diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 283c104125da306f8f90e7261abae8b079384b8c..6ee3b49239105afbb7b4ca6228264bca7ec390f9 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -324,7 +324,8 @@ qa_scripts = \
 	qa/qa_tags.py \
 	qa/qa_utils.py
 
-dist_sbin_SCRIPTS =
+dist_sbin_SCRIPTS = \
+	tools/ganeti-listrunner
 
 nodist_sbin_SCRIPTS = \
 	$(PYTHON_BOOTSTRAP) \
@@ -397,6 +398,7 @@ man_MANS = \
 	man/ganeti.7 \
 	man/ganeti-cleaner.8 \
 	man/ganeti-confd.8 \
+	man/ganeti-listrunner.8 \
 	man/ganeti-masterd.8 \
 	man/ganeti-noded.8 \
 	man/ganeti-os-interface.7 \
diff --git a/man/ganeti-listrunner.rst b/man/ganeti-listrunner.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ce8086aa18cc74efef82499fc6a978140c17d717
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/ganeti-listrunner.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+ganeti-listrunner(8) Ganeti | Version @GANETI_VERSION@
+======================================================
+
+NAME
+----
+
+ganeti-listrunner - Run commands in parallel over multiple machines
+
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+
+**ganeti-listrunner** ``-l`` *logdir*
+{``-x`` *executable* | ``-c`` *shell-cmd*}
+{``-f`` *hostfile* | ``-h`` *hostlist*}
+[``-a`` *aux-file*]
+[``-b`` *batch-size*]
+[``-u`` *username*]
+[``-A``]
+
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+
+**ganeti-listrunner** is a tool to run commands in parallel over multiple
+machines. It differs from ``dsh`` or other tools in that it asks for the
+password once (if not using ``ssh-agent``) and then reuses the password to
+connect to all machines, thus being easily usable even when public key
+authentication or Kerberos authentication is not available.
+
+It can run either a command or a script (which gets uploaded first and deleted
+after execution) on a  list  of hosts provided either via a file (one host per
+line) or as a comma-separated list on the commandline. The out‐ put (stdout and
+stderr are merged) of the remote execution is written to a logfile. One logfile
+per  host  is written.
+
+
+OPTIONS
+-------
+
+The options that can be passed to the program are as follows:
+
+``-l`` *logdir*
+  The directory under which the logfiles files should be written.
+
+``-x`` *executable*
+  The executable to copy and run on the target hosts.
+
+``-c`` *shell-cmd*
+  The shell command to run on the remote hosts.
+
+``-f`` *hostfile*
+  The file with the target hosts, one hostname per line.
+
+``-h`` *hostlist*
+  Comma-separated list of target hosts.
+
+``-a`` *aux-file*
+  A file to copy to the target hosts. Can be given multiple times, in which case
+  all files will be copied to the temporary directory. The executable or the
+  shell command will be run from the (temporary) directory where these files
+  have been copied.
+
+``-b`` *batch-size*
+  The host list will be split into batches of batch-size which will be processed
+  in parallel. The default if 15, and should be increased if faster processing
+  is needed.
+
+``-u`` *username*
+  Username to connect as instead of the default root username.
+
+``-A``
+  Use an existing ssh-agent instead of password authentication.
+
+
+EXIT STATUS
+-----------
+
+The exist status of the command will be zero, unless it was aborted in some way
+(e.g. ^C).
+
+
+EXAMPLE
+-------
+
+Run a command on a list of hosts::
+
+  listrunner -l logdir -c "uname -a" -h host1,host2,host3
+
+Upload a script, some auxiliary files and run the script::
+
+  listrunner -l logdir -x runme.sh -a seed.dat -a golden.dat -h host1,host2,host3
+
+
+SEE ALSO
+--------
+
+dsh(1), cssh(1)
diff --git a/tools/ganeti-listrunner b/tools/ganeti-listrunner
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..72b4266b200ecb770b4c680abecff24b6e3438aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ganeti-listrunner
@@ -0,0 +1,553 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+#
+
+# Copyright (C) 2006, 2007, 2010 Google Inc.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+# General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
+# 02110-1301, USA.
+
+"""Run an executable on a list of hosts.
+
+Script to serially run an executable on a list of hosts via ssh
+with password auth as root. If the provided log dir does not yet
+exist, it will try to create it.
