# Best client platform to run Ansible from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [February 25, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/best-client-platform-to-run-ansible-from/17622 "2015-02-25T17:17:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bruce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Bruce](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Bruce)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/best-client-platform-to-run-ansible-from/17622/1 "2015-02-25T17:17:39Z")
Hi, I asked this in the github issue tracker, but the mailing list is a more appropriate place. I have a 2k+ server farm, with a mix of operating systems, and the problems associated with large installs. (Some hosts won’t ping, some don’t respond well to ssh, etc…) What client platforms do people run Ansible from to have the best success rate at kicking off jobs against the entire pool of servers? I’m running Mac OS X, but at times, the ssh version was not the latest. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Dick\_Davies](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Davies)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 12:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/best-client-platform-to-run-ansible-from/17622/2 "2015-03-04T12:25:49Z")
CentOS 7 VM works great for me, centos6 SSH was noticeably slower (though TBH yosemite seems to work great too if you're already on the mac). ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Peters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Michael\_Peters](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Peters)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/best-client-platform-to-run-ansible-from/17622/3 "2015-03-04T14:57:46Z")
If you are having SSH problems (really network problems), I've noticed a big improvement when I run ansible from within the cluster that it's managing. It's trickier if your server farm is spread out across multiple DCs/clouds. But it's still more reliable than running it from your laptop on a different network. ---
**Author:** ![Adam\_Miller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Adam\_Miller](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Adam_Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/best-client-platform-to-run-ansible-from/17622/4 "2015-03-04T15:55:56Z")
> Hi, > > I asked this in the github issue tracker, but the mailing list is a more > appropriate place. I have a 2k+ server farm, with a mix of operating > systems, and the problems associated with large installs. (Some hosts won't > ping, some don't respond well to ssh, etc..) > > What client platforms do people run Ansible from to have the best success > rate at kicking off jobs against the entire pool of servers? I'm running > Mac OS X, but at times, the ssh version was not the latest. > > Thanks! I suspect that the answers you get to this question will be largely subjective based on different people's distro/OS preferences. That being said, I've been very happy with RHEL7, CentOS 7, and Fedora 21 as the "controller" machine. However, I'm sure OpenSUSE, Arch, debian, Ubuntu, FreeBSD and many others would be fine candidates as well. I think a distro with python 2.7.x and the latest version of OpenSSH client would be good candidates. Also, a possible indication of what works well might be what OS/Distros that Ansible Tower is supported on. -AdamM ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/best-client-platform-to-run-ansible-from/17622/5 "2015-03-04T15:58:32Z")
I currently use Gentoo and Archlinux, but have used it with ubuntu, debian, FreeBSD and Windows/Cygwin, this last one mostly while i was installing linux on another machine and integrating it to 'coporate infrastructures'. ---
**Author:** ![Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Serge\_van\_Ginderacht](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Serge_van_Ginderacht)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/best-client-platform-to-run-ansible-from/17622/6 "2015-03-04T16:02:03Z")
​+1 Especially avoid older OpenSSH that don't support ControlMaster​