How to use the RevoPemaR library in Machine Learning Server

Article
01/03/2018

Important

This content is being retired and may not be updated in the future. The support for Machine Learning Server will end on July 1, 2022. For more information, see What's happening to Machine Learning Server?

The RevoPemaR package provides a framework for writing custom parallel external memory algorithms in R, making use of the R reference classes introduced by John Chambers in R 2.12.

Parallel External Memory Algorithms (PEMA) are algorithms that eliminate in-memory data storage requirements, allowing data to be processed in chunks, in parallel, possibly on different nodes of a cluster. The results are then combined and processed at the end (or at the end of each iteration). The RevoPemaR package is used for writing custom PEMA algorithms in R.

The custom PEMA functions created using the RevoPemaR framework are appropriate for small and large datasets, but are particularly useful in three common situations:

To analyze data sets that are too large to fit in memory
To create scalable data analysis routines that can be developed locally with smaller data sets, then deployed to larger data
To perform computations distributed over nodes in a cluster

Installation

The RevoPemaR package is included with Microsoft Machine Learning Server and R Client (which also contains the RevoScaleR package).

About R Reference Classes

The PEMA classes used in RevoPemaR are based on R Reference Classes. We include a brief overview of some tips for using R Reference Classes here, before moving to the specifics of the PEMA classes.

R Reference Class objects are created using a generator function. This function has four important pieces of information:

Name of the class.
Inheritance or superclasses of the class. Fields and methods of parent reference classes are inherited.
Fields or member variables. These fields are accessed by reference (as in C++ or Java), so values of the fields for an object of this class can change.
Methods that can be invoked by objects of this class.

When working with reference class, keep these tips in mind:

Reference class generators are created using setRefClass. For the PEMA classes, we use a wrapper for that function, setPemaClass.
Field values are changed within methods using the non-local assignment operator (<<-)
The reference class object can be accessed in the methods using .self
The parent method can be accessed using .callSuper
Use the usingMethods call to declare that a method is used by another method.
The code for a method can be displayed using an instantiated reference class object, for example, myRefClassObj$initialize.
Methods are documented internally with an initial line of text, rather than in a .Rd file. This information is accessed using the $help method for the generator function.

Tutorial introduction to RevoPemaR

This section contains an overview of a simple example of estimating the mean of a variable using the RevoPemaR framework. The key step is in creating a PemaMean reference class generator function that provides the fields and methods for computing the mean using a parallel external memory algorithm. This includes creating methods to compute the sum and number of observations for each chunk of data, to update these intermediate results, and at the end to use the intermediate results to compute the mean.

Using setPemaClass to Create a Class Generator

Start by making sure that the RevoPemaR package is loaded:

library(RevoPemaR)

To create a PEMA class generator function, use the setPemaClass function. It is a wrapper function for setRefClass. As with setRefClass, we specify four basic pieces of information when using setPemaClass: the class name, the superclasses, the fields, and the methods. The structure looks something like this:

PemaMean <- setPemaClass(
	Class = "PemaMean",
	contains = "PemaBaseClass",
	fields = list( # To be written
		),
methods = list( # To be written
		))

The Class is the class name of your choice. The contains argument must specify PemaBaseClass or a child class of PemaBaseClass. The specification of fields and methods follows.

Specifying the fields for PemaMean

The fields or member variables of our class represent all of the variables we need in order to compute and store our intermediate and final results. Here are the fields we use for our “means” computation:

fields = list(
	sum = "numeric",
	totalObs = "numeric",
		totalValidObs = "numeric",
	mean = "numeric",
	varName = "character"
	),

An Overview of the methods for PemaMean

There are five methods we specify for PemaMean. These methods are all in the PemaBaseClass, and need to be overloaded for any custom analysis.

initialize: initializes field values.
processData: processes a chunk of data and updates field values
updateResults: updates the field values of a PEMA class object from another
processResults: computes the final results from the final intermediate results
getVarsToUse: the names of the variables in the dataset used for analysis

The initialize method

The primary use of the initialize method is to initialize field values. The one field that is initialized with user input in this example is the name of the variable to use in the computations, varName. Use of the ellipses in the function signature allows for initialization values to be passed up to the parent class using .callSuper, the first action in the initialize method after the documentation. Here is the beginning of our methods listing:

methods = list(
	initialize = function(varName = "", ...)
	{
		'sum, totalValidObs, and mean are all initialized to 0'
		# callSuper calls the initialize method of the parent class
		callSuper(...)

