I need Apple Remote Desktop, but for everything else
April 4, 2013 1:57 PM Subscribe
How do I send a Unix command to a bunch of Red Hat servers at once from Windows 7?
I used to manage hundreds of OS X computers with Apple Remote Desktop, and life was good. I could watch the clients, reboot the clients, send Unix commands to the clients, get reports from the clients, and make them dance the limbo if I felt like it. Now I’m working on a Windows 7 workstation managing Windows Server 2008 and Red Hat 5 servers. I need a Windows 7-based tool that will let me remotely manage Windows and RHEL servers with the same functionality as ARD.
I’ve found COTS that gets me pretty close, like VisionApp, and Remote Desktop Manager. Those apps will let me throw PowerShell scripts at Windows boxes all day long.
But here’s what I need the most: the ability to send Unix commands to several RHEL servers at once, and get the output back in one place. From Windows 7.
Yeah, I know, I might be crazy. Does such an application exist?
I used to manage hundreds of OS X computers with Apple Remote Desktop, and life was good. I could watch the clients, reboot the clients, send Unix commands to the clients, get reports from the clients, and make them dance the limbo if I felt like it. Now I’m working on a Windows 7 workstation managing Windows Server 2008 and Red Hat 5 servers. I need a Windows 7-based tool that will let me remotely manage Windows and RHEL servers with the same functionality as ARD.
I’ve found COTS that gets me pretty close, like VisionApp, and Remote Desktop Manager. Those apps will let me throw PowerShell scripts at Windows boxes all day long.
But here’s what I need the most: the ability to send Unix commands to several RHEL servers at once, and get the output back in one place. From Windows 7.
Yeah, I know, I might be crazy. Does such an application exist?
If I were you I'd install Cygwin on my machine and use a bash script with ssh and public/private key authentication. Output the logs to one file per machine. I think that's the closest you'll get to the ARD experience.
posted by sbutler at 2:07 PM on April 4, 2013
posted by sbutler at 2:07 PM on April 4, 2013
dsh is a command-line tool to run a command on multiple remote machines. It's not in the Cygwin package repo, but it does claim to compile under Cygwin.
posted by Mr. Pokeylope at 2:09 PM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr. Pokeylope at 2:09 PM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
If you really want the ARD experience, you can also look into setting up NoMachine on those servers - that's how we do it where I work, when we want to be able to graphically log into semi-remote servers and see pretty pictures and do stuff like that. But traditionally, unix server administration is something you do pretty much entirely over the command line, and "because you can script the living daylights out of it" is a major reason we still do.
posted by Tomorrowful at 2:09 PM on April 4, 2013
posted by Tomorrowful at 2:09 PM on April 4, 2013
Plain SSH will do just fine, but if you're looking for something a little more off-the-shelf, check out Fabric or Capistrano. I can't say from experience how well either run within Windows, sadly.
posted by ConstantineXVI at 2:10 PM on April 4, 2013
posted by ConstantineXVI at 2:10 PM on April 4, 2013
(Fabric can install on Windows, see http://stackoverflow.com/a/9019790/577910 )
posted by ConstantineXVI at 2:16 PM on April 4, 2013
posted by ConstantineXVI at 2:16 PM on April 4, 2013
Response by poster: Keep it coming, folks. I appreciate it.
What I am reading so far, however, is that there ain't no COTS for this.
posted by the matching mole at 2:24 PM on April 4, 2013
What I am reading so far, however, is that there ain't no COTS for this.
posted by the matching mole at 2:24 PM on April 4, 2013
But traditionally, unix server administration is something you do pretty much entirely over the command line
It's really more traditional for unix people to sneer at anything that isn't done over the command line ;^) but there are lots of similar solutions. Among them I find X Forwarding the most useful, which allows you to remotely run X Windows applications even on servers that don't have their own graphical displays.
When I need the full desktop environment of a remote system I prefer X2Go but VNC is probably the most popular solution for that.
But I get the feeling that ARD (which I've never used) may have more features than just the remote desktop stuff. Also, I think I might have a different personal definition of COTS from you because SSH and shell scripting for remote administration, not being custom or from-scratch solutions by any means, would firmly fall under COTS for me.
posted by XMLicious at 2:43 PM on April 4, 2013
Best answer: Err how much money do you want to spend? Blade Logic, HP System Automation, etc etc. There is plenty available to do this. How many systems are you talking here?
We manage literally tens of thousands of (all kinds of) systems with the tools above. To be honest, I always felt ARD was kind of...I dunno, crap at all of this stuff.
Look in to Landesk if you don't need something (as) large and scaley.
posted by iamabot at 2:55 PM on April 4, 2013
We manage literally tens of thousands of (all kinds of) systems with the tools above. To be honest, I always felt ARD was kind of...I dunno, crap at all of this stuff.
Look in to Landesk if you don't need something (as) large and scaley.
posted by iamabot at 2:55 PM on April 4, 2013
ssh (which is COTS software because FLOSS is COTS), combined with tools like the aforementioned dsh and puppet (e.g., add a user, install new packages, run an arbitrary command, etc.) really is the best way to do this. (Are you saying there is no COTS solution for this because you need to give someone money to get software for you to consider it COTS software?)
