# The `apssh` binary ## Purpose `apssh` is a tool that aims at running commands remotely using `ssh` on a large number of target nodes at once. It is thus comparable to [parallel-ssh](https://code.google.com/p/parallel-ssh/), except that it is written on top of `asyncio` and `asyncssh`. Note that, in addition to the `apssh` command, the library comes with * a class `SshJob` that can be used in conjunction with `asynciojobs` to write scenarios that are more elaborate than just sending the same command on a bunch of hosts. This is presented in more details in `README-jobs.md` * a `appush` binary for doing multiple concurrent file copies ## How to get it ### Requirement `apssh` requires python-3.5, as it uses the latest syntax constructions `async def` and `await` instead of the former `@asyncio.coroutine` and `yield from` idioms. ### Installation ``` [sudo] pip install apssh ``` ## 2 major modes : well-known commands, or local scripts ### Usual mode The usual way to run a command that is **already present on the remote systems**, is to do e.g. this (we'll see the `-t` option right away) ``` apssh -t host1 -t host2 hostname ``` ### Script mode : using a local script that gets copied over Now if you need to run a more convoluted command, you can of course quote meta characters as `;` and the like, and struggle your way using the same technique. There is however an other way to achieve this, by writing a **local script** (usually a shell or python script) and use the `-s/--script` option, to have `apssh` copy it on the target nodes before executing it, like e.g.: ``` apssh -t host1 -t host2 --script mymacros.sh one two ``` * You can also use this option and provide your own script directly on the command line ``` $ apssh -s -t r2lab.infra --script 'arg1=$1; shift; arg2=$1; shift; echo exchanged $arg2 $arg1' one two faraday.inria.fr:exchanged two one bemol.pl.sophia.inria.fr:exchanged two one ``` This will have the effect to perform the following on each target node : * create if needed a directory named `~/.apssh-remote` * copy the local file `mymacros.sh` - or your inline script - into that remote dir * run `.apssh/mymacros.sh one two` remotely in the home directory Note that in this mode: * the first argument of the commands part (here `mymacros.sh`) should denote a file that exists locally, or be a valid script; * it does not have to sit in the local directory but will be installed right under `~/.apssh-remote` regardless; * the remote file will be created in mode o755; * the command executed remotely has its *cwd* set to the remote home directory. ### Global return code `apssh` returns 0 if and only if all remote commands complete and return 0 themselves; otherwise it returns 1. ## Targets selection ### Adding names : the `-t` or `--target` option To run the command `true` on hosts `host1` and `host2` as well on all hostnames contained in file `hosts.list`, do this: ``` $ apssh -t host1 -t hosts.list -t host2 true ``` As a matter of fact you can use the `--target` option to refer to * the name of **an existing file**: in this case, the file is read, lines with a `#` are considered comments and ignored, all the rest is considered a list of litteral targets (see below); you can have several hostnames on one line if you want; * the name of **an existing directory**: in this case, all the simple files present in this directory are considered hostnames (see the `--mark` option below to see how this feature allows to easily select nodes that are actually online and reachable); * otherwise, the string is considered a litteral target; in that case it can be * a space- or comma- separated list of litteral targets * a simple hostname * a target of the form `username@hostname` * a dual-hop target of the form `user1@gw->user2@hostname` * **NOTE** that files and directories are also searched in `~/.apssh`, so that these shorthands can be defined globally. * **NOTE** also that the gateway and username can also be changed globally using the `-g` or `-u` options respectively; however these are taken from the litteral target when specified explcitly in it ### `-t` examples #### with files and dirs So in practice, assuming that: * directory `hosts.outputs` contains only 2 files named `tutu` and `toto`, and * `hosts.file` is a text file containing the single line `foo bar`, then if you run ```bash apssh -t host1 -t "host2 host3" -t hosts.file -t hosts.dir true ``` it will cause the `true` command to be run on hosts `host1`, `host2`, `host3`, `foo`, `bar`, `toto` and `tutu`. #### using litteral targets also you may run e.g. ```bash apssh -t 'foo,user@bar,user1@gw->user2@tutu` true ``` which would run the `true` command on 3 ssh endpoints: * host `foo` with current username * host `bar` with user `user` * host `tutu` logging in