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linuxonz edited this page Mar 5, 2025 · 46 revisions

Building TensorFlow

The instructions provided below specify the steps to build TensorFlow version 2.18.0 on Linux on IBM Z for the following distributions:

  • Ubuntu (20.04, 22.04, 24.04)

General Notes:

  • When following the steps below please use a standard permission user unless otherwise specified.
  • A directory /<source_root>/ will be referred to in these instructions, this is a temporary writable directory anywhere you'd like to place it.

1. Build using script

If you want to build TensorFlow using manual steps, go to STEP 2.

Use the following commands to build TensorFlow using the build script. Please make sure you have wget installed.

wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linux-on-ibm-z/scripts/master/Tensorflow/2.18.0/build_tensorflow.sh

# Build Tensorflow
bash build_tensorflow.sh [Provide -t option for executing build with tests, -p option for choosing the Python version from {3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12}, if not specified, the script will use the default Python version as 3.11]

If the build completes successfully, go to STEP 4. In case of error, check logs for more details or go to STEP 2 to follow manual build steps.

2. Install the dependencies

export SOURCE_ROOT=/<source_root>/
export NUMPY_VERSION="2.0.2"
  • Only when choosing Python version 3.9 
    PYTHON_V=3.9
PY_VERSION=3.9.7
  • Only when choosing Python version 3.10 
    PYTHON_V=3.10
PY_VERSION=3.10.6
  • Only when choosing Python version 3.11 
    PYTHON_V=3.11
PY_VERSION=3.11.4
  • Only when choosing Python version 3.12 
    PYTHON_V=3.12
PY_VERSION=3.12.0

2.1. Install Basic Dependencies

  • Ubuntu 20.04

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y wget git unzip zip openjdk-11-jdk pkg-config libhdf5-dev libssl-dev libblas-dev liblapack-dev gfortran curl patchelf gcc-10 g++-10 libopenblas-dev libatlas-base-dev libapr1-dev

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-10 60
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-10 60
sudo ldconfig

  • Ubuntu (22.04, 24.04)

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y wget git unzip zip openjdk-11-jdk pkg-config libhdf5-dev libssl-dev libblas-dev liblapack-dev gfortran curl patchelf gcc g++ libopenblas-dev libatlas-base-dev libapr1-dev
sudo ldconfig

2.2. Install Clang

cd $SOURCE_ROOT
sudo apt-get install -y lsb-release software-properties-common gnupg
wget https://apt.llvm.org/llvm.sh
chmod +x llvm.sh
sudo ./llvm.sh 18

sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/clang-18 /usr/bin/clang
sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/clang++-18 /usr/bin/clang++

2.3. Install Bazel

cd $SOURCE_ROOT
wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linux-on-ibm-z/scripts/master/Bazel/6.4.0/build_bazel.sh
sed -i 's/6.4.0/6.5.0/g' build_bazel.sh
sed -i 's#Bazel/${PACKAGE_VERSION}/patch#Bazel/6.4.0/patch#g' build_bazel.sh
sed -i 's/apt-get install/DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install/g' build_bazel.sh
sed -i 's/23.10/24.04/g' build_bazel.sh
sed -i 's/git clone https:\/\/github.com\/bazelbuild\/bazel.git/git clone -b $PACKAGE_VERSION --depth 1 https:\/\/github.com\/bazelbuild\/bazel.git/g' build_bazel.sh
sed -i '170d' build_bazel.sh
bash build_bazel.sh -y
sudo cp $SOURCE_ROOT/bazel/output/bazel /usr/local/bin/bazel

2.4. Install Python

cd $SOURCE_ROOT
if [[ ! -z "$PYTHON_V" ]]; then
	PYTHON_V=3.11
	PY_VERSION=3.11.4
fi
wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linux-on-ibm-z/scripts/master/Python3/$PY_VERSION/build_python3.sh
sed -i 's/apt-get install/DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install/g' build_python3.sh
sed -i 's/ubuntu-20.04/ubuntu-22.04/g' build_python3.sh    # For Ubuntu 22.04 with Python version 3.9
sed -i 's/ubuntu-20.04/ubuntu-24.04/g' build_python3.sh    # For Ubuntu 24.04 only
bash build_python3.sh -y
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/local/bin/python python /usr/local/bin/python3 40  
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/local/bin/pip3 pip3 /usr/local/bin/pip${PYTHON_V} 50

Install additional python packages

pip3 install wheel==0.41.3 setuptools==70.0.0 numpy==$NUMPY_VERSION ml-dtypes==0.4.1 h5py==3.11.0 scipy==1.13.1

2.5. Build ICU data in big-endian format

cd $SOURCE_ROOT
export ICU_MAJOR_VERSION="69"
export ICU_RELEASE="release-${ICU_MAJOR_VERSION}-1"
git clone --depth 1 --single-branch --branch "$ICU_RELEASE" https://github.com/unicode-org/icu.git
cd icu/icu4c/source/
# create ./filters.json
cat << 'EOF' > filters.json
{
  "localeFilter": {
    "filterType": "language",
    "includelist": [
      "en"
    ]
  }
}
EOF
ICU_DATA_FILTER_FILE=filters.json ./runConfigureICU Linux
make clean && make
# Workaround makefile issue where not all of the resource files may have been processed
find data/out/build/ -name '*pool.res' -print0 | xargs -0 touch
make
cd data/out/tmp
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=../../../lib ../../../bin/genccode "icudt${ICU_MAJOR_VERSION}b.dat"
echo "U_CAPI const void * U_EXPORT2 uprv_getICUData_conversion() { return icudt${ICU_MAJOR_VERSION}b_dat.bytes; }" >> "icudt${ICU_MAJOR_VERSION}b_dat.c"
cp icudt${ICU_MAJOR_VERSION}b_dat.c icu_conversion_data_big_endian.c
gzip icu_conversion_data_big_endian.c
split -a 3 -b 100000 icu_conversion_data_big_endian.c.gz icu_conversion_data_big_endian.c.gz.

