Set up no-code AutoML training with the studio UI

In this article, you learn how to set up AutoML training jobs without a single line of code using Azure Machine Learning automated ML in the Azure Machine Learning studio.

Automated machine learning, AutoML, is a process in which the best machine learning algorithm to use for your specific data is selected for you. This process enables you to generate machine learning models quickly. Learn more about how Azure Machine Learning implements automated machine learning.

For an end to end example, try the Tutorial: AutoML- train no-code classification models.

For a Python code-based experience, configure your automated machine learning experiments with the Azure Machine Learning SDK.

Prerequisites

• An Azure subscription. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin. Try the free or paid version of Azure Machine Learning today.

• An Azure Machine Learning workspace. See Create workspace resources.

Get started

1. Sign in to Azure Machine Learning studio.

2. Select your subscription and workspace.

3. Navigate to the left pane. Select Automated ML under the Author section.

If this is your first time doing any experiments, you'll see an empty list and links to documentation.

Otherwise, you'll see a list of your recent automated ML experiments, including those created with the SDK.

Create and run experiment

1. Select + New automated ML job and populate the form.

2. Select a data asset from your storage container, or create a new data asset. Data asset can be created from local files, web urls, datastores, or Azure open datasets. Learn more about data asset creation.

   Important

   Requirements for training data:

   • Data must be in tabular form.
   • The value you want to predict (target column) must be present in the data.

   1. To create a new dataset from a file on your local computer, select +Create dataset and then select From local file.

   2. In the Basic info form, give your dataset a unique name and provide an optional description.

   3. Select Next to open the Datastore and file selection form. On this form you select where to upload your dataset; the default storage container that's automatically created with your workspace, or choose a storage container that you want to use for the experiment.

      1. If your data is behind a virtual network, you need to enable the skip the validation function to ensure that the workspace can access your data. For more information, see Use Azure Machine Learning studio in an Azure virtual network.

   4. Select Browse to upload the data file for your dataset.

   5. Review the Settings and preview form for accuracy. The form is intelligently populated based on the file type.

      Field	Description
      File format	Defines the layout and type of data stored in a file.
      Delimiter	One or more characters for specifying the boundary between separate, independent regions in plain text or other data streams.
      Encoding	Identifies what bit to character schema table to use to read your dataset.
      Column headers	Indicates how the headers of the dataset, if any, will be treated.
      Skip rows	Indicates how many, if any, rows are skipped in the dataset.

      Select Next.

   6. The Schema form is intelligently populated based on the selections in the Settings and preview form. Here configure the data type for each column, review the column names, and select which columns to Not include for your experiment.

      Select Next.

   7. The Confirm details form is a summary of the information previously populated in the Basic info and Settings and preview forms. You also have the option to create a data profile for your dataset using a profiling enabled compute. Learn more about data profiling.

      Select Next.

3. Select your newly created dataset once it appears. You are also able to view a preview of the dataset and sample statistics.

4. On the Configure job form, select Create new and enter Tutorial-automl-deploy for the experiment name.

5. Select a target column; this is the column that you would like to do predictions on.

6. Select a compute type for the data profiling and training job. You can select a compute cluster or compute instance.

7. Select a compute from the dropdown list of your existing computes. To create a new compute, follow the instructions in step 8.

8. Select Create a new compute to configure your compute context for this experiment.

   Field	Description
   Compute name	Enter a unique name that identifies your compute context.
   Virtual machine priority	Low priority virtual machines are cheaper but don't guarantee the compute nodes.
   Virtual machine type	Select CPU or GPU for virtual machine type.
   Virtual machine size	Select the virtual machine size for your compute.
   Min / Max nodes	To profile data, you must specify 1 or more nodes. Enter the maximum number of nodes for your compute. The default is 6 nodes for an Azure Machine Learning Compute.
   Advanced settings	These settings allow you to configure a user account and existing virtual network for your experiment.

   Select Create. Creation of a new compute can take a few minutes.

   Note

   Your compute name will indicate if the compute you select/create is profiling enabled. (See the section data profiling for more details).

   Select Next.

9. On the Task type and settings form, select the task type: classification, regression, or forecasting. See supported task types for more information.

   1. For classification, you can also enable deep learning.

      If deep learning is enabled, validation is limited to train_validation split. Learn more about validation options (SDK v1).

   2. For forecasting you can,

      1. Enable deep learning.

      2. Select time column: This column contains the time data to be used.

      3. Select forecast horizon: Indicate how many time units (minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/years) will the model be able to predict to the future. The further the model is required to predict into the future, the less accurate it becomes. Learn more about forecasting and forecast horizon.

10. (Optional) View addition configuration settings: additional settings you can use to better control the training job. Otherwise, defaults are applied based on experiment selection and data.

