# Ping Module : Why ansible wants to SSH to the server for which I am trying a ping?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-module-why-ansible-wants-to-ssh-to-the-server-for-which-i-am-trying-a-ping/18559>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Tags:** windows\
**Created:** [June 20, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-module-why-ansible-wants-to-ssh-to-the-server-for-which-i-am-trying-a-ping/18559 "2015-06-20T16:36:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Suneel\_Gali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Suneel\_Gali](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Suneel_Gali)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-module-why-ansible-wants-to-ssh-to-the-server-for-which-i-am-trying-a-ping/18559/1 "2015-06-20T16:36:49Z")

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Hi Team,

I just started working on ansible and using online documentation to try.

I just ran my first command : ansible all -m ping

Why ansible wants to SSH to the server for which I am trying ping?

It does not make sense (until I am missing some thing) to connect to the server when I just want to ping the server.

I added a Windows machine (the server is up and running) in the host file and the ping command failed on SSH.

If I am trying to run a command on remote server, SSH connection is required. Why for “ping”?

Thanks,  
Suneel

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**Author:** ![Uwe\_Sauter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/41988e/32.png) [@Uwe\_Sauter](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Uwe_Sauter)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 11:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-module-why-ansible-wants-to-ssh-to-the-server-for-which-i-am-trying-a-ping/18559/2 "2015-06-22T11:50:55Z")

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The "ping" module is \*NOT\* Ansible trying to reach a host via ICMP message. Ansible will try to connect to the host via SSH and  
execute the "ping" module which just generates a "pong" answer.

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**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:** [June 22, 2015, 12:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-module-why-ansible-wants-to-ssh-to-the-server-for-which-i-am-trying-a-ping/18559/3 "2015-06-22T12:10:39Z")

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The ping module is to verify that ansibl we can login to the host and has the base requirement s to execute modules. It is does not correspond to the ping networking tool (except a s a concept).