# Playbook freezes after several seconds on a task using cisco.ios in Python 3.12

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-freezes-after-several-seconds-on-a-task-using-cisco-ios-in-python-3-12/45332>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** cisco, awx\
**Created:** [February 13, 2026, 9:13am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-freezes-after-several-seconds-on-a-task-using-cisco-ios-in-python-3-12/45332 "2026-02-13T09:13:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 9

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**Author:** ![Denney-tech](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/denney-tech/32/1556_2.png) [@Denney-tech](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Denney-tech)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2026, 7:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/playbook-freezes-after-several-seconds-on-a-task-using-cisco-ios-in-python-3-12/45332/9 "2026-02-19T07:29:41Z")

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Looks like you have ssh\_type set to paramiko, but I’m seeing in the logs there it is trying to use “libssh”.

Are you also specifying `ansible_connection=ansible.netcommon.libssh` somewhere?

I would think you would want to have consistent settings that all specify the one you prefer to use.

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough experience with running so many forks or with Cisco devices to pin anything down on why newer versions of ansible/libssh/paramiko are slower than the older ones. You might compare it with what’s here:

> [@The connection plugin 'libssh' was not found](https://forum.ansible.com/t/the-connection-plugin-libssh-was-not-found/7661):
>
> Im trying to work with ansible-libssh instead of paramiko because with paramiko i have alot of issues of disconnection of ssh, so i wanted to try libssh but i was not able to use it as i get the error the connection plugin 'libssh' was not found when runing a playbook. ansible --version ansible [core 2.17.2] config file = /Users/batchenr/ansible.cfg configured module search path = ['/Users/batchenr/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/ansible/modules'] ansible python module location = /Us…

In general, I’ve found the most significant performance improvements were increasing the socket timeouts for libssh via increasing the `ControlPersists` value to +600s. This is generally useful for long-running tasks or plays with high host to fork ratios, where the sockets better maintain an authenticated session with all hosts to reduce the overhead when re-authenticating later.

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