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Plasma MapReduce: How to run a job?

Preliminaries

It is required that there is a PlasmaFS filesystem up and running on the cluster. There is no way to use Map/Reduce without PlasmaFS.

There need to be four directories for input data, work files, output data, and log files. We assume here that they have names /input, /work, /output, and /log but of course they can have any name, and stored in any subdirectory.

You can use the plasma utility to create these directories (also see Cmd_plasma for documentation - we assume here the plasma utility is configured to automatically find the cluster):

plasma mkdir /input
plasma mkdir /work
plasma mkdir /output
plasma mkdir /log

The /input directory must be filled with the input files (text files where every line is not longer than the blocksize of the filesystem). The input files can have any names - the Map/Reduce framework simply processes all files it finds in this directory.

You can use plasma to upload the input files, e.g.

plasma put input0 /input/input0

when there is a local file input0. For the sample programs the file must have a key and a value on each line, separated by a single TAB character.

The other three directories must be empty before a job is started.

We also assume here that you have built and installed the Plasma distribution, so that a command like

ocamlfind ocamlopt -package mr_framework ...

can be used to compile a Plasma Map/Reduce program.

The sample M/R program

The distribution builds a sample Map/Reduce program mr_test. This test program does not do anything reasonable, but it is a good "hello world" program. The functions for map and reduce are the identities, so that the overall effect of the program is to group the input data by key.

The sample program is:

let job : Mapred_def.mapred_job =
object
  method custom_params = []
  method check_config _ _ = ()
  method pre_job_start _ _ = ()
  method post_job_finish _ _ = ()

  method map me jc ti r w = ...
  method extract_key me jc line = ...
  method partition_of_key me jc = ...
  method reduce me jc ti r w = ...
end

let () =
  Mapred_main.main job

What you can see is that a M/R job is specified by an object of type Mapred_def.mapred_job. This object contains the functions for map and reduce, and a few other functions. Before looking in detail at this, let me describe how to compile and start this job.

The program calls Mapred_main.main with the job object. This is the main program which parses command-line arguments, and runs the job as the user wants it. You compile this with

ocamlfind ocamlopt -package mr_framework -linkpkg -o mr_test mr_test.ml

Before you can start mr_test you need a configuration file mr_test.conf (generally, the framework appends ".conf" to the executable when looking for the config file).

This file can look like (you need to adapt this to your setup):

netplex {
  namenodes {
    clustername = "test";
    node { addr = "office3:2730" };
    node { addr = "office4:2730" }
  };
  mapred {
    node { addr = "office3" };
    node { addr = "office4" };
    port = 8989;
    tmpdir = "/tmp/mapred";
    load_limit = 8.1;
    shm_low = 1000000000;
    shm_high = 2000000000;
    buffer_size = 67108864; (* 64 M *)
    buffer_size_tight = 16777216;   (* 16 M *)
    sort_size =  67108864; (* 64 M *)
  };
  mapredjob {
    input_dir = "/input";
    output_dir = "/output";
    work_dir = "/work";
    log_dir = "/log";
    partitions = 10;
  }
}

Most parameters describe the compute environment, and resource limits:

  • The parameter clustername is the name of the PlasmaFS cluster
  • The node/addr parameters in namenodes specify the namenodes of the PlasmaFS cluster. You can enumerate them as shown, or put the host names into a separate file, and point to this with a single node_list parameter:
        namenodes {
          clustername = "test";
          node_list = "namenode.hosts";
          port = 2730
        }
      
  • The node/addr parameters in mapred specify on which nodes the tasks are going to be executed. This can be any machines, but it is advantageous to use the datanode machines. Also, you can use node_list:
        mapred {
          node_list = "tasknode.hosts";
          port = 8989;
          ...
        }
      
  • The port in mapred can be freely chosen
  • In the tmpdir directory the program will put executables, log files, and other runtime files. Not much space is needed there.
  • The load limit determines how many tasks are executed on each node. A "load unit" of 1 does not directly correspond to a process, though. The framework takes into account that different tasks use the resources differently. As a rule of thumb, put here two times the number of cores on a single machine, plus 0.1.
  • The parameters shm_low and shm_high control the consumption of shared memory. If the (estimate) amount of shared memory exceeds shm_high, it is assumed that memory is tight, and measures are taken to reduce RAM consumption. If the use of shared memory drops again below shm_low, it is assumed that the memory pressure is gone, and consumption is turned back to normal. The parameters are given in bytes.
  • The size of the shm buffers is given by buffer_size and buffer_size_tight. Both must be larger than the size of bigblocks. When memory is tight the latter parameter is used, and in normal memory situations the former parameter is used.
  • sort_size says how big the buffers for sorting in RAM are.
The parameters in the mapredjob block are specific for the job. These parameters are first looked at when the exec_job command is started (see below), and can be overridden on the command line:
  • input_dir, output_dir, work_dir, and log_dir define the four job directories
  • partitions determines the number of partitions, i.e. the number of output files.
There are a few more job-specific parameters, see Mapred_def.mapred_job_config for a description.

The program mr_test is a multi-purpose program: It acts both as task server on the machines, and as a central job control instance. Before the job can be started, the task servers need to be deployed and started:

./mr_test start_task_servers

This uses ssh to install the mr_test executable on all task nodes. The directory for this is tmpdir.

There is also stop_task_servers to stop the servers.

