Start a process on another computer on the network

Question

I'm required to start a series of python scripts and/or other windows executables. Some of these require a Windows system, others require a Linux machine.

Currently there are designated machines to run the OS-dependent programs. So I know where I want to start which program.

Is there a way to start a python script (or a windows executable) from a python script, on the local network, on another computer (eg run 192.168.0.101:/dir/python_script_123.py ?

The script, which should then run various programs may then look something like this in pseudo code ..

linuxip = 192.168.0.101
linuxparam = "required parameter"

winip = 192.168.0.201
winparam = "required parameter"

#option 1 (run all), 2(run linux only), 3(run windows only), 4(run local only)
option = 1

if option == 1:
    magic_things.run("linuxip:/dir/linux_script.py" + linuxparam)
    magic_things.run("winip:C:\\dir\\windows_prog.exe" + winparam)
    subprocess.call(["/dir/local_script.py","parameter"])
    subprocess.call(["/dir/another_local_script.py","parameter"])
elif option ==2:
    [...]

Answer 1

You need to connect to your server machine from your client. In case of the linux machine you could use SSH. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell

Assuming you have a ssh server on the linux server running you could use the package paramiko ( http://docs.paramiko.org/en/1.15/api/client.html ) to connect to the machine and run your script there.

This could look something like this:

from paramiko.client import SSHClient

client = SSHClient()
client.load_system_host_keys()
client.connect('linuxip', username='your_user', password='very_secret')
stdin, stdout, stderr = client.exec_command('python /home/your_user/your/path/to/scripty.py')

However please note that it's not very secure to store passwords in scripts and it's probably better to use a public/private key authentication (See the wiki article).

The paramiko package also offers the option for an ssh server, so this might be a solution for your windows machine, but I am not very sure as I don't run any windows machines any more.

Hope this was helpful!

David

Answer 2

install ipython and ipython kernel on the remote server, and ipython and ipython kernel on the local machine. Then you can connect to the remote server using the settings here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/48332182/4752883

and run any program that would run on the remote machine using subprocess or the os builtin libraries. Further this is OS independent, so it will work whether your client/server is linux or Windows or Mac