Use scp to copy a file to different servers

Question

I have to copy a file to different servers almost every day. What I usually do is:

scp filename user@destinationhost:/destination/folder

I run this same command changing the destination host over and over again until I finish all the servers. What is the best (and fastest) way to transfer the same file to those different servers?

Another drawback is that I need to enter the password over and over again, but using rsa is not an option since several people can connect to the source server.

Edit - I found loop in commandlinefu that may do the trick:

 for h in host1 host2 host3 host4 ; { scp file user@$h:/destination_path/ ; }

Anyone knows why everyone else is ignoring scp man page specifies that you can have more than one target? `scp file host1:path host2:path host3:path ...` — ychaouche, Jun 13 '22 at 12:38

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited May 29 '23 at 12:21

7

There are various tools which can scp files to multiple hosts (with simultaneous connections), like pssh and kanif. In terms of passwords I would suggest using agent forwarding. This allows you to keep the key on your local machine, but use it when initiating SSH connections from another host. Otherwise, the --askpass option to the parallel-scp command from pssh makes it prompt for a password to use for every host.

If you can't install a tool to do this, setup agent forwarding (by adding the -A option to ssh when connecting to the machine you're doing this on) and then run scp in a loop like so:

for HOST in server1 server2 server3; do
    scp somefile $HOST:~/somedir/
done

edited May 29 '23 at 12:21

RonJohn

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answered May 15 '12 at 20:49

mgorven

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`pssh` is not installed in the server and I can't run applications that weren't provided by the sysadmin team. – Ruben May 15 '12 at 21:00
@RubenPloneda, but it does sound like you have a valid reason for that tool. You should at least consider it, and forward your request to your sysadmin team to get that installed. – Zoredache May 15 '12 at 21:01
Then you'll have to use SSH agent forwarding and a bash loop (see answer). – mgorven May 15 '12 at 21:05

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered May 15 '12 at 21:54

4

Try doing this with an expect script e.g.

#!/bin/bash

HOSTS="h1.lan h2.lan h3.lan"

read -p "Password: " PASSWORD


for HOST in $HOSTS
do
    expect -c "
    spawn /usr/bin/scp file user@$HOST:/destination_path/
    expect {
    "*password:*" { send $PASSWORD\r;interact }
    }
    exit
    "
done

The above should be fairly straight forward to adapt to your requirements.

answered May 15 '12 at 21:54

user9517

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It results in `... line 10: expect: command not found` – Paulo Coghi Oct 03 '16 at 14:01
My fault. If you don't have `expect` installed, install it first with `sudo apt-get install expect` – Paulo Coghi Oct 03 '16 at 14:08

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 03 '18 at 12:29

I think sshpass should be mentioned here. This is my go on sending a file to multiple targets, with a required password:

filePath="/home/download/textToSend.txt"
ip_range=("10.10.10.1" "10.10.10.2" "10.10.10.3" "10.10.10.4")
# Start file transfer
echo "Starting file transfer to ${#ip_range[@]} units."
for ((i=0; i<${#ip_range[@]}; ++i )) ;
do
   echo "Transfering ${filePath} to ${ip_range[$i]}..."
   sshpass -p password scp -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no' "${filePath}" root@${ip_range[$i]}:/home/downloads&
done
wait
echo "File transfers ended"

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 15 '12 at 21:02

I used 'sshpt' for a similar situation. The SSH Power Tool (sshpt) enables you to execute commands and upload files to many servers simultaneously via SSH without using pre-shared keys. Uploaded files and commands can be executed directly or via sudo.

Use scp to copy a file to different servers

4 Answers4