Training with Fastai, Inference without Fastai

Part 1 (2019)
1

Hi! I’m trying to deploy a .pkl model trained on Fastai 0.7 to do inference on another machine with no Fastai installation. The inference machine only has Torch. In theory, I should be able to just use Torch to open the .pkl model file which I have exported with Fastai’s learn.export(), correct? I’m testing this using the source code of Fastai’s load_learner() with slight modifications as below.

import torch

def load_learner(path, file='export.pkl', test=None, **db_kwargs):
    source = f'{path}/{file}'
    state = torch.load(source)
    model = state.pop('model')
    src = LabelLists.load_state(path, state.pop('data'))
    if test is not None: src.add_test(test)
    data = src.databunch(**db_kwargs)
    cb_state = state.pop('cb_state')
    clas_func = state.pop('cls')
    res = clas_func(data, model, **state)
    res.callback_fns = state['callback_fns'] #to avoid duplicates
    res.callbacks = [load_callback(c,s, res) for c,s in cb_state.items()]
    return res

class default_class:
    def __init__(self):
        self.cmap = 'viridis'
        self.cpus = 2
        self.device = torch.device(type='cuda')
        self.extra_callback_fns = None
        self.extra_callbacks = None
        self.lr = slice(None, 0.003, None)
        self.return_fig = False
        self.silent = False
        self.wd = 0.01

defaults = default_class()

learn = load_learner(path='./', file='export-43975.pkl')

However, even though only Torch is being used, I get an error at state = torch.load(source) (line 5) implying Torch requires Fastai to load the model:

File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/site-packages/torch/serialization.py", line 574, in _load 
result = unpickler.load()
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'fastai'

What could be going on here? Does Fastai’s learn.export() leave some metadata in the .pkl file describing its origin which then confuses Torch?

2

I’ve seen a couple of strategies so far that use different export formats.

One is ONNX (which I’ve used with CoreML to do inference on iOS devices).

The other is TorchScript which is what’s used in the “deploy to AWS Lambda” guide.

1 Like
3

Hello, I’ve also run into this issue with fast.ai 1.0.52. How do you save your model? I save mine with
torch.save(learner.model, PATH)

Here you can find an overview of how to save/load models in pytorch: https://pytorch.org/tutorials/beginner/saving_loading_models.html

One of the ways of loading models is torch.load, which you also use. The example code for torch.load is the following:

# Model class must be defined somewhere
model = torch.load(PATH)
model.eval()

As you can see, the model class has to be defined somewhere in your code. If you’re using a standard model from the fast.ai library, I believe torch.load tries to load the fast.ai library in order to get the model class.

1 Like
4

Thanks @Tzeny. Is there a convenient way to export the model class so that it matches the original model architecture and allows me to use the model which is saved with torch.save(learner.model.state_dict(), PATH)?

When calling print(learner.model) on the training machine it gives me the fast.ai model architecture below. I guess I could manually rewrite it into the inference machine but this could get very tedious whenever changes are made.

print(learner.model)

Sequential(
(0): Sequential(
(0): Conv2d(3, 64, kernel_size=(7, 7), stride=(2, 2), padding=(3, 3), bias=False)
(1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(2): ReLU(inplace)
(3): MaxPool2d(kernel_size=3, stride=2, padding=1, dilation=1, ceil_mode=False)
(4): Sequential(
(0): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
(1): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
(2): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
)
(5): Sequential(
(0): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(64, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(2, 2), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(downsample): Sequential(
(0): Conv2d(64, 128, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(2, 2), bias=False)
(1): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
)
(1): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
(2): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
(3): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
)
(6): Sequential(
(0): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(128, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(2, 2), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(downsample): Sequential(
(0): Conv2d(128, 256, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(2, 2), bias=False)
(1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
)
(1): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
(2): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
(3): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
(4): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
(5): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
)
(7): Sequential(
(0): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(256, 512, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(2, 2), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(512, 512, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(downsample): Sequential(
(0): Conv2d(256, 512, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(2, 2), bias=False)
(1): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
)
(1): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(512, 512, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(512, 512, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
(2): BasicBlock(
(conv1): Conv2d(512, 512, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn1): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(relu): ReLU(inplace)
(conv2): Conv2d(512, 512, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
(bn2): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
)
)
)
(1): Sequential(
(0): AdaptiveConcatPool2d(
(ap): AdaptiveAvgPool2d(output_size=1)
(mp): AdaptiveMaxPool2d(output_size=1)
)
(1): Flatten()
(2): BatchNorm1d(1024, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(3): Dropout(p=0.25)
(4): Linear(in_features=1024, out_features=512, bias=True)
(5): ReLU(inplace)
(6): BatchNorm1d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
(7): Dropout(p=0.5)
(8): Linear(in_features=512, out_features=2, bias=True)
)
)

5

Also thanks @yeldarb, I’ll look into TorchScript though it looks a bit more complex.

6

You could put everything inside a Docker container, in which you would also need to install the same version of fast ai that you used on your training machine.

There may be smarted ways of doing it though, but I am unfamiliar with them.

1 Like
7

Thanks, a Docker container might be a secure solution for now. The best solution of course would be to just install fast.ai in the inference machines but I’m not yet sure if that’ll be possible.