Will a persisted-dataframe be calculated repeatedly many times? - apache-spark

I've got the following structured query:
val A = 'load somedata from HDFS'.persist(StorageLevel.MEMORY_AND_DISK_SER)
val B = A.filter('condition 1')
val C = A.filter('condition 2')
val D = A.filter('condition 3')
val E = A.filter('condition 4')
val F = A.filter('condition 5')
val G = A.filter('condition 6')
val H = A.filter('condition 7')
val I = B.union(C).union(D).union(E).union(F).union(G).union(H)
I persist the dataframe A, so that when I use B/C/D/E/F/G/H, the A dataframe should be calculated only once? But the DAG of this job is below:
From the DAG above, it seems that stage 6-12 are all executed and the dataframe A is calculated 7 times?
Why would this happen?
Maybe the DAG is just fake? I found that there are not lines on the top of stage 7-12 where stage 6 does have two lines from other stage
I didn't list all the operations. After union operation, I save the I dataframe to HDFS. Will this action on the I dataframe make the persist operation be done really? Or must I do an action operation such as count on the A dataframe to trigger the persist operation before reuse A dataframe?

Doing the following line won't persist your dataset.
val A = 'load somedata from HDFS'.persist(StorageLevel.MEMORY_AND_DISK_SER)
Caching/persistence is lazy when used with Dataset API so you have to trigger the caching using count operator or similar that in turn submits a Spark job.
After that all the following operators, filter including, should use InMemoryTableScan with the green dot in the plan (as shown below).
In your case even after union the dataset I is not cached since you have not triggered the caching (but merely marked it for caching).
After union operation, I save the I dataframe to HDFS. Will this action on the I dataframe make the persist operation be done really?
Yes. Only actions (like saving to an external storage) can trigger the persistence for future reuse.
Or must I do an action operation such as count on the A dataframe to trigger the persist operation before reuse A dataframe?
That's the point! In your case, since you want to reuse A dataframe across filter operators you should persist it first, count (to trigger the caching) followed by filters.
In your case, no filter will benefit from any performance increase due to persist. That persist is practically void of any impact on the performance and just makes a code reviewer think it's otherwise.
If you want to see when and if your dataset is cached, you can check out Storage tab in web UI or ask CacheManager about it.
val nums = spark.range(5).cache
nums.count
scala> spark.sharedState.cacheManager.lookupCachedData(nums)
res0: Option[org.apache.spark.sql.execution.CachedData] =
Some(CachedData(Range (0, 5, step=1, splits=Some(8))
,InMemoryRelation [id#0L], true, 10000, StorageLevel(disk, memory, deserialized, 1 replicas)
+- *Range (0, 5, step=1, splits=8)
))

Related

How to join efficiently 2 Spark dataframes partitioned by some column, when that column is one of multiple join keys?

