[plug] automating a task

[Jon L. Miller]

I would like to autmate a particular task to several servers we are
responsible for and I would like to know if it's possible to do from a
script on a main server.  Each server is accessed via ssh and a file
needs to be copied to a certain location and several commands needs to
run.  Since I'm not a script guru or programmer can this be done via  a
script?  The tasks are 
1) login via ssh
2) scp a file from main server
3) stop a process
4) update the copied file
5) start the process
6) exit the server
7) goto next server.
8) repeat steps 1-7, until last server.

Problem I see deals with passing a password via the script, unless a
variable can be set before hand.

Another question/issue can I create a account with the appropiate rights
to handle this process instead of the root account.  By this, can I
create a account make it a member of a group and assign the group the
correct rights -- is this correct?

Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.

TIA