Securely Clustering

As we move more into clustered systems at work, I went trolling for cluster tools the other day. Or more precisely, went back to one of my del.icio.us bookmarks, and downloaded ClusterSSH.

This is a perl script which requires the Tk and X11::Protocol perl modules. After installation, you type:
cssh [user@]<host> [user@]<host> ...


and an xterm window will open and make an ssh connection, one window per host. After these windows are nicely and automatically tiled, you get a single input window, wherein you enter commands. These commands are then run on all connected hosts simultaneously. You can also set the focus to a single system, and type into its xterm window.

Most commercial clustering software vendors offer something similar, but I like ClusterSSH so far; it’s open source, and not tied to being used only with clustered systems. I oftentimes have a need to perform something on similar types of unclustered systems; this tool lends itself to that. It’s infinitely more configurable than I’ve indicated here, and is a great addition to any sysadmin’s software toolbox.

Like using any tool, with great power comes great responsibility. And thus far, I’ve been very careful with the axe.

-k-

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