Apache Spark: setting executor instances does not change the executors

Question

I have an Apache Spark application running on a YARN cluster (spark has 3 nodes on this cluster) on cluster mode.

When the application is running the Spark-UI shows that 2 executors (each running on a different node) and the driver are running on the third node. I want the application to use more executors so I tried adding the argument --num-executors to Spark-submit and set it to 6.

spark-submit --driver-memory 3G --num-executors 6 --class main.Application --executor-memory 11G --master yarn-cluster myJar.jar <arg1> <arg2> <arg3> ...

However, the number of executors remains 2.

On spark UI I can see that the parameter spark.executor.instances is 6, just as I intended, and somehow there are still only 2 executors.

I even tried setting this parameter from the code

sparkConf.set("spark.executor.instances", "6")

Again, I can see that the parameter was set to 6, but still there are only 2 executors.

Does anyone know why I couldn't increase the number of my executors?

yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb is 12g in yarn-site.xml

Unshackle

what is value of yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb in yarn-site.xml?? – Chiton

Yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb is 12GiB – Unshackle

Answer 1

Increase yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb in yarn-site.xml

With 12g per node you can only launch driver(3g) and 2 executors(11g).

Node1 - driver 3g (+7% overhead)

Node2 - executor1 11g (+7% overhead)

Node3 - executor2 11g (+7% overhead)

now you are requesting for executor3 of 11g and no node has 11g memory available.

for 7% overhead refer spark.yarn.executor.memoryOverhead and spark.yarn.driver.memoryOverhead in https://spark.apache.org/docs/1.2.0/running-on-yarn.html

Chiton

I couldn't increase this parameter because I don't have enough RAM, but I tried it on a different spark application that does not need that much executor memory and it worked, thanks – Unshackle

I have been agonizing over a similar issue for a few days. Thank you for your answer, worked like a charm! – Panatella

Is the 7% fixed? Any way we can adjust 7% overhead? I could see the settings but its not telling the % value instead 384? – Culinarian

@JoyGeorgeKunjikkuru yes you can change it, spark 2.3 onwards these properties are known as spark.executor.memoryOverhead spark.driver.memoryOverhead and their default value is 10%, you can set absolute value to change them. Refer:spark.apache.org/docs/latest/configuration.html – Chiton

@banjara, I have not set the executor-memory(its default:1GB), passing num-executors is not honored with spark-submit. I've got 70GB memory in the yarn – Nippur

Answer 2

Note that yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb is total memory that a single NodeManager can allocate across all containers on one node.

In your case, since yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb = 12G, if you add up the memory allocated to all YARN containers on any single node, it cannot exceed 12G.

You have requested 11G (-executor-memory 11G) for each Spark Executor container. Though 11G is less than 12G, this still won't work. Why ?

• Because you have to account for spark.yarn.executor.memoryOverhead, which is min(executorMemory * 0.10, 384) (by default, unless you override it).

So, following math must hold true:

spark.executor.memory + spark.yarn.executor.memoryOverhead <= yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb

See: https://spark.apache.org/docs/latest/running-on-yarn.html for latest documentation on spark.yarn.executor.memoryOverhead

Moreover, spark.executor.instances is merely a request. Spark ApplicationMaster for your application will make a request to YARN ResourceManager for number of containers = spark.executor.instances. Request will be granted by ResourceManager on NodeManager node based on:

• Resource availability on the node. YARN scheduling has its own nuances - this is a good primer on how YARN FairScheduler works.
• Whether yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb threshold has not been exceeded on the node:
  • (number of spark containers running on the node * (spark.executor.memory + spark.yarn.executor.memoryOverhead)) <= yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb*

If the request is not granted, request will be queued and granted when above conditions are met.

Ankylosaur

Answer 3

To utilize the spark cluster to its full capacity you need to set values for --num-executors, --executor-cores and --executor-memory as per your cluster:

• --num-executors command-line flag or spark.executor.instances configuration property controls the number of executors requested ;
• --executor-cores command-line flag or spark.executor.cores configuration property controls the number of concurrent tasks an executor can run ;
• --executor-memory command-line flag or spark.executor.memory configuration property controls the heap size.

Anthill

Answer 4

You only have 3 nodes in the cluster, and one will be used as the driver, you have only 2 nodes left, how can you create 6 executors?

I think you confused --num-executors with --executor-cores.

To increase concurrency, you need more cores, you want to utilize all the CPUs in your cluster.

Hawes

So there can be only one executor per node? – Unshackle

no, you have 12g memory available per node and one executor is taking 11g, so you can't launch second executor on same node. you can increase yarn.nodemanager.resource.memory-mb or reduce --executor-memory to launch multiple executors on same node – Chiton