This *always* returns the full suite definition. For single use of suite definition in the python code there is no difference between sync_local()and get_server_defs().

 *HOWEVER* if you wish to monitor the server in python then you *MUST* uses sync_local() as it will be considerably faster and will avoid overloading the server.

 try:         
    ci = Client()         # use default host(ECF_NODE) & port(ECF_PORT)
    ci.get_server_defs()  # retrieve definition from the server and store on 'ci'
    print ci.get_defs()   # print out definition stored in the client
 except RuntimeError, e:
   print str(e)