# Error on saving large SameDiff model with FlatBuffers

**URL:** <https://community.konduit.ai/t/error-on-saving-large-samediff-model-with-flatbuffers/578>\
**Category:** SameDiff\
**Created:** [June 3, 2020, 7:13am UTC](https://community.konduit.ai/t/error-on-saving-large-samediff-model-with-flatbuffers/578 "2020-06-03T07:13:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![weinino](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/community.konduit.ai/weinino/32/119_2.png) [@weinino](https://community.konduit.ai/u/weinino)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 7:13am UTC](https://community.konduit.ai/t/error-on-saving-large-samediff-model-with-flatbuffers/578/1 "2020-06-03T07:13:30Z")

</div>

Hi

I have a BERT model in SameDiff, that I would like to save using the normal “save” method provided by SameDiff. However, I get the following error as a result of the FlatBuffers maximum size:

```
Caused by: java.lang.AssertionError: FlatBuffers: cannot grow buffer beyond 2 gigabytes.
	at com.google.flatbuffers.FlatBufferBuilder.growByteBuffer(FlatBufferBuilder.java:210)
	at com.google.flatbuffers.FlatBufferBuilder.prep(FlatBufferBuilder.java:257)
	at com.google.flatbuffers.FlatBufferBuilder.startVector(FlatBufferBuilder.java:430)
	at org.nd4j.graph.FlatArray.createBufferVector(FlatArray.java:47)
	at org.nd4j.linalg.api.ndarray.BaseNDArray.toFlatArray(BaseNDArray.java:5449)
	at org.nd4j.linalg.api.ndarray.BaseNDArray.toFlatArray(BaseNDArray.java:5446)
	at org.nd4j.autodiff.samediff.SameDiff.asFlatBuffers(SameDiff.java:4893)
	at org.nd4j.autodiff.samediff.SameDiff.asFlatBuffers(SameDiff.java:4737)
	at org.nd4j.autodiff.samediff.SameDiff.asFlatBuffers(SameDiff.java:4959)
	at org.nd4j.autodiff.samediff.SameDiff.asFlatFile(SameDiff.java:5073)
	at org.nd4j.autodiff.samediff.SameDiff.save(SameDiff.java:4973)
	at org.nd4j.autodiff.samediff.SameDiff.save(SameDiff.java:4993)

```

Is there an alternative way to store the model? Based on the functionality in SameDiff all what I saw finally ends using the FlatBuffers.

I also save the update state, what makes the model larger. However, I guess it should not be the problem to serialize a large model with the update state?

I’m currently using beta7.

Thank you 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![treo](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/community.konduit.ai/treo/32/47_2.png) [@treo](https://community.konduit.ai/u/treo)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 7:29am UTC](https://community.konduit.ai/t/error-on-saving-large-samediff-model-with-flatbuffers/578/2 "2020-06-03T07:29:07Z")

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Unfortunately that currently is a limitation of flatbuffers and it is one of the reasons that we’d like to move away from using it eventually, as is documented here: [SameDiff: Implement new graph format (FlatBuffers storage problems to be resolved) · Issue #8312 · eclipse/deeplearning4j · GitHub](https://github.com/eclipse/deeplearning4j/issues/8312)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![weinino](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/community.konduit.ai/weinino/32/119_2.png) [@weinino](https://community.konduit.ai/u/weinino)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://community.konduit.ai/t/error-on-saving-large-samediff-model-with-flatbuffers/578/3 "2020-06-05T14:08:20Z")

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Without saving the updater state it works. I can live with that for the moment, since I will not continue training of a trained model at the moment. For the future however, this might become a requirement.

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**Author:** ![adonnini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@adonnini](https://community.konduit.ai/u/adonnini)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2023, 10:42pm UTC](https://community.konduit.ai/t/error-on-saving-large-samediff-model-with-flatbuffers/578/4 "2023-08-18T22:42:36Z")

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Hi,

I run into this problem even with `updater` set to `false`.

Any suggestions as to how I can resolve/work around this issue?

Thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![agibsonccc](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/community.konduit.ai/agibsonccc/32/697_2.png) [@agibsonccc](https://community.konduit.ai/u/agibsonccc)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 2:25am UTC](https://community.konduit.ai/t/error-on-saving-large-samediff-model-with-flatbuffers/578/5 "2023-08-19T02:25:10Z")

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@adonnini what version are you using? Could you post more context?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![adonnini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@adonnini](https://community.konduit.ai/u/adonnini)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://community.konduit.ai/t/error-on-saving-large-samediff-model-with-flatbuffers/578/6 "2023-08-19T13:28:12Z")

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@agibsonccc I am using m2.

The failure occurs when I try to execute this code:

```java
        try {
            sd.asFlatFile(saveFileForInference, false);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }

```

after I run sd.fit

Do you need any additional information?

Thanks