Basic Usage of npu-smi

1. What Is npu-smi

npu-smi is a command-line tool provided by Huawei, purpose-built for managing and monitoring the status and performance of Huawei Ascend series Neural Processing Units (NPUs), similar to NVIDIA’s nvidia-smi.

2. Meaning of npu-smi Fields

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npu-smi info

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| npu-smi 23.0.2.1                 Version: 23.0.2.1                                             |
+---------------------------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
| NPU   Name                | Health        | Power(W)    Temp(C)           Hugepages-Usage(page)|
| Chip                      | Bus-Id        | AICore(%)   Memory-Usage(MB)  HBM-Usage(MB)        |
+===========================+===============+====================================================+
| 0     910B2C              | OK            | 88.6        51                0    / 0             |
| 0                         | 0000:5A:00.0  | 0           0    / 0          20701/ 65536         |
+===========================+===============+====================================================+
| 1     910B2C              | OK            | 99.6        50                0    / 0             |
| 0                         | 0000:19:00.0  | 0           0    / 0          20687/ 65536         |
+===========================+===============+====================================================+
...
+===========================+===============+====================================================+
| 15    910B2C              | OK            | 110.4       51                0    / 0             |
| 0                         | 0000:C9:00.0  | 0           0    / 0          11684/ 65536         |
+===========================+===============+====================================================+
+---------------------------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
| NPU     Chip              | Process id    | Process name             | Process memory(MB)      |
+===========================+===============+====================================================+
| 0       0                 | 124528        | python3.8                | 17400                   |

Field	Description
npu-sml	Version of the npu-sml tool
Version	Driver version
NPU	Device id
Name	Chip name
Health	Health state of the chip, with five possible states: OK, Warning, Alarm, Critical, and UNKNOWN
Power(W)	Chip power (unit: W)
Temp(C)	Chip temperature (unit: ℃)
Hugepages-Usage(page)	Huge page usage ratio (unit: page); each page is 2048KB in size.
Chip	Chip id
Device	Chip number
Bus-Id	BUS ID
AICore(%)	AICore utilization
Memory-Usage(MB)	Memory usage ratio

3. Using npu-smi info

3.1 Parameter Format

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npu-smi info --help
Usage: npu-smi info <watch|proc|-h|-m|-l|-t type> [Options...]

Commands:
       watch          Show all device's status in scrolling format
       proc           Show device's matrix process status in scrolling format
       -h, --help     Show this help text and exit
       -m             Show all device's mapping information
       -l             Show all device's topology information
       -t type        Show information for type
                      type: board, flash, memory, usages, sensors, temp, power, volt, mac-addr,
                            common, health, product, ecc, ip, sys-time, i2c_check, work-mode,
                            ecc-enable, p2p-enable, ssh-enable, license, customized-info,
                            device-share, nve-level, aicpu-config, pcie-err, mcu-monitor,
                            err-count, boot-area, vnpu-mode, info-vnpu, vnpu-svm, cpu-num-cfg,
                            first-power-on-date, proc-mem, phyid-remap, vnpu-cfg-recover, key-manage,
                            template-info, pkcs-enable, p2p-mem-cfg, pwm-mode, pwm-duty-ratio,
                            boot-select, topo.

Options:
       -i %d          Card ID
       -c %d          Chip ID
       -p %d          Chip Physical ID

Specify the query type with -t and the device ID with -i. The available query types are (the types supported vary by device):

