Known issues and limitations
The following limitations and known issues apply to watsonx.
- Regional limitations
- Notebooks
- Machine learning
- SPSS Modeler
- Connections
- Orchestration Pipelines
- watsonx.governance
Notebook issues
You might encounter some of these issues when getting started with and using notebooks.
Failure to export a notebook to HTML in the Jupyter Notebook editor
When you are working with a Jupyter Notebook created in a tool other than Watson Studio, you might not be able to export the notebook to HTML. This issue occurs when the cell output is exposed.
Workaround
-
In the Jupyter Notebook UI, go to Edit and click Edit Notebook Metadata.
-
Remove the following metadata:
"widgets": { "state": {}, "version": "1.1.2" }
-
Click Edit.
-
Save the notebook.
Manual installation of some tensor libraries is not supported
Some tensor flow libraries are preinstalled, but if you try to install additional tensor flow libraries yourself, you get an error.
Connection to notebook kernel is taking longer than expected after running a code cell
If you try to reconnect to the kernel and immediately run a code cell (or if the kernel reconnection happened during code execution), the notebook doesn't reconnect to the kernel and no output is displayed for the code cell. You need to manually reconnect to the kernel by clicking Kernel > Reconnect. When the kernel is ready, you can try running the code cell again.
Using the predefined sqlContext object in multiple notebooks causes an error
You might receive an Apache Spark error if you use the predefined sqlContext object in multiple notebooks. Create a new sqlContext object for each notebook. See this Stack Overflow explanation.
Connection failed message
If your kernel stops, your notebook is no longer automatically saved. To save it, click File > Save manually, and you should get a Notebook saved message in the kernel information area, which appears before the Spark version. If you get a message that the kernel failed, to reconnect your notebook to the kernel click Kernel > Reconnect. If nothing you do restarts the kernel and you can't save the notebook, you can download it to save your changes by clicking File > Download as > Notebook (.ipynb). Then you need to create a new notebook based on your downloaded notebook file.
Hyperlinks to notebook sections don't work in preview mode
If your notebook contains sections that you link to from an introductory section at the top of the notebook for example, the links to these sections will not work if the notebook was opened in view-only mode in Firefox. However, if you open the notebook in edit mode, these links will work.
Can't connect to notebook kernel
If you try to run a notebook and you see the message Connecting to Kernel
, followed by Connection failed. Reconnecting
and finally by a connection failed error message, the reason might be that your firewall is blocking
the notebook from running.
If Watson Studio is installed behind a firewall, you must add the WebSocket connection wss://dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com
to the firewall settings. Enabling this WebSocket connection is required when you're using notebooks and RStudio.
Machine learning issues
You might encounter some of these issues when working with machine learning tools.
Region requirements
You can only associate a Watson Machine Learning service instance with your project when the Watson Machine Learning service instance and the Watson Studio instance are located in the same region.
Accessing links if you create a service instance while associating a service with a project
While you are associating a Watson Machine Learning service to a project, you have the option of creating a new service instance. If you choose to create a new service, the links on the service page might not work. To access the service terms, APIs, and documentation, right click the links to open them in new windows.
Federated Learning assets cannot be searched in All assets, search results, or filter results in the new projects UI
You cannot search Federated Learning assets from the All assets view, the search results, or the filter results of your project.
Workaround: Click the Federated Learning asset to open the tool.
Deployment issues
- A deployment that is inactive (no scores) for a set time (24 hours for the free plan or 120 hours for a paid plan) is automatically hibernated. When a new scoring request is submitted, the deployment is reactivated and the score request is served. Expect a brief delay of 1 to 60 seconds for the first score request after activation, depending on the model framework.
- For some frameworks, such as SPSS modeler, the first score request for a deployed model after hibernation might result in a 504 error. If this happens, submit the request again; subsequent requests should succeed.
Watson Machine Learning limitations
AutoAI known limitations
-
Currently, AutoAI experiments do not support double-byte character sets. AutoAI only supports CSV files with ASCII characters. Users must convert any non-ASCII characters in the file name or content, and provide input data as a CSV as defined in this CSV standard.
-
To interact programmatically with an AutoAI model, use the REST API instead of the Python client. The APIs for the Python client required to support AutoAI are not generally available at this time.
Data module not found in IBM Federated Learning
The data handler for IBM Federated Learning is trying to extract a data module from the FL library but is unable to find it. You might see the following error message:
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ibmfl.util.datasets'
The issue possibly results from using an outdated DataHandler. Please review and update your DataHandler to conform to the latest spec. Here is the link to the most recent MNIST data handler or ensure your sample versions are up-to-date.
SPSS Modeler issues
You might encounter some of these issues when working in SPSS Modeler.
SPSS Modeler runtime restrictions
Watson Studio does not include SPSS functionality in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.
Timestamp data measured in microseconds
If you have timestamp data that is measured in microseconds, you can use the more precise data in your flow. However, you can import data that is measured in microseconds only from connectors that support SQL pushback. For more information about which connectors support SQL pushback, see Supported data sources for SPSS Modeler.
Merge node and unicode characters
The Merge node treats the following very similar Japanese characters as the same character.
Connection issues
You might encounter this issue when working with connections.
Apache Impala connection does not work with LDAP authentication
If you create a connection to a Apache Impala data source and the Apache Impala server is set up for LDAP authentication, the username and password authentication method in IBM watsonx will not work.
Workaround: Disable the Enable LDAP Authentication option on the Impala server. See Configuring LDAP Authentication in the Cloudera documentation.
Orchestration Pipelines known issues
The issues pertain to Orchestration Pipelines.
