Best practices for data versioning
Over the years, I have gathered the following best practices:
- Use a dedicated data versioning tool such as DVC for large-scale projects.
- Include dataset version information in your model metadata.
- Use delta-based versioning for large datasets to save storage space.
- Implement regular backups of your versioned datasets.
- Use consistent naming conventions for dataset versions and variants.
- Integrate data versioning checks into your continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline for LLM training. This can be achieved by adding DVC-specific validation steps in your CI/CD workflow, such as running
dvc status
to verify no unexpected modifications have occurred, automatically comparing dataset checksums against approved versions, and blocking model training if any data discrepancies are detected. Key steps include creating a pre-training validation stage that compares current dataset versions with expected reference...