Current state: "Rejected"

ISSUE: #7210

PRs: 

Keywords: arrow/column-based/row-based

Released: Milvus 2.0

Summary

Milvus 2.0 is a cloud-native and multi-language vector database, we use gRPC and pulsar to communicate among SDK and components.

In consideration of the data size, especially when inserting and search result returning, Milvus takes a lot of CPU cycles to do serialization and deserialization.

In this enhancement proposal, we suggest to adopt Apache Arrow as Milvus in-memory data format. Since in the field of big data, Apache Arrow has been a

factor standard for in-memory analytics. It specifies a standardized language-independent columnar memory format.

Motivation(required)

From a data perspective, Milvus mainly includes 2 data flows:

  1. Insert data flow
  2. Search data flow

Insert Data Flow

BLUE - Column-based data structure

ORANGE - Row-based data structure

RED DASHED LINE - Data format conversion


Insert data flow includes following steps:

  1.  pymilvus creates a data insert request with type milvuspb.InsertRequest (client/prepare.py::bulk_insert_param)

    // grpc-proto/milvus.proto
    message InsertRequest {
      common.MsgBase base = 1;
      string db_name = 2;
      string collection_name = 3;
      string partition_name = 4;
      repeated schema.FieldData fields_data = 5;	// fields' data
      repeated uint32 hash_keys = 6;
      uint32 num_rows = 7;
    }

    Data is inserted into fields_data by column, schemapb.FieldData is defined as following:

    // grpc-proto/schema.proto
    message ScalarField {
      oneof data {
        BoolArray bool_data = 1;
        IntArray int_data = 2;
        LongArray long_data = 3;
        FloatArray float_data = 4;
        DoubleArray double_data = 5;
        StringArray string_data = 6;
        BytesArray bytes_data = 7;
      }
    }
    ​
    message VectorField {
      int64 dim = 1;
      oneof data {
        FloatArray float_vector = 2;
        bytes binary_vector = 3;
      }
    }
    ​
    message FieldData {
      DataType type = 1;
      string field_name = 2;
      oneof field {
        ScalarField scalars = 3;
        VectorField vectors = 4;
      }
      int64 field_id = 5;
    }


  2.  milvuspb.InsertRequest is serialized and send via gRPC

  3.  Proxy receives milvuspb.InsertRequest, creates InsertTask for it, and adds this task into execution queue (internal/proxy/impl.go::Insert)

  4.  InsertTask is executed, the column-based data stored in InsertTask.req is converted to row-based format, and saved into another internal message with type internalpb.InsertRequest (internal/proxy/task.go::transferColumnBasedRequestToRowBasedData)

    // internal/proto/internal.proto
    message InsertRequest {
      common.MsgBase base = 1;
      string db_name = 2;
      string collection_name = 3;
      string partition_name = 4;
      int64 dbID = 5;
      int64 collectionID = 6;
      int64 partitionID = 7;
      int64 segmentID = 8;
      string channelID = 9;
      repeated uint64 timestamps = 10;
      repeated int64 rowIDs = 11;
      repeated common.Blob row_data = 12;  // row-based data
    }

     rowID and timestamp are added for each row data

  5.  Proxy encapsulates internalpb.InsertRequest into InsertMsg, and send it to pulsar channel

  6.  Datanode receives InsertMsg from pulsar channel, restore data to column-based into structure InsertData (internal/datanode/flow_graph_insert_buffer_node.go::insertBufferNode::Operate)

    type InsertData struct {
        Data  map[FieldID]FieldData // field id to field data
        Infos []BlobInfo
    }


  7.  InsertData is written into Minio with parquet format (internal/datanode/flow_graph_insert_buffer_node.go::flushSegment)

Search Data Flow

BLUE - Column-based data structure

ORANGE - Row-based data structure

RED DASHED LINE - Data format conversion 


Search data flow includes following steps:

  1. querynode reads segment's binlog files from Minio, and saves them into structure Blob (internal/querynode/segment_loader.go::loadSegmentFieldsData)

    type Blob struct {
        Key   string    // binlog file path
        Value []byte    // binlog file data
    }

