How to run CLI commands in PHP on another server using SSH?

Question

I am trying to run CLI commands in PHP but on a different server. In order to run the command on the other server I am using the linux ssh command. In order to run the CLI command in PHP I am using exec().

This works...

$output = exec('cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd'); //works!

This works from the command line of one server to another...

ssh my.otherserver.com "date"

But, when I try to do this in PHP it does not work...

$output = exec('ssh my.otherserver.com "date"'); //does not work!

Is what I am trying to do possible? How do I do this? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Require:

sudo apt install php-ssh2

This example will receive the output of ls -a from the remote server.

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
$com = ssh2_connect('223.245.xx.xx', 22);
ssh2_auth_password($com, 'root', 'password');
$shell = ssh2_shell($com, 'xterm');
$stream = ssh2_exec($com, 'ls -a');
stream_set_blocking($stream, true);
$out = ssh2_fetch_stream($stream, SSH2_STREAM_STDIO);
echo stream_get_contents($out);

It can be secured furthermore with cryptographic keys and else.

Answer 2

ssh2_connect or phpseclib

You can use ssh2_connect or phpseclib. On my EC2 instance I had to install the package for ssh2_connect (e.g. yum install php56-pecl-ssh2-0.12-5.15.amzn1.x86_64) as it wasn't there by default. Note: this could be done with a bash script as well.

<?php

//ssh2_connect:
$connection = ssh2_connect('localhost', 22);
ssh2_auth_password($connection, 'user', 'password');
$stream = ssh2_exec($connection, 'ls -l > /tmp/worked.txt');

//phpseclib:
include('Net/SSH2.php');
$ssh = new Net_SSH2('www.example.com');
$ssh->login('username', 'password') or die("Login failed");
echo $ssh->exec('command');

Further reading:

http://phpseclib.sourceforge.net/

http://php.net/manual/en/function.ssh2-connect.php

Answer 3

to connet to your server with ssh you need to use ssh2_exec php function.

I recommed you to use phpseclib, it's a wrapper for PHP SSH implementation