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
– ychaouche, Commented Jun 13, 2022 at 12:38

RonJohn · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-29 12:21:10Z

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

pssh is not installed in the server and I can't run applications that weren't provided by the sysadmin team. — Ruben
– Ruben, Commented May 15, 2012 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
– Zoredache, Commented May 15, 2012 at 21:01
Then you'll have to use SSH agent forwarding and a bash loop (see answer). — mgorven
– mgorven, Commented May 15, 2012 at 21:05

user9517 · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-15 21:54:41Z

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.

My fault. If you don't have expect installed, install it first with sudo apt-get install expect — Paulo Coghi
– Paulo Coghi, Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 14:08

chicks · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-03 12:29:24Z

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"

Chakri · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-15 21:02:13Z

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.

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