    The data in Blob is deserialized, raw-data in it is saved into structure InsertData

  2.  querynode invokes search engine to get SearchResult (internal/query_node/query_collection.go::search)

    // internal/core/src/common/Types.h
    struct SearchResult {
     ...
     public:
        int64_t num_queries_;
        int64_t topk_;
        std::vector<float> result_distances_;
    ​
     public:
        void* segment_;
        std::vector<int64_t> internal_seg_offsets_;
        std::vector<int64_t> result_offsets_;
        std::vector<std::vector<char>> row_data_;
    };


    At this time, only "result_distances_" and "internal_seg_offsets_" of "SearchResult" are filled into data.

    querynode reduces all SearchResult returned by segment, fetches all other fields' data, and saves them into "row_data_" with row-based format. (internal/query_node/query_collection.go::reduceSearchResultsAndFillData)

  3. querynode organizes SearchResult again, and save them into structure milvus.Hits

    // internal/proto/milvus.proto
    message Hits {
      repeated int64 IDs = 1;
      repeated bytes row_data = 2;
      repeated float scores = 3;
    }


  4.  Row-based data saved in milvus.Hits is converted to column-based data, and saved into schemapb.SearchResultData (internal/query_node/query_collection.go::translateHits)

    // internal/proto/schema.proto
    message SearchResultData {
      int64 num_queries = 1;
      int64 top_k = 2;
      repeated FieldData fields_data = 3;
      repeated float scores = 4;
      IDs ids = 5;
      repeated int64 topks = 6;
    }


  5.  schemapb.SearchResultData is serialized, encapsulated as internalpb.SearchResults, saved into SearchResultMsg, and send into pulsar channel (internal/query_node/query_collection.go::search)

    // internal/proto/internal.proto
    message SearchResults {
      common.MsgBase base = 1;
      common.Status status = 2;
      string result_channelID = 3;
      string metric_type = 4;
      repeated bytes hits = 5;  // search result data
    ​
      // schema.SearchResultsData inside
      bytes sliced_blob = 9;
      int64 sliced_num_count = 10;
      int64 sliced_offset = 11;
    ​
      repeated int64 sealed_segmentIDs_searched = 6;
      repeated string channelIDs_searched = 7;
      repeated int64 global_sealed_segmentIDs = 8;
    }


  6.  Proxy collects all SearchResultMsg from querynodes, gets schemapb.SearchResultData by deserialization, then gets milvuspb.SearchResults by reducing, finally send back to SDK visa gRPC. (internal/proxy/task.go::SearchTask::PostExecute)

    // internal/proto/milvus.proto
    message SearchResults {
      common.Status status = 1;
      schema.SearchResultData results = 2;
    }


  7.  SDK receives milvuspb.SearchResult


In above 2 data flows, we can see frequent format conversion between column-based data and row-based data (marked as RED dashed line).

If we use Arrow as all in-memory data format, we can:

Proposal Benefit Analysis (optional)

Arrow memory usage, test following 3 scenarios used in Milvus:

Data TypeRaw Data Size (Byte)Array Array Buffer Size (Byte)
int648000080000
FixedSizeList (float32, dim = 128)51200005160064
string (len = 512)51200005160064

For Scalar data, Arrow Array uses memory as same as raw data;

for vector data or string, Arrow Array uses few more memory than raw data (about 4 bytes for each row).


Give an example to illustrate the problems we will encounter if using Arrow.

During insert, after Proxy receives data, it will encapsulate the data into InsertMsg by line, and then send it to Datanode through Pulsar.

Splitting by line is based on two reasons:

  1. Each collection has two or more physical channels. Data insertion performance can be improved by inserting multiple channels at the same time.
  2. Pulsar limits the size of each InsertMsg

We tried 4 solutions, each has its own problems:

After the Proxy receives the inserted data, it only creates one Arrow RecordBatch, encapsulates the data into InsertMsg by line, and then sends it to Datanode through Pulsar.

PROBLEMThere is no interface to read data item by item from Arrow RecordBatch. RecordBatch has a NewSlice interface, but the return value of NewSlice cannot do anything except print.

