Multiple commands using Plink and batch file for Cisco switch - batch-file

Question

I am currently trying to write a script to change the location (snmp) of more than 200 Cisco switches.
My problem is that I can't run more than one command at once. I've made a batch file which connects to the switch automatically and reads a .txt file where the commands are listed. But no matter what I do the best result I got was that only the first command was executed.
batch File:
cmd.exe /c echo n | "Filepath(plink)" -ssh Switch Hostname -l Username -pw "Password" -m "txt File"
txt File:
conf t
snmp-server location test
end
wr
exit
I've already tried other delimiters in the txt-File like ; | etc.
But nothing seems to work.

Answer 1

It's actually a known limitation of Cisco, that it does not support multiple commands in an SSH "exec" channel command.
Quoting section 3.8.3.6 -m: read a remote command or script from a file of PuTTY/Plink manual:
With some servers (particularly Unix systems), you can even put multiple lines in this file and execute more than one command in sequence, or a whole shell script; but this is arguably an abuse, and cannot be expected to work on all servers. In particular, it is known not to work with certain ‘embedded’ servers, such as Cisco routers.
Though actually, your commands are probably not standalone top-level shell commands anyway. I guess that the snmp-server (and others) are subcommands of conf t, aren't they? So your code would not work, even if Cisco did support multiple commands on the "exec" channel.
For details, see How to type commands in PuTTY by creating batch file?
You need to execute the conf t and then provide its subcommands to its standard input.
One way to do that is like this:
(
echo snmp-server location test
echo end
echo wr
echo exit
) | plink -ssh hostname -l username -pw password conf t

Answer 2

If the above mentioned Cisco limitation doesn't affect this syntax:
SET /P USERNAME=Enter remote Username:
SET "psCommand=powershell -Command "$pword = read-host 'Enter remote Password' -AsSecureString ; ^
$BSTR=[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pword); ^
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)"" for /f "usebackq delims=" %%p in (`%psCommand%`) do set PASSWORD=%%p
plink -t -pw %PASSWORD% %USERNAME%#Hostname "COMMAND1; COMMAND2; COMMAND3; ETC"
If the above mentioned Cisco limitation DOES affect the above syntax:
SET /P USERNAME=Enter remote Username:
SET "psCommand=powershell -Command "$pword = read-host 'Enter remote Password' -AsSecureString ; ^
$BSTR=[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pword); ^
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)"" for /f "usebackq delims=" %%p in (`%psCommand%`) do set PASSWORD=%%p
plink -t -pw %PASSWORD% %USERNAME%#Hostname "COMMAND1"
plink -t -pw %PASSWORD% %USERNAME%#Hostname "COMMAND2"
plink -t -pw %PASSWORD% %USERNAME%#Hostname "COMMAND3"
plink -t -pw %PASSWORD% %USERNAME%#Hostname "Etc"
Barbaric, yes, but I think Cisco can be thanked for that ;) (This is un-tested as I don't have a cisco device to poke at, but theory should be sound)