installing TensorFlow on the IBM power8

Question

I have access to a large IBM Power8 machine, and would like to install TensorFlow on it. Naturally, I tried the quick pip install, but it failed:

sudo pip i         


        

Answer 1

Install bazel 0.2.0-ppc

tf@ubuntu16:~$ git clone https://github.com/ibmsoe/bazel
tf@ubuntu16:~/bazel$ git checkout v0.2.0-ppc
tf@ubuntu16:~/bazel$ ./compile.sh

Install tensorflow

tf@ubuntu16:~$ git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ git checkout  v0.10.0rc0
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ git commit -m"v0.10.0rc0"
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ git cherry-pick ce70f6cf842a46296119337247c24d307e279fa0
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ git cherry-pick f1acb3bd828a73b15670fc8019f06a5cd51bd564
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ git cherry-pick 9b6215a691a2eebaadb8253bd0cf706f2309a0b8
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ ./configure
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ bazel build -c opt --config=cuda //tensorflow/tools/pip_package:build_pip_package

Here you'll encounter an error, something like this

ERROR: /home/tf/.cache/bazel/_bazel_tf/b2f766da603b0bed56d4c1d0b178456a/external/farmhash_archive/BUILD:5:1: Executing genrule @farmhash_archive//:configure failed: bash failed: error executing command /bin/bash -c ... (remaining 1 argument(s) skipped): com.google.devtools.build.lib.shell.BadExitStatusException: Process exited with status 1. /home/tf/.cache/bazel/_bazel_tf/b2f766da603b0bed56d4c1d0b178456a/tensorflow/external/farmhash_archive/farmhash-34c13ddfab0e35422f4c3979f360635a8c050260 /home/tf/.cache/bazel/_bazel_tf/b2f766da603b0bed56d4c1d0b178456a/tensorflow /tmp/tmp.XdCPQefJyZ /home/tf/.cache/bazel/_bazel_tf/b2f766da603b0bed56d4c1d0b178456a/tensorflow/external/farmhash_archive/farmhash-34c13ddfab0e35422f4c3979f360635a8c050260 /home/tf/.cache/bazel/_bazel_tf/b2f766da603b0bed56d4c1d0b178456a/tensorflow

You'll have to edit config.guess as below to insert a stanza for ppc64le

tf@ubuntu16:~/.cache/bazel/_bazel_tf/b2f766da603b0bed56d4c1d0b178456a/external/farmhash_archive/farmhash-34c13ddfab0e35422f4c3979f360635a8c050260$ vi config.guess

    *:BSD/OS:*:*)
        echo ${UNAME_MACHINE}-unknown-bsdi${UNAME_RELEASE}
        exit ;;
+    ppc64le:Linux:*:*)
+      echo powerpc64le-unknown-linux-gnu
+      exit ;;
    *:FreeBSD:*:*)
        case ${UNAME_MACHINE} in

tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ bazel build -c opt --config=cuda //tensorflow/tools/pip_package:build_pip_package
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ bazel-bin/tensorflow/tools/pip_package/build_pip_package /tmp/tensorflow_pkg
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ sudo pip install /tmp/tensorflow_pkg/tensorflow*.whl
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow/bazel-bin/tensorflow/tools/pip_package/build_pip_package.runfi
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ mkdir _python_build
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow$ cd _python_build
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow/_python_build$ ln -s ~/tensorflow/bazel-bin/tensorflow/tools/pip_package/build_pip_package.runfiles/tensorflow/* .
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow/_python_build$ ln -s ~/tensorflow/tools/* .
tf@ubuntu16:~/tensorflow/_python_build$ python  __init__.py develop

Answer 2

Using miniconda:

Installing miniconda:

wget https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux--ppc64le.sh -O miniconda.sh

bash miniconda.sh

Accept the condition and allow conda to be added to PATH

rm miniconda.sh
echo export IBM_POWERAI_LICENSE_ACCEPT=yes >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

This sould add (base) on terminal. Add the correct channel as first priority

conda config --add default_channels https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main
conda config --prepend channels https://public.dhe.ibm.com/ibmdl/export/pub/software/server/ibm-ai/conda/

Create environment (it is good practice not to install packages on base)

conda create -n ai python=3.7
conda activate ai
conda install --strict-channel-priority tensorflow-gpu

For more information on miniconda on IBM Power 8 and Anaconda: IBM Source & Anaconda Source