+
+Implementation:
+ - the main process spawns up to batch_size children, which:
+ - connects to the remote host via ssh as root
+ - uploads the executable with a random name to /tmp via sftp
+ - chmod 500s it
+ - via ssh: chdirs into the upload directory and runs the script
+ - deletes it
+ - writes status messages and all output to one logfile per host
+ - the main process gathers then the status of the children and
+   reports the success/failure ratio
+ - entire script can be aborted with Ctrl-C
+
+Security considerations:
+ - the root password for the remote hosts is stored in memory for the
+   runtime of the script
+ - the executable to be run on the remote host is handled the following way:
+   - try to create a random directory with permissions 700 on the
+     remote host, abort furter processing on this host if this failes
+   - upload the executable with to a random filename in that directory
+   - set executable permissions to 500
+   - run the executable
+   - delete the execuable and the directory on the remote host
+
+"""
+
+# pylint: disable-msg=C0103
+# C0103: Invalid name ganeti-listrunner
+
+import errno
+import getopt
+import getpass
+import logging
+import os
+import random
+import select
+import socket
+import sys
+import time
+import traceback
+
+import paramiko
+
+
+REMOTE_PATH_BASE = "/tmp/listrunner"
+
+
+def LogDirUseable(logdir):
+  """Ensure log file directory is available and usable."""
+  testfile = "%s/test-%s-%s.deleteme" % (logdir, random.random(),
+                                         random.random())
+  try:
+    os.mkdir(logdir)
+  except OSError, err:
+    if err.errno != errno.EEXIST:
+      raise
+  try:
+    logtest = open(testfile, "aw")
+    logtest.writelines("log file writeability test\n")
+    logtest.close()
+    os.unlink(testfile)
+    return True
+  except (OSError, IOError):
+    return False
+
+
+def ShowHelp(executable):
+  """Print short usage information."""
+  print ("usage: %s -l logdir [-c|-x] value [-b batch_size]"
+         " [-f hostfile|-h hosts] [-u username]"
+         " [-p password_file]" % executable)
+  print """        -l logdir to write logfiles to
+        -x executable to run on remote host(s)
+        -c shell command to run on remote host(s)
+        -f hostlist file (one host per line)
+        -a optional auxiliary file to upload (can be given multiple times)
+        -b batch-size, how many hosts to process in parallel [15]
+        -h comma-separated list of hosts or single hostname
+        -u username used to connect [root]
+        -p password used to authenticate"""
+
+
+def GetTimeStamp(timestamp=None):
+  """Return ISO8601 timestamp.
+
+  Returns ISO8601 timestamp, optionally expects a time.localtime() tuple
+  in timestamp, but will use the current time if this argument is not
+  supplied.
+  """
+  if timestamp is None:
+    timestamp = time.localtime()
+
+  isotime = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S", timestamp)
+  return isotime
+
+
+def PingByTcp(target, port, timeout=10, live_port_needed=False, source=None):
+  """Simple ping implementation using TCP connect(2).
+
+  Try to do a TCP connect(2) from an optional source IP to the
+  specified target IP and the specified target port. If the optional
+  parameter live_port_needed is set to true, requires the remote end
+  to accept the connection. The timeout is specified in seconds and
+  defaults to 10 seconds. If the source optional argument is not
+  passed, the source address selection is left to the kernel,
+  otherwise we try to connect using the passed address (failures to
+  bind other than EADDRNOTAVAIL will be ignored).
+
+  """
+  sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+
+  success = False
+
+  if source is not None:
+    try:
+      sock.bind((source, 0))
+    except socket.error, (errcode):
+      if errcode == errno.EADDRNOTAVAIL:
+        success = False
+
+  sock.settimeout(timeout)
+
+  try:
+    sock.connect((target, port))
+    sock.close()
+    success = True
+  except socket.timeout:
+    success = False
+  except socket.error, (errcode):
+    success = (not live_port_needed) and (errcode == errno.ECONNREFUSED)
+
+  return success
+
+
+def GetHosts(hostsfile):
+  """Return list of hosts from hostfile.
+
+  Reads the hostslist file and returns a list of hosts.
+  Expects the hostslist file to contain one hostname per line.
