import logging
logger = logging.Logger('ipcluster')
logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
logger.addHandler(logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout))

ip = get_ipython()
config = ip.config
profile_dir = ip.profile_dir.location # aka ipython_dir/profile_{name}

from IPython.parallel.apps.launcher import LocalControllerLauncher, LocalEngineLauncher

import time

engines = []

def add_engines(n, delay=0.1):
    """start n engines"""
    for i in range(n):
        e = LocalEngineLauncher(config=config, log=logger, profile_dir=profile_dir)
        engines.append(e)
        e.start()
        if i + 1 < n:
            time.sleep(delay)

def cleanup_engines():
    [ e.stop() for e in engines ]

controller = LocalControllerLauncher(config=config, log=logger, profile_dir=profile_dir)
controller.start()

add_engines(5)

from IPython import parallel
rc = parallel.Client()
rc.ids

rc[:]['a'] = 5
rc[:]['a']

engines[0].stop()

rc.ids

add_engines(3)

rc.ids

rc.shutdown(hub=True)