# ssh\_alt - new version **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Developer\ **Tags:** vmware\ **Created:** [December 2, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046 "2013-12-02T19:54:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jerome\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/76d3ee/32.png) [@Jerome\_Wagner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jerome_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/1 "2013-12-02T19:54:55Z")
Hello, the new version of ssh\_alt branch can be found here : diff: [https://github.com/jeromew/ansible/commit/23da88f45318fcdb8350bd7671c3d3f88bcab7c2](https://github.com/jeromew/ansible/commit/23da88f45318fcdb8350bd7671c3d3f88bcab7c2) branch: [https://github.com/jeromew/ansible/tree/ansible\_ssh\_alt](https://github.com/jeromew/ansible/tree/ansible_ssh_alt) test with “ansible-playbook -c ssh\_alt” this version : - has the pipelining feature on ssh\_alt - works with ansible-playbook -k and -K options - has a mechanism in the runner to play nice with action\_plugins and cases where the remote tmp is necessary in case there could be OS level differences, my current setup is fedora19 (control machine) working with centos 6.4 remotes. I hope your tests will run ok and that you will get speed boosts like me 🙂 on my dev setup (fedora19 vagrant against centos6.4 vmware), 100 x command: echo “ping” ssh: 26 sec ssh\_alt: 9 sec !! Jerome ps: I squashed the branch & merged with the HEAD of ansible/devel. I hope it is clearer for reviewers ---
**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:** [December 6, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/2 "2013-12-06T15:10:25Z")
Just did a quick test running ansible -m setup on 28 hosts: Regular ssh: real 0m18.164s user 0m36.436s sys 0m1.836s With ssh\_alt: real 0m8.274s user 0m7.784s sys 0m1.864s SO, yeah! One error I encountered, was with hosts that are currently down: Normally, I get the typical error “FAILED =\> SSH encountered an unknown error during the connection. We recommend you re-run the command using -vvvv, which will enable SSH debugging output to help diagnose the issue” With ssh\_alt, this tracebacks: FAILED =\> Traceback (most recent call last): File “/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 413, in \_executor exec\_rc = self.\_executor\_internal(host, new\_stdin) File “/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 504, in \_executor\_internal return self.\_executor\_internal\_inner(host, self.module\_name, self.module\_args, inject, port, complex\_args=complex\_args) File “/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 704, in \_executor\_internal\_inner result = handler.run(conn, tmp, module\_name, module\_args, inject, complex\_args) File “/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/action\_plugins/normal.py”, line 54, in run return self.runner.\_execute\_module(conn, tmp, module\_name, module\_args, inject=inject, complex\_args=complex\_args) File “/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 379, in \_execute\_module res = self.\_low\_level\_exec\_command(conn, cmd, tmp, sudoable=sudoable, in\_data=in\_data) File “/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/ **init**.py”, line 815, in \_low\_level\_exec\_command rc, stdin, stdout, stderr = conn.exec\_command(cmd, tmp, sudo\_user, sudoable=sudoable, executable=executable, in\_data=in\_data) File “/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/connection\_plugins/ssh\_alt.py”, line 233, in exec\_command stdin.write(in\_data) IOError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe HTH, Serge ---
**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:** [December 6, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/3 "2013-12-06T16:09:32Z")
Awesome!!! – Michael ---
**Author:** ![Jerome\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/76d3ee/32.png) [@Jerome\_Wagner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jerome_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/4 "2013-12-06T18:50:16Z")
Hello, Glad it makes such a difference on 28 hosts ! The error “SSH encountered an unknown error…” is only thrown in \_make\_tmp\_path. In the current implementation \_make\_tmp\_path serves as an implicit guard to test connectivity since it always is the first ssh connection made. can you give me the exact command you are launching ? with a server down I get : ansible all -m command -a “/bin/echo hello” -c ssh FAILED =\> SSH encountered an unknown error during the connection. We recommend you re-run the command using -vvvv, which will enable SSH debugging output to help diagnose the issue ansible all -m command -a “/bin/echo hello” -c ssh\_alt ssh\_alt: FAILED \>\> { “failed”: true, “msg”: “”, “parsed”: false } Thanks ---
**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:** [December 6, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/5 "2013-12-06T19:21:35Z")
$ ansible dba-vvo-pr-1 -m setup -c ssh dba-vvo-pr-1 | FAILED =\> SSH encountered an unknown error during the connection. We recommend you re-run the command using -vvvv, which will enable SSH debugging output to help diagnose the issue $ ansible dba-vvo-pr-1 -m setup -c ssh\_alt dba-vvo-pr-1 | FAILED =\> Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/\_\_init\_\_.py", line 413, in \_executor     exec\_rc = self.\_executor\_internal(host, new\_stdin)   File "/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/\_\_init\_\_.py", line 504, in \_executor\_internal     return self.\_executor\_internal\_inner(host, self.module\_name, self.module\_args, inject, port, complex\_args=complex\_args)   File "/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/\_\_init\_\_.py", line 704, in \_executor\_internal\_inner     result = handler.run(conn, tmp, module\_name, module\_args, inject, complex\_args)   File "/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/action\_plugins/normal.py", line 54, in run     return self.runner.\_execute\_module(conn, tmp, module\_name, module\_args, inject=inject, complex\_args=complex\_args)   File "/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/\_\_init\_\_.py", line 379, in \_execute\_module     res = self.\_low\_level\_exec\_command(conn, cmd, tmp, sudoable=sudoable, in\_data=in\_data)   File "/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/\_\_init\_\_.py", line 815, in \_low\_level\_exec\_command     rc, stdin, stdout, stderr = conn.exec\_command(cmd, tmp, sudo\_user, sudoable=sudoable, executable=executable, in\_data=in\_data)   File "/home/serge/src/ansible/lib/ansible/runner/connection\_plugins/ssh\_alt.py", line 233, in exec\_command     stdin.write(in\_data) IOError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe ---
