scrissh

A tool written in PHP to execute local and remote commands in batch with SSH using YAML configuration files.

This project started as an alternative to Python Fabric and evolved as a lightweight PHP script that allows the execution of multiple commands on local and remote shells using SSH2 and YAML configuration files.

Requirements

• PHP cli, see http://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.php
• PHP libssh2 bindings must be installed on the client host. See http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.ssh2.php for more information.
• A SSH server must be running and listening on the remote host (obviously).

In case libssh2 isn't available, a fallback using phpseclib is provided (untested, any feedback appreciated).

This script has been written on and tested with Debian GNU/Linux. Compatibility with other systems is unknown.

Example configuration file: example.yml

SSH:
  keys:
    private-key: /home/foo/.ssh/id_rsa.prv
    public-key:  /home/foo/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
Servers:
  server1:
    host: server1.example.com
    port: 22
    user: root
    commands:
      - remote: apt-get -s upgrade | grep "upgraded,"
        local: echo "server1: $0" >> upgrade-list
  server2:
    host: server2.example.com
    port: 22
    user: root
    commands:
      - remote: apt-get -s upgrade | grep "upgraded,"
        local: echo "server2: $0" >> upgrade-list
      - local: cat upgrade-list | mail -s "Upgrades" foo@example.com; rm upgrade-list

To execute the above remote commands in batch, assuming scrissh and example.yml are located in the current directory:

./scrissh example.yml

This will simulate a package upgrade on both server1 and server2 and email the results to foo@example.com.

Configuration sections

SSH: configures the SSH connection
  keys: defines the SSH key paths
    private-key: the path to the private key (see important note below)
    public-key: the path to the public key
Servers: a list of hosts to connect to
  [server name]: the name of the host to connect to (can be random)
    host: the hostname of the host
    port: the port used by the connection
    user: the remote user name
    commands: a list of commands to execute
      - remote: a command to be executed on the remote host
                In case only remote commands are to be executed,
                the 'remote' key is optional.
      - local: a command to be executed on localhost
               The string $0 will be replaced by the result
               of the previous remote command.

Note: due to PHP SSH2 native implementation limitations, the private key must be decrypted, using the following command (replace foo by your username):

openssl rsa -in /home/foo/.ssh/id_rsa -out /home/foo/.ssh/id_rsa.prv && chmod 400 /home/foo/.ssh/id_rsa.prv

As this could be a security issue, there's a fallback (untested) to phpseclib in case PHP libssh2 bindings aren't available.