as `user2` but going through gateway `gw` logging in as `user1` ### Excluding names : the `-x` or `--exclude` option You can specify exclusions, the logic is exactly the same; exclusions are parsed first, and then hostnames from `--target` will be actually added only if they are not excluded. Which means the order in which you define targets and excludes does not matter. So for example if you have all the known nodes in PLE in file `PLE.nodes`, and in a separate file `PLE.dns-unknown` the subset of the PLE nodes that are actually unknown to DNS, you can skip them by doing: ``` $ apssh -l root -t PLE.nodes -x PLE.dns-unknown cat /etc/fedora-release ``` or, equivalently: ``` $ apssh -l root -x PLE.dns-unknown -t PLE.nodes cat /etc/fedora-release ``` ### Max connections: the `-w` or `--window` option By default there is no limit on the number of simultaneous connections, which is likely to be a problem as soon as you go for several tens of hosts, as you would then run into limitations on open connections in your OS or network. Use `w` or `--window` to run at most 50 connections at a time ``` $ apssh -w 50 -t tons-of-nodes true ``` ## Users and keys ### Running under a different user Use `-l` or `--login` to specify a specific username globally; or give a specific user on a given hostname with `@` So e.g. to run as `user` on `host1`, but as `root` on `host2` and `host3`: ``` $ apssh -l root -t user@host1 -t host2 -t host3 -- true ``` ### Keys Here's how `apssh` locates private keys: #### If no keys are specified using the `-i` command line option * (A) if an *ssh agent* can be reached using the `SSH_AUTH_SOCK` environment variable, and offers a non-empty list of keys, `apssh` will use the keys loaded in the agent (**NOTE:** use `ssh-add` for managing the keys known to the agent); * (B) otherwise, `apssh` will use `~/.ssh/id_rsa` and `~/.ssh/id_dsa` as far as they exist. #### If keys are specified on the command line * (C) That exact list is used for loading private keys. #### In both cases Note that when loading keys from a file - i.e. in cases (B) and (C) above, a passphrase will be prompted at the terminal for each key that is passphrase-protected. Each passphrase gets prompted once for all the target hosts of course. It results from all this that passphrase-protected keys can be used in `apssh` without prompting **only if present in an agent**. This behaviour might not be optimal - for example with this logic there is no way to use agent-loaded keys **and** additional keys. I am eager to receive feedback from users for possible improvements in this area. ## Gateway a.k.a. Bouncing a.k.a. Tunnelling In some cases, the target nodes are not directly addressable from the box that runs `apssh`, and the ssh traffic needs to go through a gateway. This typically occurs with testbeds where nodes only have private addresses. For example in the R2lab testbed, you cannot reach nodes directly from the Internet, but you would need to issue something like: ``` # reaching one individual node with plain ssh $ ssh onelab.inria.r2lab.admin@faraday.inria.fr ssh root@fit02 hostname fit02 ``` In such cases, you can specify the gateway username and hostname through the `-g` or `--gateway` option. For example for running the above command on several R2lab nodes in one `apssh` invokation: ``` $ apssh -g onelab.inria.r2lab.admin@faraday.inria.fr --login root -t "fit02 fit03 fit04" hostname fit04:fit04 fit02:fit02 fit03:fit03 ``` Note that in this case there is a single ssh connection created to the gateway. ## Output formats ### Default : on the fly, annotated with hostname Default is to output every line as they come back, prefixed with associated hostname. As you might expect, stdout goes to stdout and stderr to stderr. Additionally, error messages issued by apssh itself, like e.g. when a host cannot be reached, also goes on stderr. ``` $ apssh -l root -t alive -- grep VERSION_ID /etc/os-release root@host4.planetlab.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de:22 - Connection failed Disconnect Error: Permission denied host2.planetlab.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de:VERSION_ID=23 host3.planetlab.