Jump start AI/ML with the R Package caret

The most trending topics these days are Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Every day you get tons of news about AI and ML. R programming language is well placed to initiate you into these 'esoteric' topics. There is a learning curve and should you learn to scale the peaks there will be rewards. So much of 'carrot' talk.

In R, the package that does a lot of work for you as far as AI and ML are concerned is the package 'caret'. You should load this package and use its library to begin your AI/ML related activities. Of course there are more roads to Rome than one.

If have been working with R, you can launch R and install the package. If you are using Microsoft R (R Server/ R Client), you can launch the R GUI.

Run the install statement ass shown:

> install.packages("caret")

Installing package into ‘C:/Users/Owner/Documents/R/win-library/3.3’

(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)

also installing the dependencies ‘minqa’, ‘nloptr’, ‘RcppEigen’, ‘lme4’, ‘SparseM’, ‘MatrixModels’, ‘pbkrtest’, ‘quantreg’, ‘car’

After contacting the site to download a number of packages are downloaded and checked as shown here:

package ‘minqa’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

package ‘nloptr’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

package ‘RcppEigen’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

package ‘lme4’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

package ‘SparseM’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

package ‘MatrixModels’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

package ‘pbkrtest’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

package ‘quantreg’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

package ‘car’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

package ‘caret’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked

Note that the 'caret' library requires ggplot2 which will also be loaded, if you already have it.

Please look up other R related posts on this blog:

http://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/search?q=ggplot

Let us come back and look at how it may be used.

As is, this post is not 100% SQL Server except that I used the Microsoft R for this post.

caret documentation here.

Jump start your SQL Server 2016 Exploration journey here.

 Review the following before reading this post:

http://hodentekmsss.blogspot.com/2016/05/watch-out-sql-server-2016-general.html
http://hodentekmsss.blogspot.com/2016/05/download-sql-server-management-studio.html 
http://hodentekmsss.blogspot.com/2016/05/stretch-database-is-nice-feature-of-sql.html


Download the SQL Server 2012 Developer Edition from Microsoft Site.

Mount the .ISO file as described here.


Double click the executable file in the mounted drive.

Agree to updating computer information

SQL Server Installation center is displayed.

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Install_001

Click System Configuration checker.
Rules get checked as shown.

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Click OK

Click hardware and software requirements. You are taken to Microsoft site to review details.
Details here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506(v=sql.130).aspx#top_principal
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You can access a virtual machine on which SQL Server 2016 is already installed, if you have an Azure account for evaluation.

• Needs .NET Framework 4.6.1 and will be installed during SQL Server 2016 installation.

Hardware requirements as shown here:

Install_003

• You need 1GB except for Express which needs only 512MB. Recommended is 4GB

• x64 Processor, 1.4 GHZ recommended 2.0 GHZ or higher

• No x86 bit server

• No WOW support either

• Management tools OK on WOW

Two types of editions:

Principal Editions--Enterprise, Standard and Web
Breadth Editions--Developer and Express

For Windows 10, the type can be either Standard in Principal
or Developer and Express in Breadth editions

Click on Installation in SQL Server Installation Center to display Installation details

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Click on the first option, New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation.

The Product Key page is displayed. For developer edition no product key is required.

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Click Next to open the License Terms page as shown.

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Accept License terms and click Next.

Checks Global rules and takes you to product update page as shown
KB3164398---https://support.microsoft.com/en-us

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Click Next.

Install Setup Files page is displayed as shown.--this takes a while!

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Install_008_2

 

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Click OK to Rules Check Result Message. Click Next

Features Selection page is displayed. Make selections

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After the 'Please Wait..' window the Instance Configuration window is displayed as shown.

Herein a named instance will be installed.

Installing a named instance called OHANA as shown

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Click Next.                         --after the 'Please Wait..' window


Polybase Configuration page is displayed as shown.

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Click Next. The Server Configuration page is displayed. The various service accounts needs to be set. In what follows, in this installation, the current computer user takes on all the accounts with his Windows password. This is just to keep it simple. In an enterprise, this way of handling must be avoided.

