SparkEnv — Spark Runtime Environment

Spark Runtime Environment (SparkEnv) is the runtime environment with Spark’s public services that interact with each other to establish a distributed computing platform for a Spark application.

Spark Runtime Environment is represented by a SparkEnv object that holds all the required runtime services for a running Spark application with separate environments for the driver and executors.

The idiomatic way in Spark to access the current SparkEnv when on the driver or executors is to use get method.

import org.apache.spark._
scala> SparkEnv.get
res0: org.apache.spark.SparkEnv = org.apache.spark.SparkEnv@49322d04

Table 1. `SparkEnv` Services
Property	Service	Description
rpcEnv	RpcEnv
serializer	Serializer
closureSerializer	Serializer
serializerManager	SerializerManager
mapOutputTracker	MapOutputTracker
shuffleManager	ShuffleManager
broadcastManager	BroadcastManager
blockManager	BlockManager
securityManager	SecurityManager
metricsSystem	MetricsSystem
memoryManager	MemoryManager
outputCommitCoordinator	OutputCommitCoordinator

Table 2. SparkEnv’s Internal Properties
Name	Initial Value	Description
`isStopped`	Disabled, i.e. `false`	Used to mark `SparkEnv` stopped. FIXME
`driverTmpDir`

Tip	Enable `INFO` or `DEBUG` logging level for `org.apache.spark.SparkEnv` logger to see what happens inside. Add the following line to `conf/log4j.properties`: `log4j.logger.org.apache.spark.SparkEnv=DEBUG` Refer to Logging.

`SparkEnv` Factory Object

Creating "Base" `SparkEnv` — `create` Method

create(
  conf: SparkConf,
  executorId: String,
  hostname: String,
  port: Int,
  isDriver: Boolean,
  isLocal: Boolean,
  numUsableCores: Int,
  listenerBus: LiveListenerBus = null,
  mockOutputCommitCoordinator: Option[OutputCommitCoordinator] = None): SparkEnv

create is a internal helper method to create a "base" SparkEnv regardless of the target environment, i.e. a driver or an executor.

Table 3. `create`'s Input Arguments and Their Usage
Input Argument	Usage
`bindAddress`	Used to create RpcEnv and NettyBlockTransferService.
`advertiseAddress`	Used to create RpcEnv and NettyBlockTransferService.
`numUsableCores`	Used to create MemoryManager, NettyBlockTransferService and BlockManager.

When executed, create creates a Serializer (based on spark.serializer setting). You should see the following DEBUG message in the logs:

DEBUG SparkEnv: Using serializer: [serializer]

It creates another Serializer (based on spark.closure.serializer).

It creates a ShuffleManager based on spark.shuffle.manager Spark property.

It creates a MemoryManager based on spark.memory.useLegacyMode setting (with UnifiedMemoryManager being the default and numCores the input numUsableCores).

create creates a NettyBlockTransferService. It uses spark.driver.blockManager.port for the port on the driver and spark.blockManager.port for the port on executors.

Caution

FIXME A picture with SparkEnv, NettyBlockTransferService and the ports "armed".

create creates a BlockManagerMaster object with the BlockManagerMaster RPC endpoint reference (by registering or looking it up by name and BlockManagerMasterEndpoint), the input SparkConf, and the input isDriver flag.

Figure 1. Creating BlockManager for the Driver

Note	`create` registers the BlockManagerMaster RPC endpoint for the driver and looks it up for executors.

Figure 2. Creating BlockManager for Executor

It creates a BlockManager (using the above BlockManagerMaster, NettyBlockTransferService and other services).

create creates a BroadcastManager.

create creates a MapOutputTrackerMaster or MapOutputTrackerWorker for the driver and executors, respectively.

Note	The choice of the real implementation of MapOutputTracker is based on whether the input `executorId` is driver or not.

create registers or looks up RpcEndpoint as MapOutputTracker. It registers MapOutputTrackerMasterEndpoint on the driver and creates a RPC endpoint reference on executors. The RPC endpoint reference gets assigned as the MapOutputTracker RPC endpoint.

Caution

FIXME

It creates a CacheManager.

