{"id":104,"date":"2014-05-15T21:35:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T21:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edrockwell.com\/blog\/?p=104"},"modified":"2026-07-02T16:57:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:57:33","slug":"ssh-powershell-backup-cisco-devices-script","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrockwell.com\/blog\/ssh-powershell-backup-cisco-devices-script\/","title":{"rendered":"SSH with Powershell: Backup multiple Cisco devices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I was asked to write a script to connect to all our Cisco devices and backup the configs to our fileserver. After a few hours of figuring it out, this is what I came up with<\/p>\n

You ONLY need a READ ONLY account on the Cisco devices.<\/p>\n

We run this every day at 2:00 AM and backup many Cisco devices.<\/p>\n

I downloaded and use this SSH.NET Library: SSH With Powershell<\/a><\/p>\n

You have to move it to your powershell modules directory and then import-module<\/p>\n

##################################\r\n# Ed Rockwell\r\n# Requires SSH Module from here:\r\n# http:\/\/www.powershelladmin.com\/wiki\/SSH_from_PowerShell_using_the_SSH.NET_library\r\n# When downloading the above, you need to right click the download and unblock it in the properties\r\n# Then add the contents to your powershell modules\r\n# Free to distribute! Keep: http:\/\/www.EdRockwell.com\r\n# 5\/15\/2014\r\n\r\nImport-Module SSH-Sessions\r\n\r\n$FileServerLocation = '\\\\path\\to\\file\\server\\'\r\n$DeviceList = Get-Content '\\\\path\\to\\text\\file\\of\\devices\\NetworkDeviceList.txt'\r\n$Date = (Get-Date -f yyyyMMdd)\r\n\r\nmd $Date\r\ncd $Date\r\n\r\nforeach ($Device in $DeviceList)\r\n{\r\nNew-SSHSession -ComputerName $Device -Username YourCiscoUser -Password Password4CiscoUser\r\n$DeviceBackup = Invoke-SshCommand -ComputerName $Device -Command 'show start'\r\n$DeviceBackup | out-file $device'.txt'\r\n}\r\n\r\ncd ..\r\nMove-Item $Date $FileServerLocation<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today, I was asked to write a script to connect to all our Cisco devices and backup the configs to our fileserver. After a few hours of figuring it out, this is what I came up with You ONLY need a READ ONLY account on the Cisco devices. We run this every day at 2:00 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,16,8],"tags":[54,55,21],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cisco","category-powershell","category-scripting","tag-backup","tag-cisco-2","tag-powershell-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t