Getting started with Deep Learning

Note

On June 26 we updated the GPU compute nodes to a new version of IBM Watson Machine Learning Accelerator. This changes the way you access deep learning packages like Tensorflow and Pytorch. Instead of "activating" these packages, you will be able to install new versions directly in your anaconda environment.

We are actively updating the wiki documentation to explain the new method of accessing deep learning packages. Please bear with us during these updates as some documentation may still refer to the old method of "activating" deep learning packages

1. Get started with DeepSense

Follow all the steps from Getting started. This tutorial assumes you can log on to the DeepSense compute platform and have a version of Anaconda python on your path. We recommend installing Anaconda in your home directory before starting this tutorial (See Installing local software).

2. Prepare Caffe and download Caffe samples to your home directory

(New method)

Activate your anaconda environment. See Installing local software for how to create an environment. We will assume you have created one called "caffe".

conda activate caffe

Add the IBM-AI anaconda channel if you have not done so already

conda config --prepend channels https://public.dhe.ibm.com/ibmdl/export/pub/software/server/ibm-ai/conda/

Install caffe if you have not done so already

conda install caffe

Install the caffe samples

caffe-install-samples

(Old method)

/opt/DL/caffe/bin/caffe-install-samples

3. Request an interactive session on a GPU compute node

bsub -Is -gpu - bash

4. Start a python2 Jupyter notebook

(Old method only) Source the Caffe deep learning toolkit

source /opt/DL/caffe/bin/caffe-activate

Start the notebook

jupyter notebook --no-browser --ip=0.0.0.0

Sample output

[I 13:32:23.937 NotebookApp] Use Control-C to stop this server and shut down all kernels (twice to skip confirmation).
[C 13:32:23.937 NotebookApp] 
    
    Copy/paste this URL into your browser when you connect for the first time,
    to login with a token:
        http://ds-cmgpu-04:8888/?token=68042f40a10b500f3747ae0a232ee209fa4bf1aa384d29ba&token=68042f40a10b500f3747ae0a232ee209fa4bf1aa384d29ba

Copy the URL, host, and port

Copy the URL but don’t paste it in your browser yet.

Make a note of which compute host and port the notebook is running on (e.g. host ds-cmgpu-04 and port 8888 in this case)

5. Port Forwarding

In a separate terminal window from your local computer, forward your local port to the remote host.

ssh command port forwarding

ssh -l <username> login1.deepsense.ca -L <local_port>:<remote_host>:<remote_port>

for example, ssh -l user1 login1.deepsense.ca -L 8888:ds-cmgpu-04:8888

Note that you may need to use a different <local_port> than 8888 if you have other web services running on your local computer. In particular, if you run a jupyter notebook locally then it will use port 8888 and you will try to connect to the local jupyter notebook instead of the cluster notebook. In this case close your port forwarding and try again with 8889 or another unused port.

PuTTY port forwarding on Windows

If you are using a PuTTY terminal from a Windows computer to access DeepSense then you can still forward ports.

Before starting your session, scroll down to the option Connection->SSH->Tunnels in the Category pane.

Enter the local_port in the Source port field. For example, 8888.

Enter <remote_host>:<remote_port> in the Destination field. For example, ds-cmgpu-04:8888.

Press the Add button to add the port forwarding rule to your PuTTY session.

Finally, open the session as usual.

6. Open the desired sample notebook

Enter the copied URL in your web browser but change the remote host name to “localhost” before pressing enter.

e.g http://localhost:8888/?token=68042f40a10b500f3747ae0a232ee209fa4bf1aa384d29ba&token=68042f40a10b500f3747ae0a232ee209fa4bf1aa384d29ba

Note: On our macs, this worked in Chrome, but not in Safari. Unfortunately, there was no error reported, it simply could not connect.

Be sure to enter the location of the “caffe-samples” directory in your home directory as your caffe-root in the Caffe example notebooks.

7. Enjoy Deep Learning on DeepSense!

8. More information

Go to Caffe's website for tutorials and example programs that you can run to get started. See the following links to a couple of the example programs:

LeNet MNIST Tutorial - Train a neural network to understand handwritten digits.

CIFAR-10 tutorial - Train a convolutional neural network to classify small images.

9. Using another deep learning toolkit such as Tensorflow

(New Method)

• Ensure any Anaconda dependencies are installed
  • for tensorflow, create a new environment and conda install tensorflow</conda>
• Download example notebooks for the deep learning toolkit to your home directory,
  • e.g. git clone https://github.com/aymericdamien/TensorFlow-Examples.git

(Old Method)

• Ensure any Anaconda dependencies are installed
  • for tensorflow, run /opt/DL/tensorflow/bin/install_dependencies
• Source the appropriate toolkit instead of caffe-activate
  • e.g. source /opt/DL/tensorflow/bin/tensorflow-activate
• Download example notebooks for the deep learning toolkit to your home directory,
  • e.g. git clone https://github.com/aymericdamien/TensorFlow-Examples.git

The TensorFlow home page has various information, including Tutorials, How-To documents, and a Getting Started guide.

Additional tutorials and examples are available from the community, for example:

 https://github.com/nlintz/TensorFlow-Tutorials

 https://github.com/aymericdamien/TensorFlow-Examples