diff --git a/miles/utils/external_utils/command_utils.py b/miles/utils/external_utils/command_utils.py
index 0de5def17..697bac640 100644
--- a/miles/utils/external_utils/command_utils.py
+++ b/miles/utils/external_utils/command_utils.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import random
 import time
 from dataclasses import dataclass
+from functools import partial
 from pathlib import Path
 
 from miles.utils.misc import exec_command, exec_command_all_ray_node
@@ -23,6 +24,7 @@ def convert_checkpoint(
     megatron_model_type,
     num_gpus_per_node: int,
     multinode: bool = False,
+    num_nodes: int | None = None,
     extra_args: str = "",
     dir_dst: str = "/root",
     hf_checkpoint: str | None = None,
@@ -43,7 +45,10 @@ def convert_checkpoint(
             "--master-addr {{master_addr}} " "--master-port 23456 " "--nnodes={{nnodes}} " "--node-rank {{node_rank}} "
         )
 
-    fn = exec_command_all_ray_node if multinode else exec_command
+    if multinode:
+        fn = partial(exec_command_all_ray_node, num_nodes=num_nodes)
+    else:
+        fn = exec_command
     fn(
         f"source {repo_base_dir}/scripts/models/{megatron_model_type}.sh && "
         f"PYTHONPATH={megatron_path} "
diff --git a/miles/utils/misc.py b/miles/utils/misc.py
index f6ce467c1..313a60dda 100644
--- a/miles/utils/misc.py
+++ b/miles/utils/misc.py
@@ -101,14 +101,19 @@ def _exec_command_on_node(cmd: str, capture_output: bool) -> str | None:
     return exec_command(f"unset CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES; {cmd}", capture_output=capture_output)
 
 
-def exec_command_all_ray_node(cmd: str, capture_output: bool = False) -> list[str | None]:
+def exec_command_all_ray_node(
+    cmd: str, capture_output: bool = False, num_nodes: int | None = None
+) -> list[str | None]:
     """Execute a shell command on every alive Ray node in parallel.
 
     Supported placeholders in `cmd` (replaced per-node before execution):
         {{node_rank}}   - 0-based index of the node
-        {{nnodes}}      - total number of alive nodes
+        {{nnodes}}      - total number of alive nodes (or num_nodes if specified)
         {{master_addr}} - NodeManagerAddress of the first node
         {{node_ip}}     - NodeManagerAddress of the current node
+
+    Args:
+        num_nodes: If set, only use the first `num_nodes` nodes instead of all alive nodes.
     """
     ray.init(address="auto")
     try:
@@ -119,6 +124,10 @@ def exec_command_all_ray_node(cmd: str, capture_output: bool = False) -> list[st
         )
         assert len(nodes) > 0
 
+        if num_nodes is not None:
+            assert num_nodes <= len(nodes), f"Requested {num_nodes} nodes but only {len(nodes)} alive nodes available."
+            nodes = nodes[:num_nodes]
+
         master_addr = nodes[0]["NodeManagerAddress"]
         nnodes = str(len(nodes))
 
diff --git a/scripts/run_deepseek.py b/scripts/run_deepseek.py
index 4b1750fee..ab6e1e652 100644
--- a/scripts/run_deepseek.py
+++ b/scripts/run_deepseek.py
@@ -58,13 +58,19 @@ def _prepare_bf16_ckpt(args: ScriptArgs):
 def _prepare_megatron_ckpt(args: ScriptArgs):
     # TODO unify 5layer w/ 20layer, also maybe unify the whole script
     extra_args = "--tensor-model-parallel-size 1 " "--expert-tensor-parallel-size 1 "
-    if args.num_nodes == 1 and args.model_name == "DeepSeek-V3-0324-5layer":
+    num_gpus_per_node = args.num_gpus_per_node
+    multinode = True
+    num_nodes = None
+    if args.model_name == "DeepSeek-V3-0324-5layer":
         extra_args += "--pipeline-model-parallel-size 1 " "--expert-model-parallel-size 1 "
+        num_gpus_per_node = min(4, num_gpus_per_node)
+        multinode = False
     elif args.model_name == "DeepSeek-V3-0324-20layer":
         extra_args += (
             "--expert-model-parallel-size 4 "
             # PP info will be auto determined by converter script
         )
+        num_nodes = 2
     else:
         extra_args += (
             "--pipeline-model-parallel-size 8 "
@@ -77,8 +83,9 @@ def _prepare_megatron_ckpt(args: ScriptArgs):
         model_name=args.model_name,
         hf_checkpoint=f"{args.model_dir}/{args.model_name}-bf16",
         megatron_model_type=args.megatron_model_type,
-        num_gpus_per_node=args.num_gpus_per_node,
-        multinode=True,
+        num_gpus_per_node=num_gpus_per_node,
+        multinode=multinode,
+        num_nodes=num_nodes,
         extra_args=extra_args,
         dir_dst=args.model_dir,
         megatron_path=args.megatron_path,