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Regarding initialization look here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms175935(v=sql.130).aspx
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In the next couple of interactive windows the Service's Account Name will be changed to reflect the current user assuming them.

Click inside the Account Name window of the SQL Server Agent to bring up the drop-down menu.

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Click Browse...to display the Select User or Group window.

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Click Advanced... button.

Select User or Group (adv) page is displayed.

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Click Find Now button. The Search results pane gets populated with all relevant account information.

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Choose the Current User of computer by highlighting it and Click OK. The current user gets selected.

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Click OK. Current user account name is inserted for the SQL Server Agent's Account Name a shown.

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Do the same for the other services. Actually after doing for the SQL Server Agent you can copy the Account Name and paste in the other services. Enter password for each service, the same Windows password.

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Oops! there was a typo in the Reporting Services password field.

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Error in password for Reporting Services Corrected. Click Next.
Database Engine Configuration page is displayed.

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Click Add Current User on the Server Configuration tabbed pane as shown. The current user's user name gets added to the Specify SQL Server administrators'' pane

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Click Data Directories tab. In Data Directories accept default.

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Click TempDB tab. Note the file names and other details. Just accept the defaults.

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Click File Stream tab. Click all check boxes.

Install_014_d

Click Next.

Analysis Services Configuration mode is displayed
Default is Multidimensional and data mining mode. You can choose only a single server mode.
Accept default.

Install_015
Click Add Current User. Current User will be added as an administrator.

Click Data Directories tab.

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Make no changes and click Next.

Reporting Services Configuration page is displayed as shown.

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Accept default and click Next.

The Consent to install Microsoft R Open page is displayed.

Install_018                          --Please Wait window is displaeyd.
Click Next.
Feature configuration check is made and the Ready to Install page is displayed.

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Install_019_a

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Install_019_c

Install_019_d

Install_019_e

Install_019_f

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Click Install. The installation took slightly less than hour. This is the fastest ever for SQL Server in all these years.

The computer was not restarted but only the above message window clicked OK.

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That's all.

Start working with SQL Server 2016 Developer free edition

In my previous post, I had mentioned that SQL Server 2016 Developer will be available at the end of year. However, SQL Server Developer 2016 is available at this site here beginning 5/31/2016 .

You can download x64 bit version for English language here;
https://myprodscussu1.app.vssubscriptions.visualstudio.com/Downloads?PId=2057

 Here is a picture of the download site page:

It is possible for me to download as I have a couple of Microsoft Products already for which I have subscribed like, Office 365 and Microsoft Azure. I have registered for many other Microsoft Products over the years.

This is the file you would be downloading:

It is 2 GB and it can take quite sometime to download to your computer.

I also heard that MSDN subscribers can get immediate access to new Microsoft Products which are free.

In any case you would like to download, access the link at the top.

Even if you do not download you can still train in SQL Server 2016 here at the Microsoft Virtual Labs for free.

Here are step-by-step instructions to install SQL Server 2016 Developer on a Windows 10 machine.

Microsoft's R Server Developer Edition is FREE

Data is dead long live analytics.

Analytics will be the beacon to follow by all enterprises in the future. Having mere data and not being able to act on it is something that everyone will rush to avoid. R language, a language meant for statisticss and analytics will be one of the most sought after skills in the near future.

Microsoft has thrown in a lot to be at the forefront, not only acquiring the Revolution Analytics Company but also making it one of the prime features of SQL Server 2016.

Microsoft will be rebranding Revolution Enterprise for Hadoop, Linux and Tera data as R Server.
If you are interested in this growing technology area you could jump start downloading the R Server Developer Edition which is free (as free can be). It's just like all the other developer's stuff, has all the features of enterprise but not production worthy.

Also Revolution R Open has been rebranded as Microsoft R Open which is also free. For those who are already using MicrosoftData Science Virtual will have a preinstalled R Server. It is not a stretch that R Server will be on Azure as well for machine learning and IOT.

Download R Server here.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/machinelearning/archive/2016/01/12/making-r-the-enterprise-standard-for-cross-platform-analytics-both-on-premises-and-in-the-cloud.aspx

Read more here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/machinelearning/

Students following an acdemic course will be benefitted with the Microsoft DreamSpark Program .