Getting started with XGBoost

WML CE includes XGBoost 0.90 and Dask-XGBoost 0.1.9.

Overview

XGBoost
XGBoost is an optimized distributed gradient boosting library designed to be highly efficient, flexible, and portable. It implements machine learning algorithms under the Gradient Boosting framework. XGBoost is available on both x86 and IBM® Power®.

Tutorials and examples are available from the community on the XGBoost Documentation page.

Dask-XGBoost
Dask-XGBoost enables you to perform distributed training with XGBoost on Dask.array and Dask.dataframe collections. Dask-XGBoost is available only on IBM Power.

Tutorials and examples are available from the community on the dask-xgboost github page.

Getting started with XGBoost

To install XGBoost, run the appropriate command:
  • GPU variant and dependencies: 
    conda install py-xgboost-gpu
  • CPU variant and dependencies:
    conda install py-xgboost-cpu

The following XGBoost related conda packages are included with WML CE:

Table 1. XGBoost related conda packages included with WML CE
Name Description Installed with powerai Installed with py-xgboost-gpu Installed with powerai-cpu Installed with py-xgboost-cpu
py-xgboost-gpu XGboost GPU Meta package ✓ ✓
py-xgboost-cpu XGboost CPU Meta package     ✓ ✓
libxgboost-base XGBoost C++ library ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
py-xgboost-base XGBoost Python library ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
_py-xgboost-mutex CPU/GPU selector metapackage ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Getting started with Dask-XGBoost

Dask-XGBoost is provided in the dask-xgboost conda package, which is compatible with both the CPU and GPU variants of XGBoost.

To install dask-xgboost, run the appropriate command:
  • dask-xgboost and the GPU variant of xgboost: 
    conda install py-xgboost-gpu dask-xgboost
  • dask-xgboost and the CPU variant of xgboost: 
    conda install py-xgboost-cpu dask-xgboost

Known issue: In a conda environment where the CPU or GPU XGBoost variant is already installed, there is a known conda issue with installing the other XGBoost variant. This issue can be avoided by uninstalling the existing variant before installing the desired XGBoost variant.

Note: Dask-XGBoost is a technology preview.