    Additional configurations	Description
    Primary metric	Main metric used for scoring your model. Learn more about model metrics.
    Explain best model	Select to enable or disable, in order to show explanations for the recommended best model. This functionality is not currently available for certain forecasting algorithms.
    Blocked algorithm	Select algorithms you want to exclude from the training job. Allowing algorithms is only available for SDK experiments. See the supported algorithms for each task type.
    Exit criterion	When any of these criteria are met, the training job is stopped. Training job time (hours): How long to allow the training job to run. Metric score threshold: Minimum metric score for all pipelines. This ensures that if you have a defined target metric you want to reach, you do not spend more time on the training job than necessary.
    Concurrency	Max concurrent iterations: Maximum number of pipelines (iterations) to test in the training job. The job will not run more than the specified number of iterations. Learn more about how automated ML performs multiple child jobs on clusters.

11. (Optional) View featurization settings: if you choose to enable Automatic featurization in the Additional configuration settings form, default featurization techniques are applied. In the View featurization settings you can change these defaults and customize accordingly. Learn how to customize featurizations.

    

12. The [Optional] Validate and test form allows you to do the following.

    1. Specify the type of validation to be used for your training job. Learn more about cross validation (SDK v1).

       1. Forecasting tasks only supports k-fold cross validation.

    2. Provide a test dataset (preview) to evaluate the recommended model that automated ML generates for you at the end of your experiment. When you provide test data, a test job is automatically triggered at the end of your experiment. This test job is only job on the best model that was recommended by automated ML. Learn how to get the results of the remote test job.

       Important

       Providing a test dataset to evaluate generated models is a preview feature. This capability is an experimental preview feature, and may change at any time.

       • Test data is considered a separate from training and validation, so as to not bias the results of the test job of the recommended model. Learn more about bias during model validation.
       • You can either provide your own test dataset or opt to use a percentage of your training dataset. Test data must be in the form of an Azure Machine Learning TabularDataset.
       • The schema of the test dataset should match the training dataset. The target column is optional, but if no target column is indicated no test metrics are calculated.
       • The test dataset should not be the same as the training dataset or the validation dataset.
       • Forecasting jobs do not support train/test split.

       

Customize featurization

In the Featurization form, you can enable/disable automatic featurization and customize the automatic featurization settings for your experiment. To open this form, see step 10 in the Create and run experiment section.

The following table summarizes the customizations currently available via the studio.

Column	Customization
Included	Specifies which columns to include for training.
Feature type	Change the value type for the selected column.
Impute with	Select what value to impute missing values with in your data.

Run experiment and view results

Select Finish to run your experiment. The experiment preparing process can take up to 10 minutes. Training jobs can take an additional 2-3 minutes more for each pipeline to finish running.

Note

The algorithms automated ML employs have inherent randomness that can cause slight variation in a recommended model's final metrics score, like accuracy. Automated ML also performs operations on data such as train-test split, train-validation split or cross-validation when necessary. So if you run an experiment with the same configuration settings and primary metric multiple times, you'll likely see variation in each experiments final metrics score due to these factors.

View experiment details

The Job Detail screen opens to the Details tab. This screen shows you a summary of the experiment job including a status bar at the top next to the job number.

The Models tab contains a list of the models created ordered by the metric score. By default, the model that scores the highest based on the chosen metric is at the top of the list. As the training job tries out more models, they are added to the list. Use this to get a quick comparison of the metrics for the models produced so far.

View training job details

Drill down on any of the completed models to see training job details. On the Model tab view details like a model summary and the hyperparameters used for the selected model.

You can also see model specific performance metric charts on the Metrics tab. Learn more about charts.

On the Data transformation tab, you can see a diagram of what data preprocessing, feature engineering, scaling techniques and the machine learning algorithm that were applied to generate this model.

Important

The Data transformation tab is in preview. This capability should be considered experimental and may change at any time.

View remote test job results (preview)

If you specified a test dataset or opted for a train/test split during your experiment setup-- on the Validate and test form, automated ML automatically tests the recommended model by default. As a result, automated ML calculates test metrics to determine the quality of the recommended model and its predictions.

Important

Testing your models with a test dataset to evaluate generated models is a preview feature. This capability is an experimental preview feature, and may change at any time.

Warning

This feature is not available for the following automated ML scenarios

• Computer vision tasks
• Many models and hiearchical time series forecasting training (preview)
• Forecasting tasks where deep learning neural networks (DNN) are enabled
• Automated ML jobs from local computes or Azure Databricks clusters

To view the test job metrics of the recommended model,

1. Navigate to the Models page, select the best model.
2. Select the Test results (preview) tab.
3. Select the job you want, and view the Metrics tab.

To view the test predictions used to calculate the test metrics,

1. Navigate to the bottom of the page and select the link under Outputs dataset to open the dataset.
2. On the Datasets page, select the Explore tab to view the predictions from the test job.
   1. Alternatively, the prediction file can also be viewed/downloaded from the Outputs + logs tab, expand the Predictions folder to locate your predicted.csv file.

