# knife ssh

The knife ssh subcommand is used to invoke SSH commands (in parallel) on a subset of nodes within an organization, based on the results of a search query.

## Syntax

This argument has the following syntax:

    $ knife ssh SEARCH_QUERY SSH_COMMAND (options)

## Options

Note

Review the list of common options available to this (and all) Knife subcommands and plugins.

This subcommand has the following options:

`-a SSH_ATTR`, `--attribute SSH_ATTR`
  The attribute that is used when opening the SSH connection. The default attribute is the FQDN of the host. Other possible values include a public IP address, a private IP address, or a hostname.
`-A`, `--forward-agent`
  Indicates that SSH agent forwarding is enabled.
`-C NUM`, `--concurrency NUM`
  The number of allowed concurrent connections.
`-G GATEWAY`, `--ssh-gateway GATEWAY`
  The SSH tunnel or gateway that is used to run a bootstrap action on a machine that is not accessible from the workstation.
`-i IDENTITY_FILE`, `--identity-file IDENTIFY_FILE`
  The SSH identity file used for authentication. Key-based authentication is recommended.
`-m`, `--manual-list`
  Indicates that a search query is a space-separated list of servers. If there is more than one item in the list, put quotes around the entire list. For example: `--manual-list "server01 server 02 server 03"`
`--[no-]host-key-verify`
  Use `--no-host-key-verify` to disable host key verification. Default setting: `--host-key-verify`.
`OTHER`
  The shell type. Possible values: `interactive`, `screen`, `tmux`, `macterm`, or `cssh`. (`csshx` is deprecated in favor of `cssh`.)
`-p PORT`, `--ssh-port PORT`
  The SSH port.
`-P PASSWORD`, `--ssh-password PASSWORD`
  The SSH password. This can be used to pass the password directly on the command line. If this option is not specified (and a password is required) Knife will prompt for the password.
`SEARCH_QUERY`
  The search query used to return a list of servers to be accessed using SSH and the specified `SSH_COMMAND`. This option uses the same syntax as the search sub-command.
`SSH_COMMAND`
  The command that will be run against the results of a search query.
`-x USER_NAME`, `--ssh-user USER_NAME`
  The SSH user name.

## Examples

The following examples show how to use this Knife subcommand:

Find server uptime

To find the uptime of all of web servers running Ubuntu on the Amazon EC2 platform, enter:

    $ knife ssh "role:web" "uptime" -x ubuntu -a ec2.public_hostname

to return something like:

    ec2-174-129-127-206.compute-1.amazonaws.com  13:50:47 up 1 day, 23:26,  1 user,  load average: 0.25, 0.18, 0.11
    ec2-67-202-63-102.compute-1.amazonaws.com    13:50:47 up 1 day, 23:33,  1 user,  load average: 0.12, 0.13, 0.10
    ec2-184-73-9-250.compute-1.amazonaws.com     13:50:48 up 16:45,  1 user,  load average: 0.30, 0.22, 0.13
    ec2-75-101-240-230.compute-1.amazonaws.com   13:50:48 up 1 day, 22:59,  1 user,  load average: 0.24, 0.17, 0.11
    ec2-184-73-60-141.compute-1.amazonaws.com    13:50:48 up 1 day, 23:30,  1 user,  load average: 0.32, 0.17, 0.15

Run the chef-client on all nodes

    $ knife ssh 'name:*' 'sudo chef-client'

Force a chef-client run

To force a chef-client run on all of the web servers running Ubuntu on the Amazon EC2 platform, enter:

    $ knife ssh "role:web" "sudo chef-client" -x ubuntu -a ec2.public_hostname

to return something like:

    ec2-67-202-63-102.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:37 +0000] INFO: Starting Chef Run (Version 0.9.10)
    ec2-174-129-127-206.compute-1.amazonaws.com [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:37 +0000] INFO: Starting Chef Run (Version 0.9.10)
    ec2-184-73-9-250.compute-1.amazonaws.com    [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:38 +0000] INFO: Starting Chef Run (Version 0.9.10)
    ec2-75-101-240-230.compute-1.amazonaws.com  [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:38 +0000] INFO: Starting Chef Run (Version 0.9.10)
    ec2-184-73-60-141.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:38 +0000] INFO: Starting Chef Run (Version 0.9.10)
    ec2-174-129-127-206.compute-1.amazonaws.com [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:39 +0000] INFO: Chef Run complete in 1.419243 seconds
    ec2-174-129-127-206.compute-1.amazonaws.com [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:39 +0000] INFO: cleaning the checksum cache
    ec2-174-129-127-206.compute-1.amazonaws.com [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:39 +0000] INFO: Running report handlers
    ec2-174-129-127-206.compute-1.amazonaws.com [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:39 +0000] INFO: Report handlers complete
    ec2-67-202-63-102.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:39 +0000] INFO: Chef Run complete in 1.578265 seconds
    ec2-67-202-63-102.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:39 +0000] INFO: cleaning the checksum cache
    ec2-67-202-63-102.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:39 +0000] INFO: Running report handlers
    ec2-67-202-63-102.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:39 +0000] INFO: Report handlers complete
    ec2-184-73-9-250.compute-1.amazonaws.com    [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: Chef Run complete in 1.638884 seconds
    ec2-184-73-9-250.compute-1.amazonaws.com    [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: cleaning the checksum cache
    ec2-184-73-9-250.compute-1.amazonaws.com    [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: Running report handlers
    ec2-184-73-9-250.compute-1.amazonaws.com    [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: Report handlers complete
    ec2-75-101-240-230.compute-1.amazonaws.com  [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: Chef Run complete in 1.540257 seconds
    ec2-75-101-240-230.compute-1.amazonaws.com  [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: cleaning the checksum cache
    ec2-75-101-240-230.compute-1.amazonaws.com  [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: Running report handlers
    ec2-75-101-240-230.compute-1.amazonaws.com  [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: Report handlers complete
    ec2-184-73-60-141.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: Chef Run complete in 1.502489 seconds
    ec2-184-73-60-141.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: cleaning the checksum cache
    ec2-184-73-60-141.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: Running report handlers
    ec2-184-73-60-141.compute-1.amazonaws.com   [Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:18:40 +0000] INFO: Report handlers complete

Run a command based on search query

To query for all nodes that have the “webserver” role and then use SSH to run the command “sudo chef-client”, enter:

    $ knife ssh "role:webserver" "sudo chef-client"

Upgrade all nodes

    $ knife ssh name:* "sudo aptitude upgrade -y"

Specify the shell type

To specify the shell type used on the nodes returned by a search query:

    $ knife ssh roles:opscode-omnitruck macterm

where `screen` is one of the following values: `cssh`, `interactive`, `macterm`, `screen`, or `tmux`. If the node does not have the shell type installed, Knife will return an error similar to the following:

    you need the rb-appscript gem to use knife ssh macterm.
    `(sudo) gem    install rb-appscript` to install
    ERROR: LoadError: cannot load such file -- appscript