+
+  """
+  try:
+    datafile = open(hostsfile, "r")
+  except IOError, msg:
+    print "Failed to open hosts file %s: %s" % (hostsfile, msg)
+    sys.exit(2)
+
+  hosts = datafile.readlines()
+  datafile.close()
+
+  return hosts
+
+
+def WriteLog(message, logfile):
+  """Writes message, terminated by newline, to logfile."""
+  try:
+    logfile = open(logfile, "aw")
+  except IOError, msg:
+    print "failed to open log file %s: %s" % (logfile, msg)
+    print "log message was: %s" % message
+    sys.exit(1)  # no being able to log is critical
+  try:
+    timestamp = GetTimeStamp()
+    logfile.writelines("%s %s\n" % (timestamp, message))
+    logfile.close()
+  except IOError, msg:
+    print "failed to write to logfile %s: %s" % (logfile, msg)
+    print "log message was: %s" % message
+    sys.exit(1)  # no being able to log is critical
+
+
+def GetAgentKeys():
+  """Tries to get a list of ssh keys from an agent."""
+  try:
+    agent = paramiko.Agent()
+    return list(agent.get_keys())
+  except paramiko.SSHException:
+    return []
+
+
+def SetupSshConnection(host, username, password, keys, logfile):
+  """Setup the ssh connection used for all later steps.
+
+  This function sets up the ssh connection that will be used both
+  for upload and remote command execution.
+
+  On success, it will return paramiko.Transport object with an
+  already logged in session. On failure, False will be returned.
+
+  """
+  # check if target is willing to talk to us at all
+  if not PingByTcp(host, 22, live_port_needed=True):
+    WriteLog("ERROR: FAILURE_NOT_REACHABLE", logfile)
+    print "  - ERROR: host not reachable on 22/tcp"
+    return False
+
+  all_kwargs = [{"pkey": k} for k in keys]
+  all_desc = ["key %d" % d for d in range(len(keys))]
+  if password is not None:
+    all_kwargs.append({"password": password})
+    all_desc.append("password")
+
+  # deal with logging out of paramiko.transport
+  handler = None
+
+  for desc, kwargs in zip(all_desc, all_kwargs):
+    try:
+      transport = paramiko.Transport((host, 22))
+
+      # only try to setup the logging handler once
+      if not handler:
+        handler = logging.StreamHandler()
+        handler.setLevel(logging.ERROR)
+        log = logging.getLogger(transport.get_log_channel())
+        log.addHandler(handler)
+
+      transport.connect(username=username, **kwargs) # pylint: disable-msg=W0142
+      WriteLog("ssh connection established using %s" % desc, logfile)
+      # strange ... when establishing the session and the immediately
+      # setting up the channels for sftp & shell from that, it sometimes
+      # fails, but waiting 1 second after session setup makes it always work
+      # time.sleep(1)
+      # FIXME apparently needfull to give sshd some time
+      return transport
+    except (socket.gaierror, socket.error, paramiko.SSHException):
+      continue
+
+  methods = ", ".join(all_desc)
+  WriteLog("ERROR: FAILURE_CONNECTION_SETUP (tried %s) " % methods, logfile)
+  WriteLog("aborted", logfile)
+  print "  - ERROR: connection setup failed (tried %s)" % methods
+
+  return False
+
+
+def UploadFiles(connection, executable, filelist, logfile):
+  """Uploads the specified files via sftp.
+
+  Uploads the specified files to a random, freshly created directory with
+  a temporary name under /tmp. All uploaded files are chmod 0400 after upload
+  with the exception of executable, with is chmod 500.
+
+  Upon success, returns the absolute path to the remote upload directory,
+  but will return False upon failure.
+  """
+  remote_dir = "%s.%s-%s" % (REMOTE_PATH_BASE,
+                             random.random(), random.random())
+
+  try:
+    sftp = paramiko.SFTPClient.from_transport(connection)
+    sftp.mkdir(remote_dir, mode=0700)
+    for item in filelist:
+      remote_file = "%s/%s" % (remote_dir, item.split("/").pop())
+      WriteLog("uploading %s to remote %s" % (item, remote_file), logfile)
+      sftp.put(item, remote_file)
+      if item == executable:
+        sftp.chmod(remote_file, 0500)
+      else:
+        sftp.chmod(remote_file, 0400)
+    sftp.close()
+  except IOError, err:
+    WriteLog("ERROR: FAILURE_UPLOAD: %s" % err, logfile)
+    return False
+
+  return remote_dir
+
+
+def CleanupRemoteDir(connection, upload_dir, filelist, logfile):
+  """Cleanes out and removes the remote work directory."""
