Provided by: chef_12.3.0-3ubuntu1_all 
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
Chef 12.0 KNIFE-SSH(1)