Alternatively, the predictions file can also be viewed/downloaded from the Outputs + logs tab, expand Predictions folder to locate your predictions.csv file.

The model test job generates the predictions.csv file that's stored in the default datastore created with the workspace. This datastore is visible to all users with the same subscription. Test jobs are not recommended for scenarios if any of the information used for or created by the test job needs to remain private.

Test an existing automated ML model (preview)

Important

Testing your models with a test dataset to evaluate generated models is a preview feature. This capability is an experimental preview feature, and may change at any time.

Warning

This feature is not available for the following automated ML scenarios

• Computer vision tasks
• Many models and hiearchical time series forecasting training (preview)
• Forecasting tasks where deep learning neural networks (DNN) are enabled
• Automated ML runs from local computes or Azure Databricks clusters

After your experiment completes, you can test the model(s) that automated ML generates for you. If you want to test a different automated ML generated model, not the recommended model, you can do so with the following steps.

1. Select an existing automated ML experiment job.

2. Navigate to the Models tab of the job and select the completed model you want to test.

3. On the model Details page, select the Test model(preview) button to open the Test model pane.

4. On the Test model pane, select the compute cluster and a test dataset you want to use for your test job.

5. Select the Test button. The schema of the test dataset should match the training dataset, but the target column is optional.

6. Upon successful creation of model test job, the Details page displays a success message. Select the Test results tab to see the progress of the job.

7. To view the results of the test job, open the Details page and follow the steps in the view results of the remote test job section.

   

Model explanations (preview)

To better understand your model, you can see which data features (raw or engineered) influenced the model's predictions with the model explanations dashboard.

The model explanations dashboard provides an overall analysis of the trained model along with its predictions and explanations. It also lets you drill into an individual data point and its individual feature importance. Learn more about the explanation dashboard visualizations.

To get explanations for a particular model,

1. On the Models tab, select the model you want to understand.

2. Select the Explain model button, and provide a compute that can be used to generate the explanations.

3. Check the Child jobs tab for the status.

4. Once complete, navigate to the Explanations (preview) tab which contains the explanations dashboard.

   

Edit and submit jobs (preview)

Important

The ability to copy, edit and submit a new experiment based on an existing experiment is a preview feature. This capability is an experimental preview feature, and may change at any time.

In scenarios where you would like to create a new experiment based on the settings of an existing experiment, automated ML provides the option to do so with the Edit and submit button in the studio UI.

This functionality is limited to experiments initiated from the studio UI and requires the data schema for the new experiment to match that of the original experiment.

The Edit and submit button opens the Create a new Automated ML job wizard with the data, compute and experiment settings pre-populated. You can go through each form and edit selections as needed for your new experiment.

Deploy your model

Once you have the best model at hand, it is time to deploy it as a web service to predict on new data.

Tip

If you are looking to deploy a model that was generated via the automl package with the Python SDK, you must register your model to the workspace.

Once you're model is registered, find it in the studio by selecting Models on the left pane. Once you open your model, you can select the Deploy button at the top of the screen, and then follow the instructions as described in step 2 of the Deploy your model section.

Automated ML helps you with deploying the model without writing code:

1. You have a couple options for deployment.

   • Option 1: Deploy the best model, according to the metric criteria you defined.

     1. After the experiment is complete, navigate to the parent job page by selecting Job 1 at the top of the screen.
     2. Select the model listed in the Best model summary section.
     3. Select Deploy on the top left of the window.

   • Option 2: To deploy a specific model iteration from this experiment.

     1. Select the desired model from the Models tab
     2. Select Deploy on the top left of the window.

2. Populate the Deploy model pane.

   Field	Value
   Name	Enter a unique name for your deployment.
   Description	Enter a description to better identify what this deployment is for.
   Compute type	Select the type of endpoint you want to deploy: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Azure Container Instance (ACI).
   Compute name	Applies to AKS only: Select the name of the AKS cluster you wish to deploy to.
   Enable authentication	Select to allow for token-based or key-based authentication.
   Use custom deployment assets	Enable this feature if you want to upload your own scoring script and environment file. Otherwise, automated ML provides these assets for you by default. Learn more about scoring scripts.

   Important

   File names must be under 32 characters and must begin and end with alphanumerics. May include dashes, underscores, dots, and alphanumerics between. Spaces are not allowed.

   The Advanced menu offers default deployment features such as data collection and resource utilization settings. If you wish to override these defaults do so in this menu.

3. Select Deploy. Deployment can take about 20 minutes to complete. Once deployment begins, the Model summary tab appears. See the deployment progress under the Deploy status section.

Now you have an operational web service to generate predictions! You can test the predictions by querying the service from Power BI's built in Azure Machine Learning support.

Next steps

• Learn how to consume a web service.
• Understand automated machine learning results.
• Learn more about automated machine learning and Azure Machine Learning.