first commit!
diff --git a/cvp_checks/utils/__init__.py b/cvp_checks/utils/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9762e8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cvp_checks/utils/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+import os
+import yaml
+import requests
+import re
+
+
+class salt_remote:
+    def cmd(self, tgt, fun, param=None,expr_form=None):
+        config = get_configuration(__file__)
+        for salt_cred in ['SALT_USERNAME', 'SALT_PASSWORD', 'SALT_URL']:
+            if os.environ.get(salt_cred):
+                config[salt_cred] = os.environ[salt_cred]
+        headers = {'Accept':'application/json'}
+        login_payload = {'username':config['SALT_USERNAME'],'password':config['SALT_PASSWORD'],'eauth':'pam'}
+        accept_key_payload = {'fun': fun,'tgt':tgt,'client':'local','expr_form':expr_form}
+        if param:
+            accept_key_payload['arg']=param
+
+        login_request = requests.post(os.path.join(config['SALT_URL'],'login'),headers=headers,data=login_payload)
+        request = requests.post(config['SALT_URL'],headers=headers,data=accept_key_payload,cookies=login_request.cookies)
+        return request.json()['return'][0]
+
+
+def init_salt_client():
+    local = salt_remote()
+    return local
+
+
+def get_active_nodes(config):
+    local_salt_client = init_salt_client()
+
+    skipped_nodes = config.get('skipped_nodes') or []
+    # TODO add skipped nodes to cmd command instead of filtering
+    nodes = local_salt_client.cmd('*', 'test.ping')
+    active_nodes = [
+        node_name for node_name in nodes
+        if nodes[node_name] and node_name not in skipped_nodes
+    ]
+    return active_nodes
+
+
+def get_groups(config):
+    # assume that node name is like <name>.domain
+    # last 1-3 digits of name are index, e.g. 001 in cpu001
+    # name doesn't contain dots
+    active_nodes = get_active_nodes(config)
+    skipped_group = config.get('skipped_group') or []
+    groups = []
+
+    for node in active_nodes:
+        index = re.search('[0-9]{1,3}$', node.split('.')[0])
+        if index:
+            group_name = node.split('.')[0][:-len(index.group(0))]
+        else:
+            group_name = node
+        if group_name not in skipped_group and group_name not in groups:
+            groups.append(group_name)
+    test_groups = []
+    groups_from_config = config.get('groups')
+    # check if config.yaml contains `groups` key
+    if groups_from_config is not None:
+        invalid_groups = []
+        for group in groups_from_config:
+            # check if group name from config
+            # is substring of one of the groups
+            grp = [x for x in groups if group in x]
+            if grp:
+                test_groups.append(grp[0])
+            else:
+                invalid_groups.append(group)
+        if invalid_groups:
+            raise ValueError('Config file contains'
+                             ' invalid groups name: {}'.format(invalid_groups))
+
+    groups = test_groups if test_groups else groups
+
+    # For splitting Ceph nodes
+    local_salt_client = init_salt_client()
+
+    if "ceph*" in groups:
+        groups.remove("ceph*")
+
+        ceph_status = local_salt_client.cmd(
+            'ceph*', "cmd.run", ["ps aux | grep ceph-mon | grep -v grep"])
+
+        mon = []
+        ceph = []
+        for node in ceph_status:
+            if ceph_status[node] != '':
+                mon.append(node.split('.')[0])
+            else:
+                ceph.append(node.split('.')[0])
+
+        mon_regex = "({0}.*)".format(".*|".join(mon))
+        groups.append(mon_regex)
+
+        ceph_regex = "({0}.*)".format(".*|".join(ceph))
+        groups.append(ceph_regex)
+
+    return groups
+
+
+def get_configuration(path_to_test):
+    """function returns configuration for environment
+
+    and for test if it's specified"""
+    global_config_file = os.path.join(
+        os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), "../global_config.yaml")
+    with open(global_config_file, 'r') as file:
+        global_config = yaml.load(file)
+
+    config_file = os.path.join(
+        os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(path_to_test)), "config.yaml")
+
+    if os.path.exists(config_file):
+        with open(config_file, 'r') as file:
+            global_config.update(yaml.load(file))
+
+    return global_config