Is there a way to do scp in parallel to multiple systems?
There is a way. Have a look at this Ubuntu Manpage.
NAME
parallel-scp - parallel versions of scp
SYNOPSIS
parallel-scp [OPTIONS] -h hosts.txt local remote
DESCRIPTION
pssh provides a number of commands for executing against a group of computers, using SSH. It's most useful for operating on clusters of homogenously-configured hosts. parallel-scp copy files in parallel to a set of machines.
Source: Ubuntu Manpages
Yes, to install parallel-scp you must install the package pssh:
sudo apt install pssh
Then the commands will show up (see man parallel-scp):
man parallel-scp
NAME
parallel-scp — parallel process kill program
SYNOPSIS
parallel-scp [-vAr] [-h hosts_file] [-H [user@]host[:port]] [-l user] [-p par]
[-o outdir] [-e errdir] [-t timeout] [-O options] [-x args] [-X arg] local
remote
DESCRIPTION
parallel-scp is a program for copying files in parallel to a number of hosts.
It provides features such as passing a password to scp, saving output to
files, and timing out.
OPTIONS
-h host_file
--hosts host_file
Read hosts from the given host_file. Lines in the host file are of the
form [user@]host[:port] and can include blank lines and comments (lines
beginning with "#"). If multiple host files are given (the -h option
is used more than once), then parallel-scp behaves as though these
files were concatenated together. If a host is specified multiple
times, then parallel-scp will connect the given number of times.
-H [user@]host[:port]
--host [user@]host[:port]
-H "[user@]host[:port] [ [user@]host[:port ] ... ]"
--host "[user@]host[:port] [ [user@]host[:port ] ... ]"
Add the given host strings to the list of hosts. This option may be
given multiple times, and may be used in conjunction with the -h
option.
-l user
--user user
Use the given username as the default for any host entries that don't
specifically specify a user.
-p parallelism
--par parallelism
Use the given number as the maximum number of concurrent connections.
-t timeout
--timeout timeout
Make connections time out after the given number of seconds. With a
value of 0, parallel-scp will not timeout any connections.
-o outdir
--outdir outdir
Save standard output to files in the given directory. Filenames are of
the form [user@]host[:port][.num] where the user and port are only
included for hosts that explicitly specify them. The number is a
counter that is incremented each time for hosts that are specified more
than once.
-e errdir
--errdir errdir
Save standard error to files in the given directory. Filenames are of
the same form as with the -o option.
-x args
--extra-args args
Passes extra SSH command-line arguments (see the ssh(1) man page for
more information about SSH arguments). This option may be specified
multiple times. The arguments are processed to split on whitespace,
protect text within quotes, and escape with backslashes. To pass argu‐
ments without such processing, use the -X option instead.
-X arg
--extra-arg arg
Passes a single SSH command-line argument (see the ssh(1) man page for
more information about SSH arguments). Unlike the -x option, no pro‐
cessing is performed on the argument, including word splitting. To
pass multiple command-line arguments, use the option once for each
argument.
-O options
--options options
SSH options in the format used in the SSH configuration file (see the
ssh_config(5) man page for more information). This option may be spec‐
ified multiple times.
-A
--askpass
Prompt for a password and pass it to ssh. The password may be used for
either to unlock a key or for password authentication. The password is
transferred in a fairly secure manner (e.g., it will not show up in
argument lists). However, be aware that a root user on your system
could potentially intercept the password.
-v
--verbose
Include error messages from ssh with the -i and \ options.
-r
--recursive
Recursively copy directories.
A way to do it, assuming all your target machines have proper ssh key configuration so you don't need to input a password to log in, would be:
#!/bin/bash
FILE="/put/your/file/here.txt"
TARGET_PATH="/where/to/put/on/remote/system/"
MACHINES="machine1 machine2 machine3"
for current_machine in $MACHINES; do
scp $FILE $current_machine:$TARGET_PATH
done
it won't do it in parallel, but one after the next; however, you don't need to sheepherd each command individually, they're all run automatically.