title: TensorFlow v1.10+ Serving Custom Estimator?
body: <p>There are several questions regarding serving with TensorFlow e.g.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47856879/saving-custom-estimators-in-tensorflow">Saving custom estimators in TensorFlow</a></p></li>
  <li><p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49040715/tensorflow-serving">Tensorflow serving</a></p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>However many, that I have found, are outdated, related to the <code>Estimator</code>'s <code>export_outputs</code>, or use a different API (e.g. C#).</p>
  
  <p>Further, the "Basic" <a href="https://www.tensorflow.org/serving/serving_basic#load_exported_model_with_standard_tensorflow_modelserver" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Serving Guide</a> is anything but. It assumes familiarity with <a href="https://www.docker.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">docker</a>, requires use of a separate TensorFlow <a href="https://github.com/tensorflow/serving" rel="nofollow noreferrer">repo</a>, and the guide for loading a model is limited to what follows:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><strong>Load exported model with standard TensorFlow ModelServer</strong></p>
    
    <p>Use a Docker serving image to easily load the model for serving:</p>
  
  <pre><code>docker run -p 8500:8500 \
  --mount type=bind,source=/tmp/mnist,target=/models/mnist \
  -e MODEL_NAME=mnist -t tensorflow/serving &amp;
  </code></pre>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>without bothering to explain what any of the arguments mean and how one would begin to adapt it to a custom estimator.</p>
  
  <p>So here is a <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1GKAqEo7qSr6kMAgxPrOrudA5eLndQ6Ub" rel="nofollow noreferrer">simple custom estimator</a></p>
  
  <p>Can someone please explain to me in layman's terms, for someone who does not know what gRPC service is, how to take my exported model from the above <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1GKAqEo7qSr6kMAgxPrOrudA5eLndQ6Ub" rel="nofollow noreferrer">colab</a> (say I download the files directory as is from the <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1GKAqEo7qSr6kMAgxPrOrudA5eLndQ6Ub" rel="nofollow noreferrer">colab</a> to <code>/tmp/colab/&lt;contents-from-linked-colab&gt;</code>) and serve it (preferably without docker)</p>