MultiNode SSH Console

A small Python/Tkinter desktop app: run one command on many SSH devices at once and read the output for each IP. It works with any SSH device, with built-in command presets specially for APC products (PDUs and InRows).

Written by Zareh Kasparian with Claude Code support.

Sample run of about on six example hosts (addresses and output are made up). Green rows = command completed, red rows = failed. Bottom right: the OK / Failed counters and the chunked progress bar.

Run

pip install -r requirements.txt   # only paramiko; Tkinter ships with Python
python3 app.py

On Debian/Ubuntu, Tkinter may need sudo apt install python3-tk.

What requirements.txt is for

It lists the outside Python libraries the app needs. The only one is paramiko, which does the SSH connections. pip install -r requirements.txt (also run by build_windows.bat and the GitHub build) installs it, and the installed version ends up inside MultiNodeSSHConsole.exe.

It currently says paramiko>=2.12,<5, i.e. "2.12 or newer, but below 5". The <5 limit is deliberate: paramiko 5 removed the ssh-rsa (SHA-1) host key, and many older devices (e.g. APC / cryptlib-based management cards) offer only that key type. With paramiko 5 the app and the device have no host key in common and the connection fails with Incompatible ssh peer (no acceptable host key), even though PuTTY connects fine. Pinning below 5 fixes it. If your devices' firmware later offers rsa-sha2-256 / rsa-sha2-512, the <5 limit can be removed.

Windows executable

Two ways to get a single MultiNodeSSHConsole.exe (no Python needed to run it):

1. On a Windows PC: install Python from python.org (tick Add python.exe to PATH), then double-click build_windows.bat. The exe appears in dist\.
2. GitHub Actions: run the Build Windows executable workflow (Actions tab -> Run workflow) and download the artifact, or push a tag like v1.0.0 to get the exe attached to a release.

Verify the download: each release also has MultiNodeSSHConsole.exe.sha256 (SHA-256 checksum of the exe). Put both files in one folder and compare:

# Windows PowerShell
(Get-FileHash .\MultiNodeSSHConsole.exe -Algorithm SHA256).Hash
Get-Content .\MultiNodeSSHConsole.exe.sha256

# Linux / macOS
sha256sum -c MultiNodeSSHConsole.exe.sha256

The two hashes must be identical (PowerShell prints upper-case, the file is lower-case - that is fine). The checksum is also shown in the build's run summary on the Actions tab.

Windows may show a SmartScreen warning for an unsigned exe: More info -> Run anyway. Accepted host keys are stored in %APPDATA%\remote-ssh-console\known_hosts.

Using it

1. Connection - username, password, default port (22), timeouts, and how many hosts to connect to in parallel.
2. Targets - type or paste one or many addresses (newline, comma, space or semicolon separated), or Import from file... to load a .txt/.csv list (e.g. saved from Notepad). 10.0.0.5:2222 overrides the port for one host, [fe80::1]:22 works for IPv6, and # starts a comment.
3. Commands - what to run on every host. Put one command per line (blank lines and lines starting with # are ignored), or use Load file... to read them from a text file.
   • Each line is a separate command (default): every line runs on its own and gets its own $ command section, exit code and stderr in the log. Untick it to send the whole text as one script instead.
   • Stop on the first failing command (default): if one command exits non-zero the remaining ones on that host are skipped and marked as such. Untick to run them all regardless.
   • Built-in APC presets: a drop-down under the command box adds ready-made APC PDU / InRow (NMC CLI) commands with one click - outlet status, power and energy readings, phase readings, about (firmware), alarm count, event log, date/time, outlet on / off / reboot and management-card reboot. Commands that take an outlet ask for the outlet number (e.g. 3, 1-4) or all. Anything that switches power or reboots asks for confirmation before it runs. The presets are only a convenience - you can still type any command.
   • The command timeout applies to each command separately.
   • In Interactive shell mode all lines are typed into one session in order, so enable, terminal length 0, show running-config works as it would on a console (a plain exec runs every command in a fresh session).
4. Run - each host appears in the results list with its status, exit code and time. Click a host to see its output, or (all hosts) for a combined log. Save logs... writes everything to one text file.

While it runs, the bottom of the Results panel shows:

• a counter (3/6 finished · 12s);
• a green OK: n box and a red Failed: n box - how many hosts succeeded and how many failed (Failed, Error, Timeout and Unreachable all count as failed);
• the chunked progress bar: one bar made of blocks that turn green from left to right as hosts finish (the block in progress is light green, blocks not reached yet are grey). The bar shows progress only - use the counters and the colored rows to see which hosts failed.

Port check first (on by default): each host's SSH port is tested with a short timeout (default 3 s) before logging in, so a dead or firewalled device shows a red Unreachable with the reason ("port is closed" / "no response, host down or firewalled") within seconds instead of waiting for the full connect timeout. The same connection is then used for SSH, so devices don't see an extra dropped connection. (ICMP ping is not used, because firewalls often block it even when SSH works.)

Test login (dry run) connects and logs in to every host - and asks you to accept any new host keys - but does not run the command. Use it to check credentials, reachability and host keys before a real run; no command text is needed.

Each host's row and log header are colored:

• green, "✔ Done" - the command completed successfully (exit code 0);
• red, "✖ Failed" - it ran but exited non-zero;
• red, "✖ Error" / "✖ Timeout" - could not log in, accept the host key, or the command timed out;
• red, "✖ Unreachable" - failed the port check (nothing answering on the SSH port).

Grey rows are pending or cancelled; blue is running. Green and red are used for passed and failed hosts both in the results list and in the log headers.

Interactive shell mode is for switches/routers that reject SSH exec requests: the command is typed into a shell session instead. It waits for the output to go quiet, so very slow commands may need a longer command timeout.

Host keys (accepting a device's SSH key)

With Verify SSH host keys ticked (the default), the first connection to a device shows a dialog with its key type, SHA256 fingerprint and full public key value:

• Accept & remember trusts it and saves it, so you are not asked again.
• Accept all new hosts in this run does the same for every other new device in the current run (handy when importing a long list).
• Reject skips that device; its row shows ERROR - Host key was not accepted.

Keys are stored in ~/.config/remote-ssh-console/known_hosts (OpenSSH format; your own ~/.ssh/known_hosts is never touched). The password is only sent after the key is trusted.

If a device later presents a different key, you get a red warning showing the old and new fingerprints and the default answer is Reject. Replace the key only if you know the device was reinstalled or its keys were regenerated. "Accept all" never covers changed keys.

Device with a new IP address: if a device keeps its key but is reached at a new address, the dialog says Known key, new address and lists the address(es) where that exact key is already accepted. Choose Accept & remember (keep both addresses), Accept & forget old address (move it), or Reject. Tick Trust a key I already accepted when it shows up on a new IP to skip the prompt for these. Leave it unticked if you have cloned machines that share a key, or if a different machine could take over an old address.

The opposite case (an address that now presents a different key) is the red Host key changed warning described above.

Open View accepted keys... (in the Host keys box on the left) to see every accepted device with its fingerprint and public key, or to Forget one so you are asked again next time.

Untick the option to skip verification entirely (not recommended).

Note: while you decide, that device's connection sits idle; some devices drop idle pre-login connections after about two minutes, in which case just run again.

Credits

Written by Zareh Kasparian with Claude Code support (the Anthropic logo in the footer is a credit to that support).

Security notes

• The password is only held in memory and is never written to disk or logs.
• The same password is tried against every host.
• Host keys are verified only when the option above is ticked.

Tests

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests

The tests start a tiny in-process SSH server, so no real devices are needed.