The job is started with

./mr_test exec_job

Progress messages are emitted on stdout:

Checking...
Planning...
Starting...
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Starting job
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Stats: runnable=16 running=0 finished=0 total=16 complete=false
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 0 to 192.168.5.30
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 1 to 192.168.5.30
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 2 to 192.168.5.30
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 3 to 192.168.5.30
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 4 to 192.168.5.30
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 5 to 192.168.5.30
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 6 to 192.168.5.30
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 7 to 192.168.5.30
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 9 to 192.168.5.40
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 10 to 192.168.5.40
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 11 to 192.168.5.40
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 12 to 192.168.5.40
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 13 to 192.168.5.40
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 14 to 192.168.5.40
[Thu Jun 10 19:43:07 2010] [info] Submitted task Map 15 to 192.168.5.40
Job can be interrupted with CTRL-C!
[Thu Jun 10 19:47:35 2010] [info] Finished task Map 14
[Thu Jun 10 19:47:35 2010] [info] Stats: runnable=10 running=14 finished=1 total=26 complete=false
[Thu Jun 10 19:47:35 2010] [info] Submitted task Sort 8 to 192.168.5.40
...

The job can be killed with CTRL-C or kill -2 <pid>. This also kills the running tasks, and performs file cleanup.

The statistics line is to be interpreted as follows: The runnable tasks are the tasks whose input files exist, and that could be immediately started if there were more load capacity on the nodes. The running tasks are the tasks currently running on the node. The finished number is the sum of all finished tasks. total is the total number of tasks, including non-runnable tasks. You will notice that total grows in the course of the execution. This has to do with the incremental planning algorithm: At job start it is not yet known how many tasks have to be run in total. This number depends on how many output files are written by the map tasks. If you see complete=true all tasks are defined, and total will no longer grow.

Details of the M/R job

The full job object looks like

let job : Mapred_def.mapred_job =
object
  method custom_params = []
  method check_config _ _ = ()
  method pre_job_start _ _ = ()
  method post_job_finish _ _ = ()

  method map me jc ti r w =
    try
      while true do
	let r = r#input_record() in
	w # output_record r
      done
    with End_of_file ->
      w # flush()

  method extract_key me jc line = 
    Mapred_split.tab_split_key line

  method partition_of_key me jc =
    let p = jc#partitions in
    (fun key ->
       (Hashtbl.hash key) mod p
    )
  method reduce me jc ti r w =
    try
      while true do
	let r = r#input_record() in
	w # output_record r
      done
    with End_of_file ->
      w # flush()
end

Let's first have a look at map and reduce. map is a function

Mapred_def.mapred_env -> Mapred_def.mapred_job_config -> task_info -> Mapred_io.record_reader -> Mapred_io.record_writer -> unit

The record_reader argument is an object allowing access to the input file. The record_writer argument is the object for writing to the output file. map now typically reads the lines of the input (using input_record) and writes lines to the output (via output_record).

map is completely on its own for interpreting the inputs. It is not required that there is a key and a value - the input can be arbitrary. The output, however, should provide a key and a value. This should be done in a way so that the extract_key function can extract the key from the written lines. We use here Mapred_split.tab_split_key to get everything until the first TAB as key.

The Mapred_def.mapred_env object allows access to other PlasmaFS files (using the open_cluster method), to the config file, and to (optional) command-line arguments provided at exec_job time.

reduce has exactly the same signature as map. The Mapred_io.record_reader object, however, is now connected with the intermediate file containing all records for the partition passed as int. These records comply to the key/value format.

There are more functions in the job object than just map and reduce:

  • partition_of_key is the function that determines into which partition (0 to partitions-1) a key is put. The given definition (Hashtbl.hash key) mod partitions works well if there are no special requirements.
  • extract_key defines how to get the key from a processed line
For a full description, see Mapred_def.mapred_job.

Setting bigblock_size

The default size of bigblocks is 16M. This means map/reduce processes all files in chunks of (at least) bigblocks.

The size of bigblocks is also the maximum size of records (lines).

When increasing the size of bigblocks, make sure you also increase buffer_size and buffer_size_tight (see above). Bigblocks should not be larger than the buffers.

Installing additional files on the task nodes

By setting task_files (in the mapredjob section) one can install additional files on all task nodes at job start time. task_files is a space-separated list of filenames. The files are installed in an automatically determined directory on the task nodes.

Right now there is no direct way to get the path of this directory. One has to first create the task manager object:

let tm = Mapred_taskfiles.scp_taskfile_manager me#config jc

me and jc are passed as first and second argument of map and reduce.

Now the directory is tm#local_directory.

Note that these files are deleted when the job finishes.

Writing additional log files

Tasks write some log files by default:

  • Netlog.logf output is written to a file <log_dir>/<prefix><level>.log
  • Stderr output is written to a file <log_dir>/<prefix>stderr.log
The <log_dir> is first a local directory on the task node. When the task finishes, all the files with the right <prefix> are moved to the configured PlasmaFS log directory. (Every task uses a different <prefix>, but all tasks write to the same directory.)

Actually, all files with this <prefix> are finally moved, not only those written by the map/reduce framework. So custom code can write additional files there, and these files are handled in the same way.

The <log_dir> can be obtained by tm#log_directory (when tm is the taskfile manager, see above).

The <prefix> can be obtained by ti#task_prefix when ti is the task_info argument passed to map and reduce.

Files in <log_dir> not having the right filename prefix are also moved to the PlasmaFS log directory, but only at job termination time.

Streaming

Streaming means to start subprocesses for map and reduce. See Mapred_streaming for details.

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