Local mode

When you execute lemur as "lemur local ...", instead of launching an EMR cluster, lemur will start your local hadoop installation (which is generally configured for Hadoop standalone or pseudo-distributed mode). You should have a Hadoop 0.20.x installation, with 'hadoop' in your PATH.

This is a great way to test your job locally, or might be appropriate for small jobs or queries. Or can be used if you are launching a hadoop job on a fixed cluster.