Exporting training checkpoint to production - idiot's guide required : <p>I'm having a right 'mare.<br>
I'm having real difficulties with trying to get training information to a state where I can deploy to a production server.<br>
I followed <a href="https://github.com/EdjeElectronics/TensorFlow-Object-Detection-API-Tutorial-Train-Multiple-Objects-Windows-10" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this tutorial</a> (which was very granular and perfect for me). I exported the checkpoint to a frozen inference graph and used the test script to see that it worked <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj1aCnQlPdd/?taken-by=luke_sadler_" rel="nofollow noreferrer">really quite well</a>. I read somewhere that these frozen inference graphs are no good for production and need to export it to a 'SavedModel'. 
I spent a good few hours looking for solutions/ guides but so have found a lot of varying answers - some has successfully exported to the '1/saved-model.pb 1/Variables' model folder structure.<br>
Excited, I got myself a digital ocean account, made an Ubuntu VM with Docker pre-installed and set up the following containers:<br>
  - <a href="https://hub.docker.com/r/bitnami/tensorflow-serving/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bitnami/tensorflow-serving</a><br>
  - <a href="https://hub.docker.com/r/bitnami/tensorflow-inception/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bitnami/tensorflow-inception</a>  </p>

<p>I am then starting them up with a docker-compose that starts up some shared directories etc. With the example model (inception-v3), I can get this system working quite well when passing in a jpg.<br>
The problem arises when I try to serve my exported model I get a lot of errors that I'm really not understanding and am unable to find solutions to online. When trying to run it from docker cli, I get some (I suspect) <a href="https://hastebin.com/egecabefan.swift" rel="nofollow noreferrer">network errors</a>.
When I try to setup a NodeJS server, using package <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/tensorflow-serving-node-client" rel="nofollow noreferrer">tensorflow-serving-node-client</a> (which is probably some variation of what I will use to relay my requests from Firebase) comes back complaining about <a href="https://hastebin.com/oyabayimuw.rb" rel="nofollow noreferrer">'tensors' and 'signatures'</a>.  </p>

<p>I'm usually pretty good at problem-solving, but unfortunately, due to lack of sleep, time, and an ability to read particularly well, I'm really coming up short on this one. I know that my fundamental knowledge looks to fall short on the entire subject, which is where my problem-solving is failing.  </p>

<p>I have a VERY strong suspicion that I've not exported the checkpoint correctly, hence having difficulty in serving it, but from all the YouTube videos and blog posts that I've been scouring (for well over a week) only explain up to the point of setting the training away or from the point you've exported your model and want to serve it. If I'm understanding it correctly, there appears to be some kind of market in explaining that middle bit. I did follow <a href="https://www.tensorflow.org/serving/serving_basic#train_and_export_tensorflow_model" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this official guide</a>, but when it all exported, everything was empty ~4kb files, which is obviously not right.  </p>

<p>Is anyone either able to point me in the right direction as to where I can find a concise, reliable guide? The point where I can stop banging my head against the wall would be amazing. I even asked some 'data scientists' at work and they just told me that they've never heard of it and just use R and Excel...  </p>

<p>Send help.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance,<br>
Luke  </p>

<p>ps. Sorry about the length. I'm sure it will get butchered down by some mod - I'm a bit of a verbose explainer.</p>
