Or you can just use commands.getstatusoutput:

   commands.getstatusoutput("ssh machine 1 'your script'")

I used it extensively and it works great.

In Python 2.6+, use subprocess.check_output.

Keep it simple. No libraries required.

import subprocess

# Python 2
subprocess.Popen("ssh {user}@{host} {cmd}".format(user=user, host=host, cmd='ls -l'), shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()

# Python 3
subprocess.Popen(f"ssh {user}@{host} {cmd}", shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()

I found paramiko to be a bit too low-level, and Fabric not especially well-suited to being used as a library, so I put together my own library called spur that uses paramiko to implement a slightly nicer interface:

import spur

shell = spur.SshShell(hostname="localhost", username="bob", password="password1")
result = shell.run(["echo", "-n", "hello"])
print result.output # prints hello

If you need to run inside a shell:

shell.run(["sh", "-c", "echo -n hello"])

All have already stated (recommended) using paramiko and I am just sharing a python code (API one may say) that will allow you to execute multiple commands in one go.

to execute commands on different node use : Commands().run_cmd(host_ip, list_of_commands)

You will see one TODO, which I have kept to stop the execution if any of the commands fails to execute, I don't know how to do it. please share your knowledge

#!/usr/bin/python

import os
import sys
import select
import paramiko
import time


class Commands:
    def __init__(self, retry_time=0):
        self.retry_time = retry_time
        pass

    def run_cmd(self, host_ip, cmd_list):
        i = 0
        while True:
        # print("Trying to connect to %s (%i/%i)" % (self.host, i, self.retry_time))
        try:
            ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
            ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
            ssh.connect(host_ip)
            break
        except paramiko.AuthenticationException:
            print("Authentication failed when connecting to %s" % host_ip)
            sys.exit(1)
        except:
            print("Could not SSH to %s, waiting for it to start" % host_ip)
            i += 1
            time.sleep(2)

        # If we could not connect within time limit
        if i >= self.retry_time:
            print("Could not connect to %s. Giving up" % host_ip)
            sys.exit(1)
        # After connection is successful
        # Send the command
        for command in cmd_list:
            # print command
            print "> " + command
            # execute commands
            stdin, stdout, stderr = ssh.exec_command(command)
            # TODO() : if an error is thrown, stop further rules and revert back changes
            # Wait for the command to terminate
            while not stdout.channel.exit_status_ready():
                # Only print data if there is data to read in the channel
                if stdout.channel.recv_ready():
                    rl, wl, xl = select.select([ stdout.channel ], [ ], [ ], 0.0)
                    if len(rl) > 0:
                        tmp = stdout.channel.recv(1024)
                        output = tmp.decode()
                        print output

        # Close SSH connection
        ssh.close()
        return

def main(args=None):
    if args is None:
        print "arguments expected"
    else:
        # args = {'<ip_address>', <list_of_commands>}
        mytest = Commands()
        mytest.run_cmd(host_ip=args[0], cmd_list=args[1])
    return


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main(sys.argv[1:])

Thank you!

paramiko finally worked for me after adding additional line, which is really important one (line 3):

import paramiko

p = paramiko.SSHClient()
p.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())   # This script doesn't work for me unless this line is added!
p.connect("server", port=22, username="username", password="password")
stdin, stdout, stderr = p.exec_command("your command")
opt = stdout.readlines()
opt = "".join(opt)
print(opt)

Make sure that paramiko package is installed. Original source of the solution: Source

I have used paramiko a bunch (nice) and pxssh (also nice). I would recommend either. They work a little differently but have a relatively large overlap in usage.

The accepted answer didn't work for me, here's what I used instead:

import paramiko
import os

ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
# ssh.load_system_host_keys()
ssh.load_host_keys(os.path.expanduser('~/.ssh/known_hosts'))
ssh.connect("d.d.d.d", username="user", password="pass", port=22222)

ssh_stdin, ssh_stdout, ssh_stderr = ssh.exec_command("ls -alrt")
exit_code = ssh_stdout.channel.recv_exit_status() # handles async exit error 

for line in ssh_stdout:
    print(line.strip())

total 44
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root  129 Dec 28  2013 .tcshrc
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root  100 Dec 28  2013 .cshrc
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root  176 Dec 28  2013 .bashrc
...

Alternatively, you can use sshpass:

import subprocess
cmd = """ sshpass -p "myPas$" ssh user@d.d.d.d -p 22222 'my command; exit' """
print( subprocess.getoutput(cmd) )

References:

Notes:

1. Just make sure to connect manually at least one time to the remote system via ssh (ssh root@ip) and accept the public key, this is many times the reason from not being able connect using paramiko or other automated ssh scripts.

First: I'm surprised that no one has mentioned fabric yet.

Second: For exactly those requirements you describe I've implemented an own python module named jk_simpleexec. It's purpose: Making running commands easy.

Let me explain a little bit about it for you.

The 'executing a command locally' problem

My python module jk_simpleexec provides a function named runCmd(..) that can execute a shell (!) command locally or remotely. This is very simple. Here is an example for local execution of a command:

import jk_simpleexec

cmdResult = jk_simpleexec.runCmd(None, "cd / ; ls -la")

NOTE: Be aware that the returned data is trimmed automatically by default to remove excessive empty lines from STDOUT and STDERR. (Of course this behavior can be deactivated, but for the purpose you've in mind exactly that behavior is what you will want.)