Data center automation company Puppet Labs has acquired an open source project called The Marionette Collective. The project, also known as the Mcollective, is a framework to build server orchestration or parallel job execution systems.

Mcollective’s primary use is to programmatically execute actions on clusters of servers. Puppet Labs says that the technology will help provide multi-server and multi-datacenter orchestration for the companies that use Puppet Labs’ framework for systems management. MCollective’s real-time network discovery capabilities will essentially simplify how users schedule complex sequences of activities using data available from the Puppet platform.

Puppet Labs’ flagship product, Puppet is an open source data center automation and configuration management framework that provides system admins with a platform for transparent and flexible systems management. The solution is currently in use by companies like Digg, Twitter, Shopzilla, Match.com and Oracle/Sun. Puppet has raised $7 million in venture funding.