I am currently facing some issues in Spark 3.0.2 to efficiently join 2 Spark dataframes when
The 2 Spark DataFrames are partitioned by some key id;
id is part of the join key, but it is not the only one.
My intuition is telling me that the query optimizer is, in this case, not choosing the optimal path. I will illustrate my issue through a minimal example (note that this particular example does not really require a join, it's just for illustrative purposes).
Let's start from the simple case: the 2 dataframes are partitioned by id, and we join by id only:
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession, Row, Window
import pyspark.sql.functions as F
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
# Make up some test dataframe
df = spark.createDataFrame([Row(id=i // 10, order=i % 10, value=i) for i in range(10000)])
# Create the left side of the join (repartitioned by id)
df2 = df.repartition(50, 'id')
# Create the right side of the join (also repartitioned by id)
df3 = df2.select('id', F.col('order').alias('order_alias'), F.lit(0).alias('dummy'))
# Perform the join
joined_df = df2.join(df3, on='id')
joined_df.foreach(lambda x: None)
This results in the following efficient plan:
This plan is efficient: it recognizes that the 2 dataframes are already partitioned by the join key and avoids to re-shuffle them. The 2 dataframes are not only repartitioned, but also colocated.
What happens if there is an additional join key? It results in an inefficient plan:
joined_df = df2.join(df3, on=[df2.id==df3.id, df2.order==df3.order_alias])
joined_df.foreach(lambda x: None)
The plan is inefficient since it is repartitioning the 2 dataframes to do the join. This does not make sense to me. Intuitively, we could use the existing partitions: all keys to be joined will be found in the same partition as before, there is just one additional condition to apply! So I thought: perhaps we could phrase the 2nd condition as a filter?
joined_df.foreach(lambda x: None)
joined_df = df2.join(df3, on='id')
joined_df_filtered = joined_df.filter(df2.order==df3.order_alias)
This however results in the same inefficient plan, since Spark query optimizer will just merge the 2nd filter with the join.
So, I finally thought that maybe I could force Spark to process the join as I want by adding a dummy cache step, by trying the following:
from pyspark import StorageLevel
joined_df = df2.join(df3, on='id')
# Note that this storage level will not cache anything, it's just to suggest to Spark that I need this intermediate result
joined_df.persist(StorageLevel(False, False, False, False))
# Do the filtering after "persisting" the join
joined_df_filtered = joined_df.filter(df2.order==df3.order_alias)
joined_df_filtered.foreach(lambda x: None)
This results in an efficient plan! It is in fact much faster than the previous ones.
The workaround of "persisting" the first join to force Spark to use a more efficient processing plan is "good enough" for my use case, but I still have a few questions:
Am I missing something in my intuition that Spark should actually be reusing partitions when the partition key is part of the join key, instead of re-shuffling?
Is this expected behavior of the query optimizer? Should a ticket be filed for it?
Is there a better way to force the desired processing plan than adding the "persist" step? It seems more like an indirect workaround than a direct solution.

Caching in spark before diverging the flow

I have a basic question regarding working with Spark DataFrame.
Consider the following piece of pseudo code:
val df1 = // Lazy Read from csv and create dataframe
val df2 = // Filter df1 on some condition
val df3 = // Group by on df2 on certain columns
val df4 = // Join df3 with some other df
val subdf1 = // All records from df4 where id < 0
val subdf2 = // All records from df4 where id > 0
* Then some more operations on subdf1 and subdf2 which won't trigger spark evaluation yet*
// Write out subdf1
// Write out subdf2
Suppose I start of with main dataframe df1(which I lazy read from the CSV), do some operations on this dataframe (filter, groupby, join) and then comes a point where I split this datframe based on a condition (for eg, id > 0 and id < 0). Then I further proceed to operate on these sub dataframes(let us name these subdf1, subdf2) and ultimately write out both the sub dataframes.
Notice that the write function is the only command that triggers the spark evaluation and rest of the functions(filter, groupby, join) result in lazy evaluations.
Now when I write out subdf1, I am clear that lazy evaluation kicks in and all the statements are evaluated starting from reading of CSV to create df1.
My question comes when we start writing out subdf2. Does spark understand the divergence in code at df4 and store this dataframe when command for writing out subdf1 was encountered? Or will it again start from the first line of creating df1 and re-evaluate all the intermediary dataframes?
If so, is it a good idea to cache the dataframe df4(Assuming I have sufficient memory)?
I'm using scala spark if that matters.
Any help would be appreciated.
No, Spark cannot infer that from your code. It will start all over again. To confirm this, you can do subdf1.explain() and subdf2.explain() and you should see that both dataframes have query plans that start right from the beginning where df1 was read.
So you're right that you should cache df4 to avoid redoing all the computations starting from df1, if you have enough memory. And of course, remember to unpersist by doing df4.unpersist() at the end if you no longer need df4 for any further computations.