+  try:
+    sftp = paramiko.SFTPClient.from_transport(connection)
+    for item in filelist:
+      fullpath = "%s/%s" % (upload_dir, item.split("/").pop())
+      WriteLog("removing remote %s" % fullpath, logfile)
+      sftp.remove(fullpath)
+    sftp.rmdir(upload_dir)
+    sftp.close()
+  except IOError, err:
+    WriteLog("ERROR: FAILURE_CLEANUP: %s" % err, logfile)
+    return False
+
+  return True
+
+
+def RunRemoteCommand(connection, command, logfile):
+  """Execute the command via ssh on the remote host."""
+  session = connection.open_session()
+  session.setblocking(0)
+
+  # the following dance is needed because paramiko changed APIs:
+  # from returning True/False for success to always returning None
+  # and throwing an exception in case of problems.
+  # And I want to support both the old and the new API.
+  result = True  # being optimistic here, I know
+  message = None
+  try:
+    if session.exec_command("%s 2>&1" % command) is False:
+      result = False
+  except paramiko.SSHException, message:
+    result = False
+
+  if not result:
+    WriteLog("ERROR: FAILURE_COMMAND_EXECUTION: %s" % message, logfile)
+    return False
+
+   ### Read when data is available
+  output = ""
+  while select.select([session], [], []):
+    data = session.recv(1024)
+    if not data:
+      break
+    output += data
+    select.select([], [], [], .1)
+
+  WriteLog("SUCCESS: command output follows", logfile)
+  for line in output.split("\n"):
+    WriteLog("output = %s" %line, logfile)
+  WriteLog("command execution completed", logfile)
+  session.close()
+
+  return True
+
+
+def HostWorker(logdir, username, password, keys, hostname,
+               executable, command, filelist):
+  """Per-host worker.
+
+  This function does not return - it's the main code of the childs,
+  which exit at the end of this function. The exit code 0 or 1 will be
+  interpreted by the parent.
+
+  Args:
+    logdir: the directory where the logfiles must be created
+    username: SSH username
+    password: SSH password
+    keys: SSH keys
+    hostname: the hostname to connect to
+    executable: the executable to upload, if not None
+    command: the command to run
+    filelist: auxiliary files to upload
+
+  """
+  # in the child/worker process
+  logfile = "%s/%s.log" % (logdir, hostname)
+  print "%s - starting" % hostname
+  result = 0  # optimism, I know
+  try:
+    connection = SetupSshConnection(hostname, username,
+                                    password, keys, logfile)
+    if connection is not False:
+      if executable is not None:
+        print "  %s: uploading files" % hostname
+        upload_dir = UploadFiles(connection, executable,
+                                 filelist, logfile)
+        command = "cd %s && ./%s" % (upload_dir,
+                                     executable.split("/").pop())
+      print "  %s: executing remote command" % hostname
+      cmd_result = RunRemoteCommand(connection, command, logfile)
+      if cmd_result is True:
+        print "  %s: remote command execution successful" % hostname
+      else:
+        print ("  %s: remote command execution failed,"
+               " check log for details" % hostname)
+        result = 1
+      if executable is not None:
+        print "  %s: cleaning up remote work dir" % hostname
+        cln_result = CleanupRemoteDir(connection, upload_dir,
+                                      filelist, logfile)
+        if cln_result is False:
+          print ("  %s: remote work dir cleanup failed, check"
+                 " log for details" % hostname)
+          result = 1
+      connection.close()
+    else:
+      print "  %s: connection setup failed, skipping" % hostname
+      result = 1
+  except KeyboardInterrupt:
+    print "  %s: received KeyboardInterrupt, aborting" % hostname
+    WriteLog("ERROR: ABORT_KEYBOARD_INTERRUPT", logfile)
+    result = 1
+  except Exception, err:
+    result = 1
+    trace = traceback.format_exc()
+    msg = "ERROR: UNHANDLED_EXECPTION_ERROR: %s\nTrace: %s" % (err, trace)
+    WriteLog(msg, logfile)
+    print "  %s: %s" % (hostname, msg)
+  # and exit with exit code 0 or 1, so the parent can compute statistics
+  sys.exit(result)
+
+
+def LaunchWorker(child_pids, logdir, username, password, keys, hostname,
+                 executable, command, filelist):
+  """Launch the per-host worker.