Query Type	Meaning
board	Board information
flash	Flash information
memory	Memory information
usages	Resource usage
sensors	Sensor information
temp	Temperature information
power	Power information
volt	Voltage information
mac-addr	MAC address information
common	Common information
health	Health state
product	Product information
ecc	Error Correction Code (ECC) information
ip	IP address information
sys-time	System time information
i2c_check	I2C check information
work-mode	Work mode
ecc-enable	Error Correction Code (ECC) enable state
p2p-enable	Point-to-Point (P2P) communication enable state
ssh-enable	SSH enable state
license	License information
customized-info	Customized information
device-share	Device share information
nve-level	NVE level information
aicpu-config	AI CPU configuration information
pcie-err	PCIe error information
mcu-monitor	MCU monitoring information
err-count	Error count information
boot-area	Boot area information
vnpu-mode	vNPU mode information
info-vnpu	vNPU information
vnpu-svm	vNPU virtualization information
cpu-num-cfg	CPU core configuration information
first-power-on-date	First power-on date information
proc-mem	Process memory information
phyid-remap	Physical ID remap information
vnpu-cfg-recover	vNPU configuration recovery information
key-manage	Key management information
template-info	Template information
pkcs-enable	PKCS enable state
p2p-mem-cfg	P2P memory configuration information
pwm-mode	PWM mode information
pwm-duty-ratio	PWM duty cycle information
boot-select	Boot select information
topo	Topology information

3.2 Common info Commands

Query board details of a device

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npu-smi info -t board -i 0

	NPU ID                         : 0
	Product Name                   : IT21HMDB01-B2
	Model                          : NA
	Manufacturer                   : Huawei
	Serial Number                  : 1023A6017006
	Software Version               : 23.0.2.1
	Firmware Version               : 7.1.0.4.220
	Compatibility                  : OK
	Board ID                       : 0x65
	PCB ID                         : A
	BOM ID                         : 1
	PCIe Bus Info                  : 0000:5A:00.0
	Slot ID                        : 0
	Class ID                       : NA
	PCI Vendor ID                  : 0x19E5
	PCI Device ID                  : 0xD802
	Subsystem Vendor ID            : 0x19E5
	Subsystem Device ID            : 0x3400
	Chip Count                     : 1

Query chip details of a device

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npu-smi info -t board -i 0 -c 0

	NPU ID                         : 0
	Chip ID                        : 0
	Chip Type                      : Ascend
	Chip Name                      : 910B2C
	Chip Version                   : V1
	Board ID                       : 0x51
	PCB ID                         : NA
	BOM ID                         : 1
	VDie ID                        : DE36A664 01202745 59C48932 98500485 100301E3
	NDie ID                        : 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
	Chip Position ID               : 0
	PCIe Bus Info                  : 0000:5A:00.0
	Firmware Version               : 7.1.0.4.220

View the connection topology

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npu-smi info -t topo

           NPU0       NPU1       NPU2       NPU3       NPU4       NPU5       NPU6       NPU7       NPU8       NPU9       NPU10      NPU11      NPU12      NPU13      NPU14      NPU15      CPU Affinity
NPU0       X          HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       PIX        PHB        PHB        PHB        SYS        SYS        SYS        SYS        0-43,88-131
NPU1       HCCS       X          HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       PHB        PIX        PHB        PHB        SYS        SYS        SYS        SYS        0-43,88-131
...
NPU15      SYS        SYS        SYS        SYS        PHB        PHB        PHB        PIX        HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       HCCS       X          44-87,132-175

Legend:

  X    = Self
  SYS  = Path traversing PCIe and NUMA nodes. Nodes are connected through SMP, such as QPI, UPI.
  PHB  = Path traversing PCIe and the PCIe host bridge of a CPU.
  PIX  = Path traversing a single PCIe switch
  PXB  = Path traversing multipul PCIe switches
  HCCS = Connection traversing HCCS.
  NA   = Unknown relationship.

Query chip monitoring data

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npu-smi info watch

0           0           313.3       64          17          2           1           86          31
1           0           283.4       65          46          2           4           85          32
...
15          0           319.0       65          3           2           1           85          29

Query common information of a device

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npu-smi info -t common -i 0

	NPU ID                         : 0
	Chip Count                     : 1

	Chip ID                        : 0
	Memory Usage Rate(%)           : 0
	HBM Usage Rate(%)              : 86
	Aicore Usage Rate(%)           : 66
	Aicore Freq(MHZ)               : 1800
	Aicore curFreq(MHZ)            : 1800
	Aicore Count                   : 24
	Temperature(C)                 : 67
	NPU Real-time Power(W)         : 296.5

	Chip Name                      : mcu
	Temperature(C)                 : 56

4. Using npu-smi set

4.1 Parameter Format

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npu-smi set --help
Usage: npu-smi set <-h|-t type> [Options...]