The pemaSetClass function also provides additional functionality used in the initialize method to ensure that all of the methods of the class and its parent classes are included when an object is serialized. This is critical for distributed computing. To use this functionality, add the following to the initialize method:

usingMethods(.pemaMethods)

(If you do not want to use this functionality you can omit this line and set includeMethods to FALSE in setPemaClass.)

Now we finish the field initialization, setting the varName field to the input value and setting the starting values for our computations to 0, remembering to use the double-arrow non-local assignment operator to set field values:

	varName <<- varName
	sum <<- 0
	totalObs <<- 0
			totalValidObs <<- 0
			mean <<- 0
},

The processData method

The processData method is the core of an external memory algorithm. It processes a chunk of data and computes intermediate results, updating the field value(s). It takes as an argument a rectangular list of data vectors; typically only the variable(s) of interest is included. In our example code we do not compute the mean within this method; that occurs after we have processed all of the data. Here we compute and update the intermediate results: the sum and number of observations:

processData = function(dataList)
{
	'Updates the sum and total observations from
			the current chunk of data.'
			sum <<- sum + sum(as.numeric(dataList[[varName]]),
				na.rm = TRUE)

			totalObs <<- totalObs + length(dataList[[varName]])

		totalValidObs <<- totalValidObs +
				sum(!is.na(dataList[[varName]]))
			invisible(NULL)
},

The updateResults method

The updateResults is the key method used when computations are done in parallel. Consider the following scenario:

The master node on a cluster assigns each worker node the task of processing a series of chunks of data.
The workers do so in parallel, each with their own instantiation of a reference class object. Each worker calls processData for each chunk of data it needs to process. In each call, the values of the fields of its reference class object are updated.
Now the master process must collect the information from each of the nodes, and update all of the information in a single reference class object. This is done using the updateResults method, which takes as an argument another instance of the reference class. The reference class object from each of the nodes is processed by the master node, resulting in the final intermediate results in the master node’s reference class object’s fields.

Here is the updateResults method for our PemaMean:

updateResults = function(pemaMeanObj)
{
		'Updates the sum and total observations from
			another PemaMean object.'

		sum <<- sum + pemaMeanObj$sum
	totalObs <<- totalObs + pemaMeanObj$totalObs
		totalValidObs <<- totalValidObs + pemaMeanObj$totalValidObs

		invisible(NULL)
},

The processResults method

The processResults performs any necessary computations to produce the final result from the accumulated intermediate results. In this case, it is simple; we divide the sum by the number of valid observations (assuming we have some):

processResults = function()
{
	'Returns the sum divided by the totalValidObs.'
	if (totalValidObs > 0)
	{
		mean <<- sum/totalValidObs
	}
		else
	{
		mean <<- as.numeric(NA)
	}
	return( mean )
},

The getVarsToUse method

The getVarsToUse method specifies the names of the variables in the dataset that are used in the analysis. Specifying this information can improve performance if reading data from disk.

		getVarsToUse = function()
		{
			'Returns the varName.'
			varName
		}
	) # End of methods
) # End of class generator

Creating and Using a PemaMean Reference Class Object

Instantiating and Exploring a PemaMean Object

A version of the code in the previous section is contained within the RevoPemaR package and exported, so we can directly work with the PemaMean generator without first running the code. We can show the names of all the methods, including those that are explicitly overridden by the PemaMean class:

	PemaMean$methods()

	 [1] ".pemaMethods"                 ".pemaMethods#PemaBaseClass"  
	 [3] "callSuper"                    "compute"                     
	 [5] "copy"                         "copyFields"                  
	 [7] "createReturnObject"           "export"                      
	 [9] "field"                        "finalizeNode"                
	[11] "getClass"                     "getFieldList"                
	[13] "getRefClass"                  "getVarsToRead"               
	[15] "getVarsToUse"                 "getVarsToUse#PemaBaseClass"  
	[17] "hasConverged"                 "import"                      
	[19] "initFields"                   "initialize"                  
	[21] "initialize#PemaBaseClass"     "initIteration"               
	[23] "outputTrace"                  "processAllData"              
	[25] "processData"                  "processData#PemaBaseClass"   
	[27] "processResults"               "processResults#PemaBaseClass"
	[29] "setFieldList"                 "show"                        
	[31] "trace"                        "untrace"                     
	[33] "updateResults"                "updateResults#PemaBaseClass"
	[35] "usingMethods"

Some of the methods (for example, initIteration, getFieldList) are inherited from the PemaBaseClass. Others (for example, callSuper, methods) are inherited from the base reference class generator.

