NAME

ncopy - copy a file or directory to multiple target servers.

SYNOPSIS

ncopy -t HOST1[,HOST2,...] [--log-directory] [-p MAX] [--timeout SEC] [-v] [-m MODE] [-f FILTER] [-l LOGGER1[,LOGGER2...]] [-c CHECK1[,CHECK2]] -- SOURCE TARGET

DESCRIPTION

ncopy will copy a file or directory to multiple target servers synchronously.

the underlying remote access mechanism is exchangeable. as of now, ssh, nsh, rsh and local execution modes are implemented.

OPTIONS

--check,-c CHECK1[,CHECK2] checks to be applied to each host (see CHECKS)

--filter,-f FILTER1 output filter to be applied (see FILTER).

--logger,-l LOGGER1[,LOGGER2] logger to be applied (see LOGGER).

--log-directory,-l DIR base directory for the log files.

--mode,-m MODE remote execution mode (see MODES).

--parallel,-p MAX number of parallel connections (defaults to 5).

--target,-t HOST1[,HOST2,...] comma separated list of target hosts (see TARGETS).

--timeout SEC timeout for each command execution (defaults to 60).

--version,-v print the version string and exit.

CONFIGURATION

special configuration options for the different modes and additional all commandline options can be given in a configuration file.

the following three places will be searched for configuration files (values in the last configuration file will overwrite values in the first configuration file). indentation does matter (YAML syntax).

- $FindBin::Bin/../etc/nrunrc

- /etc/nrunrc

- $HOME/.nrunrc

---
# mode ssh options
ssh_copy: >
    /usr/bin/scp
    -o User=root
    -o PreferredAuthentications=hostbased,publickey
    -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
    -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
    -o LogLevel=FATAL
    SOURCE HOSTNAME:TARGET

ssh_exec: >
    /usr/bin/ssh
    -o User=root
    -o PreferredAuthentications=hostbased,publickey
    -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
    -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
    -o LogLevel=FATAL
    HOSTNAME COMMAND ARGUMENTS

ssh_delete: >
    /usr/bin/ssh
    -o User=root
    -o PreferredAuthentications=hostbased,publickey
    -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
    -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
    -o LogLevel=FATAL
    HOSTNAME rm -f "FILE"

# additional commandline options
nrun:
    arg_mode: ssh
    arg_check: ping,ns
    arg_filter: sync
    arg_logger: result,output,raw
    arg_parallel: 5
    arg_timeout: 60

ncopy:
    arg_mode: ssh
    arg_check: ping,ns
    arg_filter: result
    arg_logger: result,output,raw
    arg_parallel: 5
    arg_timeout: 60

# alias definitions
alias:
    production:
        - host1
        - host2
    development:
        - host3
        - host4
    all:
        - production
        - development

LOGGING

on each execution run, the command output and exit code will be saved inside the logging directory. the default logging directory is $HOME/.nrun. Logging is realized by so called loggers (see LOGGERS).

- $LOGDIR/result.log - will contain the exit codes

- $LOGDIR/output.log - will contain the complete command output for all hosts

- $LOGDIR/raw.log - will contain the raw worker output for all hosts

MODES

mode ssh

use ssh as the underlying remote access mechanism.

the following configuration options must be set in the configuration file:

'ssh_exec' - commandline for remote execution (COMMAND, ARGUMENTS, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

'ssh_copy' - commandline for remote copying (SOURCE, TARGET, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

'ssh_delete' - commandline for remote deletion (FILE, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

for passwordless login ssh-agent can be used:

# ssh-keygen
# scp .ssh/id_rsa.pub $USER@$HOST:.ssh/authorized_keys

# eval `ssh-agent`
# ssh-add

to prevent any ssh interaction the following ssh command paramters are suggested:

-o User=root
-o PreferredAuthentications=hostbased,publickey
-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
-o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
-o LogLevel=FATAL

mode rsh

use rsh as the underlying remote access mechanism.

the following configuration options must be set in the configuration file:

'rsh_exec' - commandline for remote execution (COMMAND, ARGUMENTS, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

'rsh_copy' - commandline for remote copying (SOURCE, TARGET, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

'rsh_delete' - commandline for remote deletion (FILE, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

mode local

execute the script locally for each host and set the environment variable TARGET_HOST on each execution.

