PROBLEM:

I need to ssh into multiple remote machines, send a shutdown command and exit. The remote servers will then run their own scripts to gracefully shutdown their applications before shutting down.

ONE: This is to be achieved without using public key authentication; this is being avoided as a security measure. (Not negotiable) :-)

TWO: Passwords are required.

SO FAR:
I wrote an expect script that ssh's into the remote server, and calls on a script. Trouble is the expect script on the "master" server waits for the remote script to complete before exiting,thus time is wasted (I am trying to shut down several servers within a certain time).

Is there a way to run multiple instances of my expect script simultaneously, or /and is there another way to do this. If sequentially, then in the shortest time possible.


Thanks!!!

Well the only UNIX box I can think of which was able of parallele cmds was IBM SP (big blue...and followers).
I tried rdist and fell on your situation, and that was due to the loop...
Havent tried with rsync though... and havent tried multiple instance of expect, but did try at the time a workaround to speed up things:
schedule cron for the presence of a dummy file ( I did this for Y2K testings for shutdown of 30 servers.. )to execute your shutdown script.

---------- Post updated at 09:53 ---------- Previous update was at 09:48 ----------

Thinking of it now, you could try to schedule with at in your expect, that would be faster since after the at cmd (something like at now + 2 minutes...) it would have finished (if it works..) keep us informed (could be interesting!)

Then may I suggest that your supervisors invest in this technology

Seriously, create a listening daemon each server that responds only to a specific IP address, and if really necessary, a password string. Once the string has been received, issue the shutdown command. It's a 5 line perl program. No need to parallelize since the string is sent and your client script just goes to the next server.