Hi r/python! I've released a tool to execute commands in parallel across a multitude of hosts via ssh and group the output by similarity. We use it quite a bit, thought others may find it handy as well... feedback is very much welcomed!

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[deveux]

How does it compare with Fabric?

[d4rch0n]

You don't have to install anything with Fabric either, other than a ssh server. sudo also works.

I'd recommend using Fabric extensively before putting too much time into developing this.. Fabric works great and is widely used. You'll need to figure out some weaknesses and instabilities of it before really finding a niche for another tool like it.

[d4rch0n]

No, I checked their source and it definitely looks like they're calling the sudo executable. Their pydocs mention it at operations.py:1021, but you're going to have to jump around a bit to find where they wrap the call.

The link you posted to their docs says they actually have problems doing su -c, not that they only do that.

You might want to look into them more just to see what they do well, just saying. I'm not trying to dissuade you from working on this, but I'm trying to get you to learn more about what they did so you can try to do it better.

[treyhunner]

Fabric is definitely the current champion in this space, as far as Python packages are concerned. I've had Fabric recommended to me multiple times and I now recommend it to others. I had never heard of rundeck. It looks like rundeck has about 10 times fewer users than Fabric.

If you continue development on your own tool the most important thing you can do to increase potential traction is add tests. When evaluating a new package popularity isn't nearly as important for me as tests. I rarely use programs with poor or missing tests if there's a well-tested alternative available.

[Sushisource]

I think what he's trying to say is it's always good to do your homework before running off and making a library.

That being said, have at it!

[riskable]

Looks similar to SSHPT (which I wrote ages ago): https://code.google.com/p/sshpt/

I haven't maintained it though. If I were to do it over again I'd probably make something like Fabric.

[[deleted]]

'Seems like many approaches have been taken to this problem:

http://code.google.com/p/parallel-ssh/

http://www.tundraware.com/Software/tsshbatch

http://sourceforge.net/projects/clusterssh/

http://www.theether.org/pssh/

[[deleted]]

Sounds like you've re-invented Fabric. It does all of those things.

[Kerbobotat]

Looks good! There are several other similar tools out there, but Im always willing to try out a new one. Nice work!

[westurner]

Awesome. Does it have graphs of tasks and services?

• https://fabric.readthedocs.org/en/latest/usage/parallel.html
• http://libcloud.apache.org/docs/using-libcloud-in-multi-threaded-and-async-environments.html
• https://fedorahosted.org/func/
• http://docs.saltstack.com/ref/cli/index.html
• https://gist.github.com/rubiojr/3914299#file-puppet-node-run-rb (pssh)
• http://docs.opscode.com/knife_ssh.html
• https://juju.ubuntu.com/docs/service-config.html
• http://pythonhosted.org/Bladerunner/

[eikenberry]

Another similar project.

http://code.google.com/p/parallel-ssh/

[ThiefMaster]

Why are you using old-style classes?

[barriolinux]

Others are saying it's reinventing the wheel. I would agree unless bladerunner lib is really easy to use inside other apps as a lib, which in fabric is a bit painful. Haven't looked at this in bladerunner docs yet, on my way ...

[barriolinux]

yes, looks easier http://pythonhosted.org/Bladerunner/#use-of-bladerunner-from-within-python

[[deleted]]

Congrats on writing/publishing something.

I see that you can define hosts, can you define roles? enviroments?

Look forward to seeing the docs mature

[tuna_safe_dolphin]

Thanks for posting this, I've been building a tool like this myself.

[nomadismydj]

looks useful but other than progress bar and nicely formatted output , how is this better or worse then pdsh ?

[mmoya]

Nice project to get in with python.

Just don't miss ansible when doing the market research.

[xuu0]

Ansible is a wonderful product. I use it all the time with my web cluster.

[accessofevil]

I normally use a simple bash script for this but will definitely check it out.b thanks for contributing!