'local_exec' - commandline for local execution (COMMAND, ARGUMENTS, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

mode nsh

use nsh as the underlying remote access mechanism.

the following configuration options must be set in the configuration file:

'nsh_exec' - commandline for remote execution (COMMAND, ARGUMENTS, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

'nsh_copy' - commandline for remote copying (SOURCE, TARGET, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

'nsh_delete' - commandline for remote deletion (FILE, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

'nsh_check' - commandline for the agentinfo check command (HOSTNAME will be replaced)

mode generic

this is a special generic mode the can be used for arbitrary remote execution mechanisms.

'generic_exec' - commandline for remote execution (COMMAND, ARGUMENTS, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

'generic_copy' - commandline for remote copying (SOURCE, TARGET, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

'generic_delete' - commandline for remote deletion (FILE, HOSTNAME will be replaced)

an example that resembles the mode ssh would look the following way:

generic_copy: >
    /usr/bin/scp
    -o User=root
    -o PreferredAuthentications=hostbased,publickey
    -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
    -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
    -o LogLevel=FATAL
    SOURCE HOSTNAME:TARGET

generic_exec: >
    /usr/bin/ssh
    -o User=root
    -o PreferredAuthentications=hostbased,publickey
    -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
    -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
    -o LogLevel=FATAL
    HOSTNAME COMMAND ARGUMENTS

generic_delete: >
    /usr/bin/ssh
    -o User=root
    -o PreferredAuthentications=hostbased,publickey
    -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
    -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
    -o LogLevel=FATAL
    HOSTNAME rm -f "FILE"

FILTERS

a filter reads the raw output generated by the worker processes and prints this output in a filter specific format.

filter raw

this filter will just dump the output as it is provided by the worker process. no formatting will be done.

format:

HOSTNAME;[stdout|stderr];TSTAMP;PID;PID(CHILD);[debug|error|exit|output|end];"OUTPUT"

filter async

this filter dumps the worker process output unsynchronized in the following format. unsynchronised means, that output lines from the different worker processes are printed at the same time they are generated.

format:

HOSTNAME: OUTPUT

filter sync

this filter dumps the worker process output synchronised in the following format. synchronized means, that the complete output for a single hosts will be dumped at once when the worker proces has finished execution.

format:

HOSTNAME: OUTPUT

filter result

this filter will only print the exit codes for the worker processes.

format:

HOSTNAME: exit code CODE

LOGGERS

a logger reads the raw output generated by the worker processes and logs this output in a specific format.

logger output

this logger creates a logfile in the logging directory called output.log which contains the same data that the filter sync produces.

logger result

this logger creates a logfile in the logging directory called result.log which contains the same data that the filter result produces.

logger raw

this logger creates a logfile in the logging directory called raw.log which contains the same data that the filter raw produces.

checks

a check does a specific check for each hostname. if the check fails, the hostname that failed will be removed from the target list and an error message will be printed. multiple checks may be given at the command line.

check ping

checks that the host is pingable.

check ns

checks that the hostname is resolvable to an ip address.

check rscd

checks that the rscd agent is alive.

TARGETS

a target name may be either a filename containing the target hosts, one per line, an alias definition in the configuration file or simply a hostname.

if there is a conflict, for example an alias named identically as an existing file, the alias will always overrule the filename and the filename will always overrule the hostname.

an alias can be defined in the configuration file the following way. an alias definition may contain additional alias names, filenames or simply hostnames. indentation does matter.

# alias definitions
alias:
    production:
        - host1
        - host2
    development:
        - host3
        - host4
    all:
        - production
        - development

EXAMPLES

1. copy file test.tar to host1, host2 and all hosts in the file HOSTS.LST

$ ncopy --target HOSTS.LST -- test.tar /tmp 

NOTES

transferring the public key

the helper script misc/put_pubkey can be used to transfer the ssh public key to the target hosts without supplying a password for each login. it is meant to be executed by the nrun script in mode local.

$ nrun -t HOSTS.LST --mode local --timeout 120 -- ./put_pubkey KEY USER PWD

AUTHOR

Timo Benk <benk@b1-systems.de>

SEE ALSO

ncopy(1), dsh(1)