How to run remote ssh session from Jenkins with sudo rights?

Question

Using 'Execute shell script on remote host using ssh' option and need sudo rights on remote server to change permissions and remove protected files. How to run session with this rights?

Getting message

sudo: sorry, you must have a tty to run sudo

when trying to run sudo command.

Answer 1

To run sudo remotely you have 2 options

1. Allow the user to run sudo commands without a password.

Append username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL the /etc/sudoers file with sudo visudo. Alternatively you can modify this line to only allow certain sudo commands to be run without a password

2. Use the pseudo-tty to emulate tty remotely and enter your sudo password when requsted.

To do this run ssh -t username@host command_to_execute

Answer 2

If the remote server accepts the direct login of the root user you can simply do:

ssh -l root yourserver command_to_execute

Similar syntax is:

ssh root@yourserver command_to_execute

Mind that allowing the login of the root user via ssh to a remote server isn't always a good solution. A better solution would be change the owner / permissions to allow a non-root user to modify the protected files.