  • ✓Verified signal present: cuMemImportFromShareableHandle with CU_MEM_HANDLE_TYPE_FABRIC fails
  • ✓Verified signal present: P2P ncclSend/ncclRecv across containers fails
  • ✓A targeted fix from the "How to fix it" section eliminates or substantially reduces the symptom within one validation pass.

Root cause

  • CUDA UMD bug in driver 570.00
  • Fabric handle export/import across container/PID namespaces breaks when both see the GPU as device 0
  • Not an NCCL bug

The fix and how to prevent it

Searchable error signature

search key
transport/p2p.cc NCCL WARN Cuda failure 101 'invalid device ordinal'

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CUDA errors in context

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