Runtime Attach/Detach HiCache Storage Backend (No Restart)

Runtime Attach/Detach HiCache Storage Backend (No Restart)#

This document explains how to dynamically attach/detach the HiCache L3 storage backend at runtime (e.g., mooncake / hf3fs / nixl / file / aibrix / eic) while SGLang is already running and serving traffic, without restarting the process.

For safety and consistency, the current implementation strictly requires these operations to happen only when the service is idle:

  • No running requests

  • No waiting/queued requests

If the idle condition is not met, the API will fail fast (HTTP 400) and will not modify the current service state.

1. Background and implementation overview#

1.1 Architecture / control path#

The control path is:

  1. HTTP Server (python/sglang/srt/entrypoints/http_server.py)

    • Exposes PUT /hicache/storage-backend, DELETE /hicache/storage-backend, GET /hicache/storage-backend

  2. TokenizerManager (python/sglang/srt/managers/tokenizer_communicator_mixin.py)

    • Sends the request to the Scheduler via _Communicator

  3. Scheduler (python/sglang/srt/managers/scheduler.py)

    • Performs a strict idle check

    • Calls tree_cache.attach_storage_backend(...) / detach_storage_backend(...)

  4. HiRadixCache (python/sglang/srt/mem_cache/hiradix_cache.py)

    • Parses hicache_storage_backend_extra_config_json (supports both backend config and prefetch knobs)

    • Calls cache_controller.attach_storage_backend(...) / detach_storage_backend(...)

  5. HiCacheController (python/sglang/srt/managers/cache_controller.py)

    • Creates/destroys the storage backend instance (via StorageBackendFactory)

    • Starts/stops backend background threads at runtime (prefetch/backup)

2. Idle-state requirement (strict)#

The Scheduler uses a stricter _is_idle_for_hicache_storage_op():

  • _is_no_request() is true (covers running/overlap/pp/disagg and other active states)

  • waiting_queue is empty

  • grammar_queue is empty (if the grammar backend is enabled)

If the condition is not met, attach/detach returns an error like:

  • Reject attach: scheduler is not idle. #queue-req=... #running-req=...

Tip: before switching, drain upstream traffic and wait for the server to become idle, then call attach/detach.

2.1 DP (data parallel) semantics#

When dp_size > 1, the tokenizer dispatches the request to all DP scheduler instances and aggregates their responses:

  • The final success is true only if all DP ranks return success

  • The final message concatenates messages from all DP ranks

This is intended to prevent “silent partial success”, but it also means you may see:

  • Overall failure even though some ranks already succeeded

Currently there is no automatic partial rollback across DP ranks (see TODO in code). Operationally:

  • Prefer to keep backend config identical across ranks

  • If attach fails, immediately call detach (best-effort/idempotent), fix config, then retry attach

3. How to use (HTTP Admin API)#

The examples below assume your SGLang HTTP server is at http://127.0.0.1:30000.

3.1 Query current storage backend status#

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:30000/hicache/storage-backend

Example response:

{
  "hicache_storage_backend": "mooncake",
  "hicache_storage_backend_extra_config": "{\"master_server_address\":\"127.0.0.1:50051\", ...}"
}

3.2 Attach (enable) a storage backend#

curl -s -X PUT http://127.0.0.1:30000/hicache/storage-backend \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "hicache_storage_backend": "mooncake"
  }'

curl -s -X PUT http://127.0.0.1:30000/hicache/storage-backend \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "hicache_storage_backend": "mooncake",
    "hicache_storage_backend_extra_config_json": "{\"master_server_address\":\"127.0.0.1:50051\",\"protocol\":\"tcp\",\"global_segment_size\":\"4gb\",\"prefetch_threshold\":256}",
    "hicache_storage_prefetch_policy": "timeout"
  }'

Notes:

  • hicache_storage_backend_extra_config_json can include both:

    • Backend configuration (e.g., Mooncake master/metadata/protocol, etc.)

    • Prefetch configuration (prefetch_threshold, prefetch_timeout_base, prefetch_timeout_per_ki_token, hicache_storage_pass_prefix_keys)

3.3 Detach (disable) the storage backend#

curl -s -X DELETE http://127.0.0.1:30000/hicache/storage-backend

Notes:

  • Detach only makes SGLang stop using the L3 storage backend and stops prefetch/backup threads

  • It does not automatically delete data stored in Mooncake/HF3FS (or other remote backends)

4. Behavior and caveats#

  • No restart required: attach/detach switches in-process at runtime

  • Must be idle: otherwise the request is rejected to avoid consistency issues

  • Host KV layout constraints still apply: for example, Mooncake still requires layouts like page_first/page_first_direct/page_head; if the server’s HiCache host-memory layout does not satisfy the backend requirements, attach will fail with an error

  • Observability:

    • After attach, server_args.hicache_storage_backend* is updated on both the tokenizer and scheduler sides

    • If metrics are enabled, attach will create a storage metrics collector in HiRadixCache on demand

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