Asset browser does not always reflect count for total numbers of asset type
When selecting an asset from the asset browser, such as choosing a source for a Copy node, you see that some of the assets list the total number of that asset type available, but notebooks do not. That is a current limitation.
Cannot delete pipeline versions
Currently, you cannot delete saved versions of pipelines that you no longer need. All versions will be deleted when the pipeline is deleted.
Deleting an AutoAI experiment fails under some conditions
Using a Delete AutoAI experiment node to delete an AutoAI experiment that was created from the Projects UI does not delete the AutoAI asset. However, the rest of the flow can complete successfully.
Cache appears enabled but is not enabled
If the Copy assets Pipelines node's Copy mode is set to Overwrite
, cache is displayed as enabled but remains disabled.
Pipelines cannot save some SQL statements
Pipelines cannot save when SQL statements with parentheses are passed in a script or user variable.
To resolve this issue, replace all instances of parentheses with their respective ASCII code ((
with #40
and )
with #41
) and replace the code when you set it as a user variable.
For example, the statement select CAST(col1 as VARCHAR(30)) from dbo.table
in a Run Bash script node will cause an error. Instead, use the statement select CAST#40col1 as VARCHAR#4030#41#41 from dbo.table
and replace the instances when setting it as a user variable.
Orchestration Pipelines abort when limit for annotations is reached
Pipeline expressions require annotations, which have a limit due to the limit for annotations in Kubernetes. If you reach this limit, your pipeline will abort without displaying logs.
Orchestration Pipelines limitations
These limitations apply to Orchestration Pipelines.
- Single pipeline limits
- Input and output size limits
- Batch input limited to data assets
- Bash scripts throws errors with curl commands
Single pipeline limits
These limitation apply to a single pipeline, regardless of configuration.
- Any single pipeline cannot contain more than 120 standard nodes
- Any pipeline with a loop cannot contain more than 600 nodes across all iterations (for example, 60 iterations - 10 nodes each)
Input and output size limits
Input and output values, which include pipeline parameters, user variables, and generic node inputs and outputs, cannot exceed 10 KB of data.
Batch input limited to data assets
Currently, input for batch deployment jobs is limited to data assets. This means that certain types of deployments, which require JSON input or multiple files as input, are not supported. For example, SPSS models and Decision Optimization solutions that require multiple files as input are not supported.
Bash scripts throws errors with curl commands
The Bash scripts in your pipelines might cause errors if you implement curl commands in them. To prevent this issue, set your curl commands as parameters. To save a pipeline that causes error when saving, try exporting the isx file and importing them into a new project.
Issues with Cloud Object Storage
These issue apply to working with Cloud Object Storage.
Issues with Cloud Object Storage when Key Protect is enabled
Key Protect in conjunction with Cloud Object Storage is not supported for working with Watson Machine Learning assets. If you are using Key Protect, you might encounter these issues when you are working with assets in Watson Studio.
- Training or saving these Watson Machine Learning assets might fail:
- Auto AI
- Federated Learning
- Pipelines
- You might be unable to save an SPSS model or a notebook model to a project
Issues with watsonx.governance
Integration limitation with OpenPages
When the AI Factsheets is integrated with OpenPages, the fields created in the field groups MRG-UserFacts-Model
or MRG-UserFact-Model
and MRG-UserFacts-ModelEntry
or MRG-UserFact-ModelUseCase
are synced to modelfacts_user_op
and model_entry_user_op
asset type definitions. However, when the fields are created from the OpenPages application, avoid specifying the fields as required, and do not specify a
range of values. If you mark them as required or assign a range of values, the sync will fail.
Delay showing prompt template deployment data in a factsheet
When a deployment is created for a prompt template, the facts for the deployment are not added to factsheet immediately. You must first evaluate the deployment or view the lifecycle tracking page to add the facts to the factsheet.
Display issues for existing Factsheet users
If you previously used factsheets with IBM Knowledge Catalog and you create a new AI use case in watsonx.governance, you might see some display issues, such as duplicate Risk level fields in the General information and Details section of the AI use case interface.
To resolve display problems, update the model_entry_user
asset type definition. For details on updating a use case programmatically, see Customizing details for a use case or factsheet.
Redundant attachment links in factsheet
A factsheet tracks all of the events for an asset over all phases of the lifecycle. Attachments show up in each stage, creating some redundancy in the factsheet.
Attachments for prompt templates are not saved on import or export
If your AI use case contains attachments for a prompt template, the attachments are not preserved when the prompt template asset is exported from a project or imported into a project or space. You must reattach any files following the import operation.
Unable to open OpenPages after you enable the integration with Governance console
When you enable the integration with Governance console, you get the following error message:
Error occurred while setting OpenPages.
Operation failed due to an unexpected error.
Information is not synched to the Governance console.
This issue occurs when you enable the integration with Governance console and you have foundation models that support the Translation task. The Translation task is missing from the following fields in Governance console:
- MRG-Model:Approved Tasks
- MRG-Model:Supported Tasks
- MRG-Model:Task Type
To resolve this issue, do the following steps to update the fields:
- Log in to Governance console as an administrator.
- Enable System Admin Mode.
- Click the Administration menu
and select Solution Configuration > Object Types.
- Click Model.
- Click Fields, and then find the MRG-Model field group.
- Click the Approved Tasks field.
- Under Enumerated string values, click New Value.
- Type Translation for both the name and label, and then click Create.
- Click Done.
- Repeat steps 6-10 for the Supported Tasks and Task Type fields.
- Disable System Admin Mode.