How to avoid excessive dataframe query

Consider there is spark job has multiple dataframe transitions
val baseDF1 = spark.sql(s"select * from db.table1 where condition1='blah'")
val baseDF2 = spark.sql(s"select * from db.table2 where condition2='blah'")
val df3 = basedDF1.join(baseDF12, basedDF1("col1") <=> basedDF1("col2"))
val df4 = df3.withcolumn("col3").withColumnRename("col4", "newcol4")
val df5 = df4.groupBy("groupbycol").agg(expr("coalesce(first(col5, false))"))
val df6 = df5.withColumn("level1", col("coalesce(first(col5, false))")(0))
.withColumn("level2", col("coalesce(first(col5, false))")(1))
.withColumn("level3", col("coalesce(first(col5, false))")(2))
.withColumn("level4", col("coalesce(first(col5, false))")(3))
.withColumn("level5", col("coalesce(first(col5, false))")(4))
.drop("coalesce(first(col5, false))")
I just wondering how Spark generate the spark SQL logic, is it going to generate the query-like transaction for each data frame, i.e
df1 = select * ....
df2 = select * ....
df3 = df1.join.df2 // spark takes content from df1/df2 instead run each query again for joining
....
df6 = ...
or generate large query by the end of the last dataframe
df6 = select coalesce(first(col5, false)).. from ((select * from table1) join (select * from table2 ) on blah ) group by blah 2...
All I trying to figure out, is how to avoid Spark generate huge query-like logic instead I can let Spark "Commit" somewhere to avoid huge long transaction
the reason behind the inquiry is because current spark job threw following exception
19/12/17 10:57:55 ERROR CodeGenerator: failed to compile: org.codehaus.commons.compiler.CompileException: File 'generated.java', Line 567, Column 28: Redefinition of parameter "agg_expr_21"
Spark has two operations - transformation and action.
Transformation happens when a DF is being built using various operations like - select, join, filter etc. It is read to be executed but has not done any work yet, it is being lazy. These transformations can be composed to make new transformation which you do while operating on predefined dataframes, like basedDF1.join(baseDF12, basedDF1("col1") <=> basedDF1("col2")). But again nothing has run.
Action happens when certain operations are called like save, collect, show etc. This is when real work happens. Here each and every 'transformation' that was defined before with be either executed or retrieved from cache. You can save a lot of work for Spark if you can cache some of the complex steps. This can also simplify the plan.
val baseDF1 = spark.sql(s"select * from db.table1 where condition1='blah'")
val baseDF2 = spark.sql(s"select * from db.table2 where condition2='blah'")
baseDF1.cache()
baseDF2.cache()
val df3 = basedDF1.join(baseDF12, basedDF1("col1") <=> basedDF1("col2"))
val df4 = baseDF1.join(baseDF12, basedDF1("col2") === basedDF1("col3"))// different join
When df4 is executed after df3, it won't be selecting from db.table1 and db.table2 but rather reading baseDF1 and baseDF2 from cache. The plan will look simpler too.
if some reason cache is gone then Spark will recompute baseDF1 and baseDF2 as they were defined, so it knows its lineage but didn't execute it.
You can also use checkpoint to break up the lineage of overall execution, hence simplify it. I think this can help your case.
I have also saved intermediate dataframe to a temporary file and read It back as a dataframe and use it down the line. This breaks up the complexity at the cost of extra io. I won’t recommend it unless other methods didn’t work.
I am not sure about the error you are getting.

In Spark, caching a DataFrame influences execution time of previous stages?