2.6. Install grpcio

```shell
cd $SOURCE_ROOT
export GRPC_PYTHON_BUILD_SYSTEM_OPENSSL=True
pip3 install grpcio==1.64.1
```

3. Build and Install

3.1. Build tensorflow_io_gcs_filesystem wheel

cd $SOURCE_ROOT
git clone -b v0.37.1 --depth 1 https://github.com/tensorflow/io.git
cd io/
python3 setup.py -q bdist_wheel --project tensorflow_io_gcs_filesystem
cd dist
pip3 install ./tensorflow_io_gcs_filesystem-0.37.1-cp*-cp*-linux_s390x.whl

3.2. Build TensorFlow

  • Download source code

    cd $SOURCE_ROOT
git clone -b v2.18.0 --depth 1 https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow
cd tensorflow

  • Apply patches

    rm -rf third_party/tf_runtime/BUILD
curl -o tf_v2.18.0.patch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linux-on-ibm-z/scripts/master/Tensorflow/2.18.0/patch/tf_v2.18.0.patch
patch -p1 < tf_v2.18.0.patch
rm -f tf_v2.18.0.patch

  • Copy the big-endian version of ICU data

    cp ${SOURCE_ROOT}/icu/icu4c/source/data/out/tmp/icu_conversion_data_big_endian.c.gz.* third_party/icu/data/

  • Configure

    export TF_NEED_CLANG=1
export TF_NEED_OPENCL_SYCL=0
export TF_NEED_CUDA=0
export TF_NEED_MKL=0
export TF_PYTHON_VERSION=$PYTHON_V
export PYTHON_VERSION=$PY_VERSION
yes "" | ./configure || true

  • Build TensorFlow

     TF_SYSTEM_LIBS=boringssl bazel build --copt=-Wno-gnu-offsetof-extensions --define tflite_with_xnnpack=false //tensorflow/tools/pip_package:wheel --repo_env=WHEEL_NAME=tensorflow

Notes:

  • TensorFlow build is resource intensive operation. If build continues to fail try increasing the swap space and reduce the number of concurrent jobs by specifying --jobs=n in the build command above, where n is the number of concurrent jobs.

  • Building TensorFlow from source can use a lot of RAM. If your system is memory-constrained, limit Bazel's RAM usage with: --local_ram_resources=2048.

3.3. Install TensorFlow wheel

cd $SOURCE_ROOT/tensorflow
pip3 install bazel-bin/tensorflow/tools/pip_package/wheel_house/tensorflow-2.18.0-cp*-cp*-linux_s390x.whl

4. Verify TensorFlow (Optional)

Run TensorFlow from command Line and check the installed version

$ cd $SOURCE_ROOT
$ python -c "import tensorflow as tf; print(tf.__version__)"
2.18.0

$ python
>>> import tensorflow as tf
>>> tf.add(1, 2).numpy()
3
>>> hello = tf.constant('Hello, TensorFlow!')
>>> hello.numpy()
b'Hello, TensorFlow!'
>>>

5. Execute Test Suite (Optional)

  • Run complete testsuite

    cd $SOURCE_ROOT/tensorflow
TF_SYSTEM_LIBS=boringssl bazel test --copt=-Wno-gnu-offsetof-extensions --define tflite_with_xnnpack=false --test_size_filters=small,medium --build_tests_only --keep_going --test_output=errors --verbose_failures=true --local_test_jobs=HOST_CPUS --test_env=LD_LIBRARY_PATH --test_tag_filters=-no_oss,-oss_excluded,-oss_serial,-gpu,-tpu,-benchmark-test,-v1only --build_tag_filters=-no_oss,-oss_excluded,-oss_serial,-gpu,-tpu,-benchmark-test,-v1only --test_lang_filters=cc,py -- //tensorflow/... -//tensorflow/compiler/tf2tensorrt/... -//tensorflow/core/tpu/... -//tensorflow/lite/... -//tensorflow/tools/toolchains/...

  • Run individual test

    TF_SYSTEM_LIBS=boringssl bazel test --copt=-Wno-gnu-offsetof-extensions --define tflite_with_xnnpack=false //tensorflow/<module_name>:<testcase_name>

    For example,

    TF_SYSTEM_LIBS=boringssl bazel test --copt=-Wno-gnu-offsetof-extensions --define tflite_with_xnnpack=false //tensorflow/core/kernels:shape_ops_test

Note:

  • Below test cases will fail as it uses test data generated in LE format. 
    //tensorflow/cc/saved_model:fingerprinting_chunked_test 
//tensorflow/cc/saved_model:fingerprinting_utils_test 
//tensorflow/tools/proto_splitter:merge_test   
//tensorflow/tools/proto_splitter/cc:util_test
//tensorflow/python/kernel_tests/random:stateless_random_ops_test_cpu

6. Model Training Verification (Optional)

Follow the instructions provided here to verify TensorFlow v2.18.0.

References:

The information provided in this article is accurate at the time of writing, but on-going development in the open-source projects involved may make the information incorrect or obsolete. Please open issue or contact us on IBM Z Community if you have any questions or feedback.

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