newbie linux and shell scripts/need to change root password on 12 srv

[aala]

i need to change the root password on 12 servers. I know this is a small amount and I would have already finished changing the passwords manually in the time I have spent searching the forums for the answer. But that is no way to learn. Here is my script but I am still being prompted for the root password. And when I do enter the root password at the prompt, the new password doesn't seem to take. Here is my shell script;

#!/bin/bash
for x in server1 server2 server3
do
echo $x is being fixed
ssh $x echo "newpassword" | passwd root --stdin
done

*The results is

root-server]#./aala.sh
server1 is being fixed
Changing password for user root.
root-server1's password:

**I am running RHEL 5.6

[atreyu]

Try putting the whole command in quotes, e.g.:

ssh $x "echo newpassword|passwd root --stdin"

[Irithori]

That script implies, that it
a) is called as root
b) connects as root

About a) this is unnecessary
About b) to grant remote root ssh access is discouraged. At least at my workplace it is forbidden by policy for good reasons:
- It would encourage to write unclean scripts ("doesnt work as a regular user? Ah well, lets just call it as root"
- If everyone can login as root, then you loose track who was logged in.
- only one token is needed to be root

Therefore we login as our regular user (auth key only) and the OPS team members can then escalate to root if neccessary
That needs three tokens: 1) the private key 2) passphrase to the private key 3) the user password to escalate via sudo


But I am halfway OT

For your task I would recommend to look into puppet

The following snippet would ensure the listed passwordhash on every machine that applies this manifest.
That manifest is only on one central machine, the puppetmaster.
If you want to change the root password, then you only change the hash in the manifest and wait until the next puppet tun is applied (30min by default)
or you can also force a run.

Before you ask:
The puppet agents do not save the password hash locally anywhere.
It would only be in /etc/shadow, where it belongs.

user { 'root':
  ensure     => 'present',
  password   => '$1$SuperSecretHash',
  managehome => 'false',
}

[pavlo_7]

This should work

for i in `cat server-list`; 
	do ssh -t $i "sudo /usr/sbin/usermod -p '`echo new-password | openssl passwd -1 -stdin`' username"; 
done