Commands:
       -h, --help     Show this help text and exit
       -t type        The set type for device
                      type: ecc-enable, collect-log, reset, device-share, nve-level, clear-ecc-info,
                            license, ssh-enable, customized-info, clear-pcie-err, revocate, mac-addr,
                            mcu-monitor, boot-area, aicpu-config, disk-power, ip, errcount-clear,
                            vnpu-mode, create-vnpu, destroy-vnpu, vnpu-svm, cpu-num-cfg, vnpu-cfg-recover,
                            key-manage, pkcs-enable, p2p-mem-cfg, pwm-mode, pwm-duty-ratio, power-state,
                            boot-select, reset-vnpu.

Options:
       -i %d          Card ID
       -c %d          Chip ID
       -d %d          Config value
       -s             String format configuration
       -f             License (1-255) or path of SoC certificate files
       -m             By in-band reset, only can input 1

Specify the configuration type with -t and the device ID with -i. Unlike npu-smi info, here you use -d to specify the configuration value. The available configuration types are (the types supported vary by device):

Type	Meaning
ecc-enable	Enable ECC error correction
collect-log	Collect logs
reset	Reset the device
device-share	Device sharing
nve-level	NVE level setting
clear-ecc-info	Clear ECC information
license	License management
ssh-enable	Enable SSH
customized-info	Customized information setting
clear-pcie-err	Clear PCIe errors
revocate	Revoke operation
mac-addr	MAC address setting
mcu-monitor	MCU monitoring setting
boot-area	Boot area setting
aicpu-config	AI CPU configuration
disk-power	Disk power setting
ip	IP address setting
errcount-clear	Clear error counts
vnpu-mode	vNPU mode setting
create-vnpu	Create vNPU
destroy-vnpu	Destroy vNPU
vnpu-svm	vNPU virtualization setting
cpu-num-cfg	CPU core count configuration
vnpu-cfg-recover	vNPU configuration recovery
key-manage	Key management
pkcs-enable	Enable PKCS
p2p-mem-cfg	P2P memory configuration
pwm-mode	PWM mode setting
pwm-duty-ratio	PWM duty cycle setting
power-state	Power state setting
boot-select	Boot select setting
reset-vnpu	Reset vNPU

4.2 Common set Commands

Collect logs

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npu-smi set -t collect-log -i 0

After collection finishes, the log files can be found in the /run/mcu_log directory. The system does not clean up these logs automatically, so you need to clean them up yourself.

Configure the ECC enable state

Enable

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npu-smi set -t ecc-enable -i id -d 1

Disable

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npu-smi set -t ecc-enable -i id -d 0

Set the compute power level of a specified chip

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npu-smi set -t nve-level -i id -d 1

The compute power level is divided into four grades:

0 - Low
1 - Middle
2 - High
3 - Full

5. Using npu-smi clear

5.1 Parameter Format

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npu-smi clear --help

Usage: npu-smi clear <-h|-t type> [Options...]

Commands:
       -h, --help     Show this help text and exit
       -t type        The clear type for device
                      type: ecc-info.

Options:
       -i %d          Card ID
       -c %d          Chip ID

Specify the clear type with -t, the device ID with -i, and the chip ID with -c.

5.2 Common clear Commands

Clear the ECC error counts of all chips on device 0

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npu-smi clear -t ecc-info -i 1

Clear the ECC error counts of all devices

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for i in {0..7}; do npu-smi clear -t ecc-info -i $i; done

View the ECC error counts

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for i in {0..7}; do npu-smi info -t ecc -i $i; done