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de:VERSION_ID=23 planetlab1.xeno.cl.cam.ac.uk:VERSION_ID=23 planetlab2.xeno.cl.cam.ac.uk:VERSION_ID=23 ``` In the above transcript, there were 5 target hostnames, one of which being unreachable. The line with `Permission denied` goes on *stderr*, the other ones on *stdout*. ### Your own format You can specify a format with the `--format` option (see the page on formatters about how to define a format); there also are a few predefined formats for convenience: * `-r/--raw` (equivalent to `--format '{linenl}'`) output is produced as it comes from the host, with no annotation as to which node the line is originating from. * `-tc/--time-colon-format` is equivalent to `--format '%H-%M-%S:{host}:{linenl}'`. ### Subdir : store outputs individually in a dedicated dir Alternatively, the `-o` or `-d` options allow to select a specific subdir and to store results in files named after each hostname. In this case, *stdout* is expected to contain a single line that says in which directory results are to be found (this is useful mostly with `-d`, since with `-o` you can predict this in advance) * Specifying `-o` it is possible to redirect outputs in a separate directory, in one file per hostname. * The `-d` option behaves like `-o` with a name computed from the current time. ``` $ rm -rf alive.results/ $ apssh -o alive.results -l root -t alive cat /etc/fedora-release alive.results $ grep . alive.results/* alive.results/mars.planetlab.haw-hamburg.de:Fedora release 14 (Laughlin) alive.results/merkur.planetlab.haw-hamburg.de:Fedora release 14 (Laughlin) alive.results/planetlab-2.research.netlab.hut.fi:Fedora release 22 (Twenty Two) alive.results/planetlab1.tlm.unavarra.es:Fedora release 22 (Twenty Two) alive.results/planetlab1.virtues.fi:Fedora release 14 (Laughlin) ``` When an output subdir is selected with either `-d` or `-o`, the `-m` or `--mark` option can be used to request details on the retcod from individual nodes. The way this is exposed in the filesystem under ** is as follows * *subdir*/`0ok`/*hostname* will contain 0 for all nodes that could run the command successfully * *subdir*/`1failed`/*hostname* will contain the actual retcod, for all nodes that were reached but could not successfully run the command, or `None` for the nodes that were not reached at all. In the example below, we try to talk to two nodes, one of which is not reachable. ``` $ subdir=$(apssh --mark -d -l root -t planetlab2.tlm.unavarra.es -t uoepl2.essex.ac.uk cat /etc/fedora-release) root@uoepl2.essex.ac.uk[22]:Connection failed:[Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known $ echo $subdir 2016-09-01@15:42 $ head -100 $(find $subdir -type f) ==> 2016-09-01@15:42/0ok/planetlab2.tlm.unavarra.es <== 0 ==> 2016-09-01@15:42/1failed/uoepl2.essex.ac.uk <== None ==> 2016-09-01@15:42/planetlab2.tlm.unavarra.es <== Fedora release 18 (Spherical Cow) ``` ### Good practices * First off, **options order matters**; `apssh` will stop interpreting options on your command line at the beginning of the remote command. That is to say, in the following example ``` $ apssh -t host1 -t file1 -t host2 rpm -aq \| grep libvirt ``` the `-aq` option is meant for the remote `rpm` command, and that's fine because after the `rpm` token, `apssh` stops taking options, and passes them to the remote command instead. * Also note in the example above that you can pass shell specials, like `|`, `<`, `>`, `;` and the like, by backslashing them, like this: ``` $ apssh -l root -t faraday.inria.fr -t r2lab.inria.fr uname -a \; cat /etc/fedora-release /etc/lsb-release 2\> /dev/null r2lab.inria.fr:Linux r2lab.pl.sophia.inria.fr 4.6.4-201.fc23.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Jul 12 11:43:59 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux r2lab.inria.fr:Fedora release 24 (Twenty Four) faraday.inria.fr:Linux faraday 4.4.0-36-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 11 18:01:55 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux faraday.inria.fr:DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu faraday.inria.fr:DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04 faraday.inria.fr:DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial faraday.inria.fr:DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS" ``` ``` $ apssh -l root -t PLE.alive.5 -tc uname -r \; hostname 16-47-40:mars.planetlab.haw-hamburg.de:2.6.32-36.onelab.i686 16-47-40:merkur.planetlab.haw-hamburg.de:2.6.32-36.onelab.i686 16-47-40:mars.planetlab.haw-hamburg.de:mars.planetlab.haw-hamburg.de 16-47-40:merkur.planetlab.haw-hamburg.de:merkur.planetlab.haw-hamburg.de 16-47-40:planetlab1.tlm.unavarra.es:4.4.13-200.fc22.x86_64 16-47-40:planetlab1.tlm.unavarra.es:planetlab1.tlm.unavarra.es 16-47-40:planetlab1.virtues.fi:2.6.32-36.onelab.i686 16-47-40:planetlab1.virtues.fi:planetlab1.virtues.fi 16-47-40:planetlab-2.research.netlab.hut.fi:4.2.3-200.fc22.x86_64 16-47-40:planetlab-2.research.netlab.hut.fi:planetlab-2.research.netlab.hut.fi ``` ## TODO * current output system can only properly handle commands output that are **text-based**; if your remote command produces binary data instead, you must redirect its output on the remote system, and fetch the results later on; * better tests coverage would not hurt !?! * probably a lot more features are required for more advanced usages, feel free to fill in issues at .