I am running a Spark (2.0.1) job with multiple stages. I noticed that when I insert a cache() in one of later stages it changes the execution time of earlier stages. Why? I've never encountered such a case in literature when reading about caching().
Here is my DAG with cache():
And here is my DAG without cache(). All remaining code is the same.
I have a cache() after a sort merge join in Stage10. If the cache() is used in Stage10 then Stage8 is nearly twice longer (20 min vs 11 min) then if there were no cache() in Stage10. Why?
My Stage8 contains two broadcast joins with small DataFrames and a shuffle on a large DataFrame in preparation for the merge join. Stages8 and 9 are independent and operate on two different DataFrames.
Let me know if you need more details to answer this question.
UPDATE 8/2/1018
Here are the details of my Spark script:
I am running my job on a cluster via spark-submit. Here is my spark session.
val spark = SparkSession.builder
.appName("myJob")
.config("spark.executor.cores", 5)
.config("spark.driver.memory", "300g")
.config("spark.executor.memory", "15g")
.getOrCreate()
This creates a job with 21 executors with 5 cpu each.
Load 4 DataFrames from parquet files:
val dfT = spark.read.format("parquet").load(filePath1) // 3 Tb in 3185 partitions
val dfO = spark.read.format("parquet").load(filePath2) // ~ 700 Mb
val dfF = spark.read.format("parquet").load(filePath3) // ~ 800 Mb
val dfP = spark.read.format("parquet").load(filePath4) // 38 Gb
Preprocessing on each of the DataFrames is composed of column selection and dropDuplicates and possible filter like this:
val dfT1 = dfT.filter(...)
val dfO1 = dfO.select(columnsToSelect2).dropDuplicates(Array("someColumn2"))
val dfF1 = dfF.select(columnsToSelect3).dropDuplicates(Array("someColumn3"))
val dfP1 = dfP.select(columnsToSelect4).dropDuplicates(Array("someColumn4"))
Then I left-broadcast-join together first three DataFrames:
val dfTO = dfT1.join(broadcast(dfO1), Seq("someColumn5"), "left_outer")
val dfTOF = dfTO.join(broadcast(dfF1), Seq("someColumn6"), "left_outer")
Since the dfP1 is large I need to do a merge join, I can't afford it to do it now. I need to limit the size of dfTOF first. To do that I add a new timestamp column which is a withColumn with a UDF which transforms a string into a timestamp
val dfTOF1 = dfTOF.withColumn("TransactionTimestamp", myStringToTimestampUDF)
Next I filter on a new timestamp column:
val dfTrain = dfTOF1.filter(dfTOF1("TransactionTimestamp").between("2016-01-01 00:00:00+000", "2016-05-30 00:00:00+000"))
Now I am joining the last DataFrame:
val dfTrain2 = dfTrain.join(dfP1, Seq("someColumn7"), "left_outer")
And lastly the column selection with a cache() that is puzzling me.
val dfTrain3 = dfTrain.select("columnsToSelect5").cache()
dfTrain3.agg(sum(col("someColumn7"))).show()
It looks like the cache() is useless here but there will be some further processing and modelling of the DataFrame and the cache() will be necessary.
Should I give more details? Would you like to see execution plan for dfTrain3?

How to distribute dataset evenly to avoid a skewed join (and long-running tasks)?

I am writing application using Spark dataset API on databricks notebook.
I have 2 tables. One is 1.5billion rows and second 2.5 million. Both tables contain telecommunication data and join is done using country code and first 5 digits of a number. Output has 55 billion rows. Problem is I have skewed data(long running tasks). No matter how i repartition dataset I get long running tasks because of uneven distribution of hashed keys.
I tried using broadcast joins, tried persisting big table partitions in memory etc.....
What are my options here?
spark will repartition the data based on the join key, so repartitioning before the join won't change the skew (only add an unnecessary shuffle)
if you know the key that is causing the skew (usually it will be some thing like null or 0 or ""), split your data into to 2 parts - 1 dataset with the skew key, and another with the rest
and do the join on the sub datasets, and union the results
for example:
val df1 = ...
val df2 = ...
val skewKey = null
val df1Skew = df1.where($"key" === skewKey)
val df2Skew = df2.where($"key" === skewKey)
val df1NonSkew = df1.where($"key" =!= skewKey)
val df2NonSkew = df2.where($"key" =!= skewKey)
val dfSkew = df1Skew.join(df2Skew) //this is a cross join
val dfNonSkew = df1NonSkew.join(df2NonSkew, "key")
val res = dfSkew.union(dfNonSkew)

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