After the Proxy receives the inserted data, it creates multiple Arrow RecordBatch in advance according to the size limit of Pulsar for InsertMsg. The data is serialized according to the RecordBatch, inserted into the InsertMsg, and then sent to the Datanode through Pulsar. Datanode combines multiple RecordBatch into one complete RecordBatch.

PROBLEM: Multiple RecordBatch can only be logically restored to one ArrowTable, but each column of data is physically discontinuous, so subsequent columnar operations cannot be performed.

After the Proxy receives the inserted data, create multiple Arrow Array by field, instead of RecordBatch.

PROBLEM: The primitive unit of serialized data in Arrow is RecordBatch. Arrow does not provide interface to serialize Arrow Array.

After the Proxy receives the inserted data, it creates multiple RecordBatch in advance according to the size limit of the Pulsar for InsertMsg. The data is serialized according to the RecordBatch and inserted into the InsertMsg, and then sent to the Datanode through Pulsar. The Datanode receives multiple RecordBatch, fetches the data from each column, and regenerates a new RecordBatch.

PROBLEM: There seems no advantages comparing with current implementation.


Summarize some limitations in the use of Arrow:

  1. Arrow data can only be serialized and deserialized by unit of RecordBatch;
  2. Cannot copy out row data from RecordBatch;
  3. RecordBatch must be regenerated after sending via pulsar.


Arrow is suitable for data analysis scenario (data is sealed and read only).

In Milvus, we need do data split and concatenate.

Arrow seems not a good choice for Milvus.


Design Details(required)

We divide this MEP into 2 stages, all compatibility changes will be achieved in Stage 1 before Milvus 2.0.0, other internal changes can be left later.

Stage 1

  1. Update InsertRequest in milvus.proto, change Insert to use Arrow format
  2. Update SearchRequest/Hits in milvus.proto, and SearchResultData in schema.proto, change Search to use Arrow format
  3. Update QueryResults in milvus.proto, change Query to use Arrow format

Stage 2

  1. Update Storage module to use GoArrow to write Parquet from Arrow, or read Arrow from Parquet directly, remove C++ Arrow.
  2. Remove all internal row-based data structure, including "RowData" in internalpb.InsertRequest, "row_data" in milvuspb.Hits, "row_data_" in C++ SearchResult.
  3. Optimize search result flow

Test Plan(required)

Pass all CI flows

References(optional)

https://arrow.apache.org/docs/


Arrow Test Code (Go)

import (
	"bytes"
	"fmt"
	"testing"

	"github.com/apache/arrow/go/arrow"
	"github.com/apache/arrow/go/arrow/array"
	"github.com/apache/arrow/go/arrow/ipc"
	"github.com/apache/arrow/go/arrow/memory"
)

const (
	_DIM = 4
)

var pool = memory.NewGoAllocator()

func CreateArrowSchema() *arrow.Schema {
	fieldVector := arrow.Field{
		Name: "field_vector",
		Type: arrow.FixedSizeListOf(_DIM, arrow.PrimitiveTypes.Float32),
	}
	fieldVal := arrow.Field{
		Name: "field_val",
		Type: arrow.PrimitiveTypes.Int64,
	}
	schema := arrow.NewSchema([]arrow.Field{fieldVector, fieldVal}, nil)
	return schema
}

func CreateArrowRecord(schema *arrow.Schema, iValues []int64, vValues []float32) array.Record {
	rb := array.NewRecordBuilder(pool, schema)
	defer rb.Release()
	rb.Reserve(len(iValues))

	rowNum := len(iValues)
	for i, field := range rb.Schema().Fields() {
		switch field.Type.ID() {
		case arrow.INT64:
			vb := rb.Field(i).(*array.Int64Builder)
			vb.AppendValues(iValues, nil)
		case arrow.FIXED_SIZE_LIST:
			lb := rb.Field(i).(*array.FixedSizeListBuilder)
			valid := make([]bool, rowNum)
			for i := 0; i < rowNum; i++ {
				valid[i] = true
			}
			lb.AppendValues(valid)
			vb := lb.ValueBuilder().(*array.Float32Builder)
			vb.AppendValues(vValues, nil)
		}
	}

	rec := rb.NewRecord()

	return rec
}

func WriteArrowRecord(schema *arrow.Schema, rec array.Record) []byte {
	defer rec.Release()
	blob := make([]byte, 0)
	buf := bytes.NewBuffer(blob)