We can use the help method with the generator function to get help on specific methods:

PemaMean$help(initialize)

Call:
$initialize(varName = , ...)

sum, totalValidObs, and mean are all initialized to 0

Next we generate a default PemaMean object, and print out the values of its fields (including those inherited):

meanPemaObj <- PemaMean()
meanPemaObj

Reference class object of class "PemaMean"
Reference class object of class "PemaMean" (from the global environment)
Field ".isPemaObject":
[1] TRUE
Field ".isDistributedContext":
[1] FALSE
Field ".hasOutFile":
[1] FALSE
Field ".outFile":
NULL
Field ".append":
[1] "none"
Field ".overwrite":
[1] FALSE
Field ".onlyKeepTransformedData":
[1] FALSE
Field "traceLevel":
[1] 0
Field "iter":
[1] 0
Field "maxIters":
[1] 2000
Field "useRevoScaleR":
[1] TRUE
Field ".dataInMemory":
[1] FALSE
Field ".dataInMemoryPrepared":
[1] FALSE
Field "reportProgress":
[1] 2
Field "sum":
[1] 0
Field "totalObs":
[1] 0
Field "totalValidObs":
[1] 0
Field "mean":
[1] 0
Field "varName":
[1] ""

We can also print out the code for a specific method using an instantiated object. For example, the initialize method of the PemaMean object in the RevoPemaR package is:

meanPemaObj$initialize

Class method definition for method initialize()
function (varName = "", ...)
{
	"sum, totalValidObs, and mean are all initialized to 0"
	callSuper(...)
	usingMethods(.pemaMethods)
	varName <<- varName
	sum <<- 0
	totalObs <<- 0
	totalValidObs <<- 0
	mean <<- 0
}
<environment: 0x000000003148ea40>

	Methods used:  
	".pemaMethods", "callSuper", "usingMethods""

Using a PemaMean Object with the pemaCompute Function

The pemaCompute function takes two required arguments: an “analysis” object and a data source object. The analysis object must be generated by setPemaClass and inherit (directly or indirectly) from PemaBaseClass. The data source object must be either a data frame or a data source object supported by the RevoScaleR package if it is available. The ellipses take any additional information used in the initialize method.

Let’s compute a mean of some random numbers:

set.seed(67)
pemaCompute(pemaObj = meanPemaObj,
	data = data.frame(x = rnorm(1000)), varName = "x")

[1] 0.00504128

If we again print the values of the fields of our meanPemaObj, we see the updated values:

meanPemaObj

Reference class object of class "PemaMean" (from the global environment)
Field ".isPemaObject":
[1] TRUE
Field ".isDistributedContext":
[1] FALSE
Field ".hasOutFile":
[1] FALSE
Field ".outFile":
NULL
Field ".append":
[1] "none"
Field ".overwrite":
[1] FALSE
Field ".onlyKeepTransformedData":
[1] FALSE
Field "traceLevel":
[1] 0
Field "iter":
[1] 1
Field "maxIters":
[1] 2000
Field "useRevoScaleR":
[1] TRUE
Field ".dataInMemory":
[1] FALSE
Field ".dataInMemoryPrepared":
[1] FALSE
Field "reportProgress":
[1] 2
Field "sum":
[1] 5.04128
Field "totalObs":
[1] 1000
Field "totalValidObs":
[1] 1000
Field "mean":
[1] 0.00504128
Field "varName":
[1] "x"

By default the pemaCompute method reinitializes the pemaObj. By setting the initPema flag to FALSE, we can add more data to our analysis:

pemaCompute(pemaObj = meanPemaObj,
	data = data.frame(x = rnorm(1000)), varName = "x",
		initPema = FALSE)
[1] 0.001516969

meanPemaObj$totalValidObs
[1] 2000

The number of total valid observations is now 2000.

