NetCmdlets: Creating a Persistent SSH Session

Sometimes you need a persistent SSH session to execute sequential commands that rely upon the results of the previous commands. NetCmdlets makes it easy to create a persistent SSH session to run sequential commands. In order to create a persistent SSH session you will need to make use of 4 things:

The Connect-SSH cmdlet
The Invoke-SSH cmdlet
The Disconnect-SSH cmdlet
The -ShellPrompt parameter

The key thing to remember here is to always use the -ShellPrompt parameter when you need a persistent session. The -ShellPrompt parameter instructs the cmdlets to connect to the SSH server and utilize the shell to execute commands. If the -ShellPrompt parameter is not used, then the cmdlets will use the Sexec protocol which terminates the connection after executing the command and does not maintain a persistent session.

For demonstration purposes, the following script will connect to a remote server, print the current working directory, change the current directory, and list the current working directory again. This demonstrates that the session has been maintained between the Invoke-SSH calls because a new connection would start in the home directory. Assume that the shellprompt for the server is “test>”.


PS> $conn = Connect-SSH -Server myserver -User myuser -Password mypassword  
-ShellPrompt "test>"

Do you want to trust the certificate presented?
The server has presented the key below.        
Fingerprint: 59:52:C8:DB:C8:3A:FE:CF:9D:02:E3:31:3A:2C:11:E4
[Y] Yes  [N] No  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): y
PS> Invoke-SSH -Connection $conn -Command "pwd"

Text                                                                          EOL
----                                                                          ---
/home/test...                                                                True
test>                                                                       False


PS> Invoke-SSH -Connection $conn -Command "cd SomeDir"

Text                                                                          EOL
----                                                                          ---
test>                                                                       False


PS> Invoke-SSH -Connection $conn -Command "pwd"

Text                                                                          EOL
----                                                                          ---
/home/test/SomeDir...                                                        True
test>			                                                    False


PS> Disconnect-SSH -Connection $conn

It should also be noted that the -ShellPrompt parameter can be specified in the Invoke-SSH cmdlet in case a command that you are executing causes the shell prompt to change. For example, see the following script.


PS> $conn = Connect-SSH -Server myserver -User myuser -Password mypassword  
-ShellPrompt "test>"

Do you want to trust the certificate presented?
The server has presented the key below.        
Fingerprint: 59:52:C8:DB:C8:3A:FE:CF:9D:02:E3:31:3A:2C:11:E4
[Y] Yes  [N] No  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): y
PS> Invoke-SSH -Connection $conn -Command "ChangeShellPromptCommand" -ShellPrompt "NewPrompt>"

Text                                                                          EOL
----                                                                          ---
NewPrompt>                                                                  False

Failure to specify the new shell prompt when you execute a command that changes the prompt will result in a time out error as the cmdlet will not recognize the new prompt.

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