While we are putting out ideas for long running processes, you can use nohup too, and come back and collect the files later with $ssh2->scp_get()

Nohup puts the programs as background processes. Untested: :-)

my $chan = $ssh2->channel();
$chan->blocking(0);
$chan->shell();

$chan->exec("nohup /home/zentara/perlplay/net/zzsleep > foo.out 2> foo
+.err < /dev/null &");

$chan->exec("nohup /home/zentara/perlplay/net/zzsleep1 > foo1.out 2> f
+oo1.err < /dev/null &");

# etc etc

$chan->send_eof;
[download]

Just another idea to play with.