+
+  Arguments are the same as for HostWorker, except for child_pids,
+  which is a dictionary holding the pid-to-hostname mapping.
+
+  """
+  hostname = hostname.rstrip("\n")
+  pid = os.fork()
+  if pid > 0:
+    # controller just record the pids
+    child_pids[pid] = hostname
+  else:
+    HostWorker(logdir, username, password, keys, hostname,
+               executable, command, filelist)
+
+
+def main():
+  """main."""
+  try:
+    optlist, _ = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], "l:x:h:f:a:c:b:u:p:A")
+  except getopt.GetoptError, err:
+    print str(err)
+    ShowHelp(sys.argv[0])
+    sys.exit(2)
+
+  logdir = executable = hostfile = hostlist = command = None
+  use_agent = False
+  auxfiles = []
+  username = "root"
+  password = None
+  batch_size = 15
+  for option in optlist:
+    if option[0] == "-l":
+      logdir = option[1]
+    if option[0] == "-x":
+      executable = option[1]
+    if option[0] == "-f":
+      hostfile = option[1]
+    if option[0] == "-h":
+      hostlist = option[1]
+    if option[0] == "-a":
+      auxfiles.append(option[1])
+    if option[0] == "-c":
+      command = option[1]
+    if option[0] == "-b":
+      batch_size = int(option[1])
+    if option[0] == "-u":
+      username = option[1]
+    if option[0] == "-p":
+      password = option[1]
+    if option[0] == "-A":
+      use_agent = True
+
+  if not (logdir and (executable or command) and (hostfile or hostlist)):
+    print "error: missing required commandline argument(s)"
+    ShowHelp(sys.argv[0])
+    sys.exit(3)
+
+  if executable and command:
+    print "error: can run either a command or an executable, not both"
+    ShowHelp(sys.argv[0])
+    sys.exit(3)
+
+  if hostlist and hostfile:
+    print "error: specify either -f or -h arguments, not both"
+    ShowHelp(sys.argv[0])
+    sys.exit(3)
+
+  ### Unbuffered sys.stdout
+  sys.stdout = os.fdopen(1, "w", 0)
+
+  if LogDirUseable(logdir) is False:
+    print "ERROR: cannot create logfiles in dir %s, aborting" % logdir
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+  keys = []
+  if use_agent:
+    keys = GetAgentKeys()
+  elif password:
+    try:
+      fh = file(password)
+      pwvalue = fh.readline().strip()
+      fh.close()
+    except IOError, e:
+      print "error: can not read in from password file %s: %s" % (password, e)
+      sys.exit(1)
+    password = pwvalue
+  else:
+    password = getpass.getpass("%s's password for all nodes: " % username)
+
+  if hostfile:
+    hosts = GetHosts(hostfile)
+  else:
+    if "," in hostlist:
+      hostlist = hostlist.rstrip(",")  # commandline robustness
+      hosts = hostlist.split(",")
+    else:
+      hosts = [hostlist]
+
+  successes = failures = 0
+
+  filelist = auxfiles[:]
+  filelist.append(executable)
+
+  # initial batch
+  batch = hosts[:batch_size]
+  hosts = hosts[batch_size:]
+  child_pids = {}
+  for hostname in batch:
+    LaunchWorker(child_pids, logdir, username, password, keys, hostname,
+                 executable, command, filelist)
+
+  while child_pids:
+    pid, status = os.wait()
+    hostname = child_pids.pop(pid, "<unknown host>")
+    print "  %s: done (in parent)" % hostname
+    if os.WIFEXITED(status) and os.WEXITSTATUS(status) == 0:
+      successes += 1
+    else:
+      failures += 1
+    if hosts:
+      LaunchWorker(child_pids, logdir, username, password, keys,
+                   hosts.pop(0), executable, command, filelist)
+
+  print
+  print "All done, %s successful and %s failed hosts" % (successes, failures)
+
+  sys.exit(0)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+  try:
+    main()
+  except KeyboardInterrupt:
+    print "Received KeyboardInterrupt, aborting"
+    sys.exit(1)