KNIFE-SSH(1)

NAME
knife-ssh - The man page for the knife ssh subcommand.

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 made to the Chef server.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ knife ssh SEARCH_QUERY SSH_COMMAND (options)

Options

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
    Use to enable SSH agent forwarding.

-c CONFIG_FILE, --config CONFIG_FILE
    The configuration file to use.

-C NUM, --concurrency NUM
    The number of allowed concurrent connections.

--chef-zero-port PORT
    The port on which chef-zero will listen.

--[no-]color
    Use to view colored output.

-d, --disable-editing
    Use to prevent the $EDITOR from being opened and to accept data as-is.

--defaults
    Use to have knife use the default value instead of asking a user to provide one.

-e EDITOR, --editor EDITOR
    The $EDITOR that is used for all interactive commands.

-E ENVIRONMENT, --environment ENVIRONMENT
    The name of the environment. When this option is added to a command, the command will run only against the named environment.

-F FORMAT, --format FORMAT
    The output format: summary (default), text, json, yaml, and pp.

-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.

-h, --help
    Shows help for the command.

-i IDENTITY_FILE, --identity-file IDENTIFY_FILE
    The SSH identity file used for authentication. Key-based authentication is recommended.

-k KEY, --key KEY
    The private key that knife will use to sign requests made by the API client to the Chef server.

-m, --manual-list
    Use to define a search query as 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.

--print-after
    Use to show data after a destructive operation.

-s URL, --server-url URL
    The URL for the Chef server.

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.

-u USER, --user USER
    The user name used by knife to sign requests made by the API client to the Chef server. Authentication will fail if the user name does not match the private key.

-v, --version
    The version of the chef-client.

-V, --verbose
    Set for more verbose outputs. Use -VV for maximum verbosity.

-x USER_NAME, --ssh-user USER_NAME
    The SSH user name.

-y, --yes
    Use to respond to all confirmation prompts with "Yes". knife will not ask for confirmation.

-z, --local-mode
    Use to run the chef-client in local mode. This allows all commands that work against the Chef server to also work against the local chef-repo.

    Examples

    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

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

    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

    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"

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

    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

AUTHOR
Chef