On the small and hacky end (but least time to get up and running), a bash script and ssh will have you doing this in minutes.
dsh will automate things a bit more but take a bit more time to get up and running.
If you really have a lot of things to manage, puppet is fantastic. If you use puppet right, you can scale from 10 servers in the morning to 50 servers by lunch, all with the right software and right config because running all of those commands is entirely automated. And when those 50 servers need to have PostgreSQL updated *cough*, you're not consoling into 50 devices, you test it in your test environment with puppet and then deploy to production.
posted by Brian Puccio at 4:08 PM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
On the small and hacky end (but least time to get up and running), a bash script and ssh will have you doing this in minutes.
dsh will automate things a bit more but take a bit more time to get up and running.
If you really have a lot of things to manage, puppet is fantastic. If you use puppet right, you can scale from 10 servers in the morning to 50 servers by lunch, all with the right software and right config because running all of those commands is entirely automated. And when those 50 servers need to have PostgreSQL updated *cough*, you're not consoling into 50 devices, you test it in your test environment with puppet and then deploy to production.
posted by Brian Puccio at 4:08 PM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
Have you tried the Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) in windows 7 ?
posted by majortom1981 at 4:10 PM on April 4, 2013
posted by majortom1981 at 4:10 PM on April 4, 2013
this might help also. It goes with the SUA" Utilities and SDK for Subsystem for UNIX-Based Applications"
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2391
posted by majortom1981 at 4:16 PM on April 4, 2013
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2391
posted by majortom1981 at 4:16 PM on April 4, 2013
you need pssh or fab.
posted by bensherman at 6:15 PM on April 4, 2013
posted by bensherman at 6:15 PM on April 4, 2013
Consider that what you want to do might not be the "right way."
Look into configuration management tools like chef, puppet, cfengine, etc. Rather than tweaking systems into shape one command at a time, you use centrally maintained and managed scripts and config files to put the servers in a known state, and keep them there until you make additional changes. Among other things, this makes it easier to rebuild a server, which makes it practical to consider doing things like handle upgrades by bringing new (or wiped) machines up from scratch, doing burn in, and then cutting over to them and then rolling the old machines in for the next round of upgrades.
There are still times when you may want to run an adhoc command against multiple machines, but it should be just that, adhoc, rather than part of the standard server management routine.
As an added bonus, at least some of these configuration management tools come with scripts/templates/recipes for common OS and application management tasks.
posted by Good Brain at 7:21 PM on April 4, 2013 [2 favorites]
Look into configuration management tools like chef, puppet, cfengine, etc. Rather than tweaking systems into shape one command at a time, you use centrally maintained and managed scripts and config files to put the servers in a known state, and keep them there until you make additional changes. Among other things, this makes it easier to rebuild a server, which makes it practical to consider doing things like handle upgrades by bringing new (or wiped) machines up from scratch, doing burn in, and then cutting over to them and then rolling the old machines in for the next round of upgrades.
There are still times when you may want to run an adhoc command against multiple machines, but it should be just that, adhoc, rather than part of the standard server management routine.
As an added bonus, at least some of these configuration management tools come with scripts/templates/recipes for common OS and application management tasks.
posted by Good Brain at 7:21 PM on April 4, 2013 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I used to manage hundreds of OS X computers with Apple Remote Desktop. ... Now I’m ... managing Windows Server 2008 and Red Hat 5 servers. I need a Windows 7-based tool that will let me remotely manage Windows and RHEL servers with the same functionality as ARD.
The jump from one OS to two is a big one. You can do scatter-gather on windows, and scatter-gather on linux, but no tool does both. Similarly, you can use GPOs to distribute configuration to Windows machines, and you can use puppet/chef/cfengine to distribute configuration to unix machines, but the one tool to bind them all is not yet present.
But here’s what I need the most: the ability to send Unix commands to several RHEL servers at once, and get the output back in one place. From Windows 7.
There's like a dozen of these. One of them is bound to work on windows. You might need Cygwin. Worst case scenario you Virtualbox and take your pick of the litter (I use dsh). plink.exe is the CLI version backed by putty, so assuming your PowerShell skills are worthy enough to write scripts modifying your fleet of servers, you should be able to hack out an ssh for loop like the dozens before you. Slightly surprised there isn't one already, but I guess the relevant people just invest in building themselves a proper workstation.
posted by pwnguin at 11:13 PM on April 4, 2013
The jump from one OS to two is a big one. You can do scatter-gather on windows, and scatter-gather on linux, but no tool does both. Similarly, you can use GPOs to distribute configuration to Windows machines, and you can use puppet/chef/cfengine to distribute configuration to unix machines, but the one tool to bind them all is not yet present.
But here’s what I need the most: the ability to send Unix commands to several RHEL servers at once, and get the output back in one place. From Windows 7.
There's like a dozen of these. One of them is bound to work on windows. You might need Cygwin. Worst case scenario you Virtualbox and take your pick of the litter (I use dsh). plink.exe is the CLI version backed by putty, so assuming your PowerShell skills are worthy enough to write scripts modifying your fleet of servers, you should be able to hack out an ssh for loop like the dozens before you. Slightly surprised there isn't one already, but I guess the relevant people just invest in building themselves a proper workstation.
posted by pwnguin at 11:13 PM on April 4, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Tomorrowful at 2:06 PM on April 4, 2013