IntroductionΒΆ

ClusterShell provides a light and unified command execution Python framework to help administer GNU/Linux or BSD clusters. Some of the most important benefits of using ClusterShell are to:

  • provide an efficient, parallel and highly scalable command execution engine in Python,
  • support an unified node groups syntax and external group access (see the NodeSet class),
  • significantly speed up initial cluster setup and daily administrative tasks when using tools like clush and cluset / nodeset.

Originally created by the HPC Linux system development team at CEA [1] HPC center in France, ClusterShell is designed around medium and long term ideas of sharing cluster administration development time, and this according to two axes:

  • sharing administrative applications between main components of the computing center: compute clusters, but also storage clusters and server farms (so they can use the same efficient framework for their administrative applications),
  • sharing cluster administration techniques across multiple generations of super-computing clusters (first of all, to avoid that each cluster administration application has to implement its own command execution layer, but also to encourage the adoption of event-based coding model in cluster management scripts).

Two available coding models make the library well-suited for simple scripts or for complex applications as well. Also, the library is fully cluster-aware and has primarily been made for executing remote shell commands in parallel and gathering output results. But it now also provides the developer a set of extra features for administrative applications, like file copy support or time-based notifications (timers) which are discussed in this documentation.

[1]French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, a leading technological research organization in Europe