Using a RevoScaleR Data Source with the pemaCompute Function

In the previous section, we analyzed data in memory. The RevoScaleR package provides a data source framework that allows data to be automatically extracted in chunks from data on disk or in a database. It also provides the .xdf file format that can efficiently extract chunks of data.

We can use a sample .xdf file provided with the package. First we create a data source for this file:

airXdf <- RxXdfData(file.path(rxGetOption("sampleDataDir"),
	"AirlineDemoSmall.xdf"))

Using the meanPemaObj created above, we compute the mean of the variable ArrDelay (the arrival delay in minutes). The data in this file is stored in three blocks, with 200,000 rows in each block. The pemaCompute function processes these chunks one at a time:

pemaCompute(meanPemaObj, data = airXdf, varName = "ArrDelay")

Rows Read: 200000, Total Rows Processed: 200000, Total Chunk Time: 0.009 seconds
Rows Read: 200000, Total Rows Processed: 400000, Total Chunk Time: 0.007 seconds
Rows Read: 200000, Total Rows Processed: 600000, Total Chunk Time: 0.041 seconds
[1] 11.31794

You can control the amount of progress reported to the console using the reportProgress field of PemaBaseClass.

Using pemaCompute in a Distributed Compute Context

RevoScaleR provides a number of distributed compute contexts, such as Hadoop clusters (Cloudera and Hortonworks). Use of the same PEMA reference class object on these platforms is experimental. It can be tried with data on those platforms by specifying the computeContext in the pemaCompute function.

Additional Examples Using RevoPemaR

A number of examples are provided in the demoScripts directory of the RevoPemaR package. You can find the location of this directory by entering:

path.package("RevoPemaR")

Basic Text Mining Examples

Two PEMA text mining analyses are provided as examples.

PemaPopularWords accumulates the words used in a variable containing character data. The initialize method provides a variety of arguments to fine-tune the processing. The code for the reference class generator is provided in PemaPopularWords.R, and examples using it in PemaPopularWordsEx.R.
PemaWordCount counts instances of specified words in a variable containing character data. The code for the reference class generator is provided in PemaWordCount.R, and examples using it in PemaWordCountEx.R.

If you are using RevoScaleR and are interested in exploring text mining with a large dataset, instructions for downloading and code for importing Amazon reviews of fine foods is contained in the script finefoodsImport.R

Performing By-Group Computations

A PemaByGroup class is included in RevoPemaR to facilitate by-group computations. Examples of using this class are provided in the PemaByGroupEx.R demo script. It is assumed that the relevant variables for each group can fit into memory, and are then processed by arbitrary R functions. It requires that data be pre-sorted by group before processing, so generally cannot be used in distributed compute contexts such as Hadoop.

An Iterative PEMA Algorithm: Logistic Gradient Descent

A simple logistic gradient descent algorithm is provided as an example of an iterative algorithm that inherits from a parent class.

The PemaGradDescent class generator (in PemaGradDescent.R) specifies a number of important methods for iterative algorithms, for example:

initIteration: initializes the appropriate field values at the beginning of each iteration
fn: a placeholder for the computation of the objective (loss) function for gradient descent
gradientFn: a placeholder for the computation of the gradient function for gradient descent
hasConverged: checks convergence criteria

This class generator cannot be used directly. A child class generator must be created that at a minimum specifies the objective function (fn) and gradient function (gradientFn). An example is provided in PemaLogitGD.R, showing a logistic gradient descent. A simple example of its use is in PemaLogitGDEx.R.

Debugging RevoPemaR Code

The R Reference Classes provide standard R debugging tools, and trace and untrace methods are provided in the base reference class.

The PemaBaseClass provides a simple way of printing trace output that is particularly useful in debugging code in a distributed environment. Calls to the outputTrace method within other methods print the specified text if the traceLevel field value exceeds or is equal to the outTraceLevel argument:

meanPemaObj$outputTrace

Class method definition for method outputTrace()
function (text, outTraceLevel = 1)
{
	"Prints text if the traceLevel >= outTraceLevel"
	if (length(traceLevel) == 0) {
		warning("traceLevel has not been initialized.")
	}
	else if (traceLevel >= outTraceLevel) {
		cat(text)
	}
}

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