[MXNET-651] MXNet Model Backwards Compatibility Checker

ci/docker/runtime_functions.sh

@@ -854,6 +854,27 @@ nightly_test_javascript() {
     make -C /work/mxnet/amalgamation libmxnet_predict.js MIN=1 EMCC=/work/deps/emscripten/emcc
 }
 
+#Tests Model backwards compatibility on MXNet
+nightly_model_backwards_compat_test() {
+    set -ex
+    export PYTHONPATH=./python/
+    pip install boto3
+    ./tests/nightly/model_backwards_compatibility_check/model_backward_compat_checker.sh
+}
+
+#Backfills S3 bucket with models trained on earlier versions of mxnet
+nightly_model_backwards_compat_train() {
+    set -ex
+    export PYTHONPATH=./python/
+    VENV=mbcc_py2_venv
+    virtualenv -p `which python2` $VENV
+    source $VENV/bin/activate
+    pip install boto3
+    ./tests/nightly/model_backwards_compatibility_check/train_mxnet_legacy_models.sh
+    #Deactivate the virtual env once we are done with it
+    deactivate
+}
+
 # Deploy
 
 deploy_docs() {

tests/nightly/model_backwards_compatibility_check/JenkinsfileForMBCC

@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+// -*- mode: groovy -*-
+// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+// or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+// distributed with this work for additional information
+// regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+// to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+// "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+// with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+// software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+// "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+// KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+// specific language governing permissions and limitations
+// under the License.
+
+
+//This is a Jenkinsfile for the model backwards compatibility checker. The format and some functions have been picked up from the top-level Jenkinsfile.
+
+err = null
+
+def init_git() {
+  deleteDir()
+  retry(5) {
+    try {
+      timeout(time: 15, unit: 'MINUTES') {
+        checkout scm
+        sh 'git submodule update --init --recursive'
+        sh 'git clean -d -f'
+      }
+    } catch (exc) {
+      deleteDir()
+      error "Failed to fetch source codes with ${exc}"
+      sleep 2
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+def docker_run(platform, function_name, use_nvidia, shared_mem = '500m') {
+  def command = "ci/build.py --docker-registry ${env.DOCKER_CACHE_REGISTRY} %USE_NVIDIA% --platform %PLATFORM% --shm-size %SHARED_MEM% /work/runtime_functions.sh %FUNCTION_NAME%"
+  command = command.replaceAll('%USE_NVIDIA%', use_nvidia ? '--nvidiadocker' : '')
+  command = command.replaceAll('%PLATFORM%', platform)
+  command = command.replaceAll('%FUNCTION_NAME%', function_name)
+  command = command.replaceAll('%SHARED_MEM%', shared_mem)
+
+  sh command
+}
+
+try {
+  stage('MBCC'){
+    parallel 'ModelBackwardsCompat: CPU': {
+      node('mxnetlinux-cpu') {
+        ws('workspace/modelBackwardsCompat') {
+          	init_git()
+		  	    docker_run('ubuntu_nightly_cpu', 'nightly_model_backwards_compat_test', false)
+		    } 
+      }
+    }
+  }
+} catch (caughtError) {
+  node("mxnetlinux-cpu") {
+    sh "echo caught ${caughtError}"
+    err = caughtError
+    currentBuild.result = "FAILURE"
+  }
+} finally {
+  node("mxnetlinux-cpu") {
+    // Only send email if model backwards compat test failed
+    if (currentBuild.result == "FAILURE") {
+    	emailext body: 'Nightly tests for model backwards compatibity on MXNet branch : ${BRANCH_NAME} failed. Please view the build at ${BUILD_URL}', replyTo: '${EMAIL}', subject: '[MODEL BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY TEST FAILED] build ${BUILD_NUMBER}', to: '${EMAIL}'
+    }
+    // Remember to rethrow so the build is marked as failing
+    if (err) {
+      throw err
+    }
+  }
+}

tests/nightly/model_backwards_compatibility_check/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# Model Backwards Compatibility Tests
+
+This folder contains the scripts that are required to run the nightly job of verifying the compatibility and inference results of models (trained on earlier versions of MXNet) when loaded on the latest release candidate. The tests flag if:
+- The models fail to load on the latest version of MXNet.
+- The inference results are different. 
+
+
+## JenkinsfileForMBCC
+This is configuration file for jenkins job.
+
+## Details
+- The `model_backward_compat_checker.sh` is a top level script that invokes the inference files in python. 
+- Currently the APIs that covered for model saving/loading are : do_checkpoint/load_checkpoint, save_params/load_params, save_parameters/load_parameters(added v1.2.1 onwards), export/gluon.SymbolBlock.imports. 
+- These APIs are covered over models with architectures such as : MLP, RNNs, LeNet covering the four scenarios described above.
+- More operators/models will be added in the future to extend the operator coverage. 
+- The model train files suffixed by `_train.py` and the trained models are hosted in AWS S3.
+- The trained models for now are backfilled into S3 starting from every MXNet release version v1.1.0.
+- The script for training the models on older versions of MXNet is : `train_mxnet_legacy_models.sh`.
+- The inference files are suffixed by `_inference.py`.
+