It creates a MetricsSystem for a driver and a worker separately.

It initializes userFiles temporary directory used for downloading dependencies for a driver while this is the executor’s current working directory for an executor.

An OutputCommitCoordinator is created.

Note	`create` is called by createDriverEnv and createExecutorEnv.

Registering or Looking up RPC Endpoint by Name — `registerOrLookupEndpoint` Method

registerOrLookupEndpoint(name: String, endpointCreator: => RpcEndpoint)

registerOrLookupEndpoint registers or looks up a RPC endpoint by name.

If called from the driver, you should see the following INFO message in the logs:

INFO SparkEnv: Registering [name]

And the RPC endpoint is registered in the RPC environment.

Otherwise, it obtains a RPC endpoint reference by name.

Creating SparkEnv for Driver — `createDriverEnv` Method

createDriverEnv(
  conf: SparkConf,
  isLocal: Boolean,
  listenerBus: LiveListenerBus,
  numCores: Int,
  mockOutputCommitCoordinator: Option[OutputCommitCoordinator] = None): SparkEnv

createDriverEnv creates a SparkEnv execution environment for the driver.

Figure 3. Spark Environment for driver

createDriverEnv accepts an instance of SparkConf, whether it runs in local mode or not, LiveListenerBus, the number of cores to use for execution in local mode or 0 otherwise, and a OutputCommitCoordinator (default: none).

createDriverEnv ensures that spark.driver.host and spark.driver.port settings are defined.

It then passes the call straight on to the create helper method (with driver executor id, isDriver enabled, and the input parameters).

Note	`createDriverEnv` is exclusively used by SparkContext to create a `SparkEnv` (while a SparkContext is being created for the driver).

Creating SparkEnv for Executor — `createExecutorEnv` Method

createExecutorEnv(
  conf: SparkConf,
  executorId: String,
  hostname: String,
  port: Int,
  numCores: Int,
  ioEncryptionKey: Option[Array[Byte]],
  isLocal: Boolean): SparkEnv

createExecutorEnv creates an executor’s (execution) environment that is the Spark execution environment for an executor.

Figure 4. Spark Environment for executor

Note	`createExecutorEnv` is a `private[spark]` method.

createExecutorEnv simply creates the base SparkEnv (passing in all the input parameters) and sets it as the current SparkEnv.

Note	The number of cores `numCores` is configured using `--cores` command-line option of `CoarseGrainedExecutorBackend` and is specific to a cluster manager.

Note	`createExecutorEnv` is used when `CoarseGrainedExecutorBackend` runs and `MesosExecutorBackend` registers a Spark executor.

Getting Current SparkEnv — `get` Method

get: SparkEnv

get returns the current SparkEnv.

import org.apache.spark._
scala> SparkEnv.get
res0: org.apache.spark.SparkEnv = org.apache.spark.SparkEnv@49322d04

Stopping SparkEnv — `stop` Method

stop(): Unit

stop checks isStopped internal flag and does nothing when enabled.

Note	`stop` is a `private[spark]` method.

Otherwise, stop turns isStopped flag on, stops all pythonWorkers and requests the following services to stop:

stop requests RpcEnv to shut down and waits till it terminates.

Only on the driver, stop deletes the temporary directory. You can see the following WARN message in the logs if the deletion fails.

WARN Exception while deleting Spark temp dir: [path]

Note	`stop` is used when `SparkContext` stops (on the driver) and `Executor` stops.

Settings

Table 4. Spark Properties
Spark Property	Default Value	Description
`spark.serializer`	`org.apache.spark.serializer.JavaSerializer`	Serializer TIP: Enable DEBUG logging level for `org.apache.spark.SparkEnv` logger to see the current value. ` DEBUG SparkEnv: Using serializer: [serializer]`
`spark.closure.serializer`	`org.apache.spark.serializer.JavaSerializer`	Serializer
`spark.memory.useLegacyMode`	`false`	Controls what type of the MemoryManager to use. When enabled (i.e. `true`) it is the legacy `StaticMemoryManager` while UnifiedMemoryManager otherwise (i.e. `false`).

SparkEnv — Spark Runtime Environment