	// internal/arrdata/ioutil.go
	writer := ipc.NewWriter(buf, ipc.WithSchema(schema), ipc.WithAllocator(pool))
	defer writer.Close()

	//ShowArrowRecord(rec)
	if err := writer.Write(rec); err != nil {
		panic("could not write record: %v" + err.Error())
	}

	err := writer.Close()
	if err != nil {
		panic(err.Error())
	}

	return buf.Bytes()
}

func ReadArrowRecords(schema *arrow.Schema, blobs [][]byte) array.Record {
	iValues := make([]int64, 0)
	vValues := make([]float32, 0)
	for _, blob := range blobs {
		buf := bytes.NewReader(blob)

		reader, err := ipc.NewReader(buf, ipc.WithSchema(schema), ipc.WithAllocator(pool))
		if err != nil {
			panic("create reader fail: %v" + err.Error())
		}
		defer reader.Release()

		rec, err := reader.Read()
		if err != nil {
			panic("read record fail: %v" + err.Error())
		}
		defer rec.Release()

		for _, col := range rec.Columns() {
			switch col.DataType().ID() {
			case arrow.INT64:
				arr := col.(*array.Int64)
				iValues = append(iValues, arr.Int64Values()...)
			case arrow.FIXED_SIZE_LIST:
				arr := col.(*array.FixedSizeList).ListValues().(*array.Float32)
				vValues = append(vValues, arr.Float32Values()...)
			}
		}
	}
	ret := CreateArrowRecord(schema, iValues, vValues)
	ShowArrowRecord(ret)

	return ret
}

func ReadArrowRecordsToTable(schema *arrow.Schema, blobs [][]byte) array.Table {
	recs := make([]array.Record, 0)
	for _, blob := range blobs {
		buf := bytes.NewReader(blob)

		reader, err := ipc.NewReader(buf, ipc.WithSchema(schema), ipc.WithAllocator(pool))
		if err != nil {
			panic("create reader fail: %v" + err.Error())
		}
		defer reader.Release()

		rec, err := reader.Read()
		if err != nil {
			panic("read record fail: %v" + err.Error())
		}
		defer rec.Release()

		recs = append(recs, rec)
	}
	table := array.NewTableFromRecords(schema, recs)
	ShowArrowTable(table)

	return table
}

func ShowArrowRecord(rec array.Record) {
	fmt.Printf("\n=============================\n")
	fmt.Printf("Schema: %v\n", rec.Schema())
	fmt.Printf("NumCols: %v\n", rec.NumCols())
	fmt.Printf("NumRows: %v\n", rec.NumRows())
	//rowNum := int(rec.NumRows())
	for i, col := range rec.Columns() {
		fmt.Printf("Column[%d] %q: %v\n", i, rec.ColumnName(i), col)
	}
}

func ShowArrowTable(tbl array.Table) {
	fmt.Printf("\n=============================\n")
	fmt.Printf("Schema: %v\n", tbl.Schema())
	fmt.Printf("NumCols: %v\n", tbl.NumCols())
	fmt.Printf("NumRows: %v\n", tbl.NumRows())
	for i := 0; i < int(tbl.NumCols()); i++ {
		col := tbl.Column(i)
		fmt.Printf("Column[%d] %s: %v\n", i, tbl.Schema().Field(i).Name, col.Data().Chunks())
	}
}

func TestArrowIPC(t *testing.T) {
	schema := CreateArrowSchema()
	rec0 := CreateArrowRecord(schema, []int64{0}, []float32{0,0,0,0})
	rec1 := CreateArrowRecord(schema, []int64{1,2,3}, []float32{1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,3,3})
	blob0 := WriteArrowRecord(schema, rec0)
	blob1 := WriteArrowRecord(schema, rec1)
	ReadArrowRecords(schema, [][]byte{blob0, blob1})
	ReadArrowRecordsToTable(schema, [][]byte{blob0, blob1})
}