Remote Connecting to Windows

Question

Is it possible to connect to a Windows Server machine command line without using RDP, in similar manner to SSHing to a Linux server? My tasks require running various commands in many Windows machines.

Should I just use Cygwin with OpenSSH Server and Screen? How stable is that?

Answer 1

If you want to remote manage and script Windows machines you should look into Powershell and Powershell Remoting

Answer 2

Of course. You already know the answer. OpenSSh will do it. There is a Windows compiled version called CopSSH that we've used successfully in production for years.

Answer 3

Microsoft has a product called Windows Remote Management. Here's one of the utilities:

Winrs.exe
This command line tool enables administrators to remotely execute most Cmd.exe commands using the WS-Management protocol.

Read more at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384291%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Answer 4

Depending upon your environment and requirements, you might look at pstools from Microsoft. It will allow you to run commands or scripts across several machines.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896649

I'm sure that PowerShell is a bit more elegant, but this set of tools is handy, especially if you have some vb scripts that that you haven't converted to PowerShell yet.

Answer 5

WinSSHD is an excellent SSH Server implementation for Windows. It's free for non-commercial use, and reasonably priced ($100 / Server) for commercal use.