# Performance considerations: consolidating with\_items **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [June 19, 2013, 9:39am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/performance-considerations-consolidating-with-items/12985 "2013-06-19T09:39:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![martin\_f\_krafft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@martin\_f\_krafft](https://forum.ansible.com/u/martin_f_krafft)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 9:39am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/performance-considerations-consolidating-with-items/12985/1 "2013-06-19T09:39:01Z")
Hello, we have set up a relatively simple testing environment, and we are hitting performance issues that I hope can be easily resolved, e.g. because I am doing something wrong. We are already using Fireball. Pull-mode is not an option, unfortunately, because we need to be able to access hostvars after all facts have been gathered from all hosts. For instance, a simple task that just removes files using a list:     - name: remove files       file: path={{item}} state=absent       with\_items: takes about 2 seconds per file in SSH mode, and about 1,6 seconds per file with Fireball. The problem is even worse with e.g. APT, which might take 5 seconds or more per package to be removed, installation would take even longer, obviously. The root cause I think is that the above task is executed completely separately for each item in the list. For each item in the list, ansible creates a local temporary workspace, composes the module locally, creates a remote temporary workspace, transfers the module to the remote machine, and executes it. Is there a way I am overlooking to do all of this just once and pass the list of files? If not, do you see this as a possible improvement? I.e. would it even be possible given the current code-base? Thanks, ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/performance-considerations-consolidating-with-items/12985/2 "2013-06-19T15:11:20Z")
So far the yum, apt, and openbsd\_pkg modules group with\_items things into a single list. It is possible for other modules to also do this, though they require changes to make this happen. In any event, apt taking 5 seconds is because apt is being slow, those already group together, it’s not a transport related thing. Actually you seeing 2 seconds per task is a bit weird too, kind of like you are managing your cloud from far outside using a very slow network connection or something – recommend not doing that 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![martin\_f\_krafft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@martin\_f\_krafft](https://forum.ansible.com/u/martin_f_krafft)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/performance-considerations-consolidating-with-items/12985/3 "2013-06-19T15:24:38Z")
also sprach Michael DeHaan \ [2013.06.19.1711 +0200]: > So far the yum, apt, and openbsd\_pkg modules group with\_items things into a > single list. See my other post, it does not do this consistently, I think. > In any event, apt taking 5 seconds is because apt is being slow, those > already group together, it's not a transport related thing. Yes, APT is very slow, I know. However, when I am seeing something like this:   ok: [cirrus.madduck.net] =\> (item=puppet)   ok: [cirrus.madduck.net] =\> (item=puppet-common) then it means that the APT module is invoked twice, not passed a list… > Actually you seeing 2 seconds per task is a bit weird too, kind of > like you are managing your cloud from far outside using a very > slow network connection or something -- recommend not doing that 🙂 We don't manage a cloud. We manage real servers in real racks that are in various countries from days long before people started equating computing with water vapour. 😉 We use VPN, so yes, there's a bit of lag, but round-trip times are usually less than 50ms. Since the connection is already set up (ControlPersist, or Fireball), this should hardly matter. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/performance-considerations-consolidating-with-items/12985/4 "2013-06-20T00:00:17Z")
I believe I’ve already replied to another thread about this, but I’ve reverted the patch that attempted to streamline this behavior and with\_items reuse is back to normal now.