Minimum system requirements to use H2O AutoML

H2O is very easy to install, but certain minimum standard requirements need to be met for it to run smoothly and efficiently. The following are some of the minimum requirements needed by H2O in terms of hardware capabilities, along with other software support:

• The minimum hardware required by H2O is as follows:
  • Memory: H2O runs on an in-memory architecture, so it is limited by the physical memory of the system that uses it. Thus, to be able to process huge chunks of data, the more memory the system, has the better.
  • Central Processing Unit (CPU): By default, H2O will use the maximum available CPUs of the system. However, at a minimum, it will need 4 CPUs.
  • Graphical Processing Unit (GPU): GPU support is only available for XGBoost models in AutoML if the GPUs are NVIDIA GPUs (GPU Cloud, DGX Station, DGX-1, or DGX-2) or if it is a CUDA 8 GPU.
• The operating systems that support H2O are as follows:
  • Ubuntu 12.04
  • OS X 10.9 or later
  • Windows 7 or later
  • CentOS 6 or later
• The programming languages that support H2O are as follows:
  • Java: Java is mandatory for H2O. H2O requires a 64-bit JDK to build H2O and a 64-bit JRE to run its binary:
    • Java versions supported: Java SE 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, and 8
  • Other Languages: The following languages are only required if H2O is being run in those environments:
    • Python 2.7.x, 3.5.x, or 3.6.x
    • Scala 2.10 or later
    • R version 3 or later
• Additional requirements: The following requirements are only needed if H2O is being run in these environments:
  • Hadoop: Cloudera CDH 5.4 or later, Hortonworks HDP 2.2 or later, MapR 4.0 or later, or IBM Open Platform 4.2
  • Conda: 2.7, 3.5, or 3.6
  • Spark: Version 2.1, 2.2, or 2.3

Once we have a system that meets the minimum requirements, we need to focus on H2O’s functional dependencies on other software. H2O has only one dependency and that is Java. Let’s see why Java is important for H2O and how we can download and install the correct supported Java version.