**Author:** ![Jerome\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/76d3ee/32.png) [@Jerome\_Wagner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jerome_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/6 "2013-12-06T20:07:26Z")
Serge, the bug is fixed you can pull if you want to re-clone the branch. [https://github.com/jeromew/ansible/tree/ansible\_ssh\_alt](https://github.com/jeromew/ansible/tree/ansible_ssh_alt) can you confirm it now gives you a meaningful message ? do not hesitate if you hit another issue. Thanks Jerome ---
**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:** [December 6, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/7 "2013-12-06T20:18:48Z")
> the bug is fixed you can pull if you want to re-clone the branch. > [https://github.com/jeromew/ansible/tree/ansible\_ssh\_alt](https://github.com/jeromew/ansible/tree/ansible_ssh_alt) > > can you confirm it now gives you a meaningful message ? Yes! ​​$ ansible dba-vvo-pr-1 -m setup -c ssh dba-vvo-pr-1 | FAILED =\> SSH encountered an unknown error during the connection. We recommend you re-run the command using -vvvv, which will enable SSH debugging output to help diagnose the issue $ ansible dba-vvo-pr-1 -m setup -c ssh\_alt dba-vvo-pr-1 | FAILED =\> SSH Error: data could not be sent to the remote host. Make sure this host can be reached over ssh Merci, Serge ---
**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:** [December 6, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/8 "2013-12-06T20:59:57Z")
FYI the only reason host count applies here is you need to set --forks here as the default is crazy low – just 5, which I should increase for people who are not aware. You should test with 1 host and a playbook that runs ping 20 times because that is how you gauge trip time. – Michael ---
**Author:** ![Jerome\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/76d3ee/32.png) [@Jerome\_Wagner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jerome_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/9 "2013-12-06T21:07:05Z")
Ok noted. --fork=1 could maybe be used also ? Otherwise yes my initial tests where doing 100 times a module on 1 host. Did you see any speed up at all in your tests ? (if you had Time to test because i believe you are hard at work on galaxy) ---
**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:** [December 7, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/10 "2013-12-07T13:12:30Z")
Yep, haven’t 🙂 Have you got it working for copy/template type operations (that need to move files) and to know when to not optimize for old style modules? If so, I’d really like a pull request so we don’t lose track of it. I believe github lets you keep updating the pull request by updating the branch. If not, if you want to tackle those things, that will greatly improve the likelihood of me testing and it and getting it into core’s development tree where exponentially more people can test it (and we can also loop in ansible-project) 🙂 Thanks!! –Michael ---
**Author:** ![PhilEv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@PhilEv](https://forum.ansible.com/u/PhilEv)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/11 "2013-12-09T13:56:25Z")
Just for sharing some other quick test results. really awesome results !! thanks for that ! control machine is a F20 VM (with ansible-1.5-0.git201312062002) target host is a rhel6.5 VM One playbook doing numerous config tuning to the remote hosts (and with sudo: yes so -K needed at the CL) All run leading to the exact same sequence being executed. Assuming the time to enter the sudo password is similar on the 4 runs. Test sequence 1: ansible control node behind a slow VPN connection and target VM in a remote datacenter run 1.1: with -c ssh\_alt gives: real 8m34.037s user 0m10.172s sys 0m10.365s run 1.2 with nothing (smart mode) gives : real 26m40.383s user 0m10.151s sys 0m10.687s So a 3X improvement !! Test sequence 2 : ansible controle node on same internal network (but on different subnet) then target VM - the same as in sequence 1 run 2.1 with -C ssh\_alt gives: real 2m35.765s user 0m5.695s sys 0m3.166s run 2.2 with nothing (smart mode) gives : real 6m38.139s user 0m10.738s sys 0m10.970s so a 2.5X improvement !! ---
**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:** [December 9, 2013, 1:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/12 "2013-12-09T13:59:03Z")
That is a very slow connection you have there! Yes, definitely it is intended your control node lives inside your datacenter. How many tasks are in that play? That’s always significant in understanding how much it is spending on each item. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Jerome\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/76d3ee/32.png) [@Jerome\_Wagner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jerome_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/13 "2013-12-09T15:02:54Z")
Hello Michael, yes this version handles specific operations that need to move files: ‘assemble’, ‘copy’, ‘script’, ‘template’, ‘unarchive’ it also handles the case of new versus old style plugins. I use “ssh\_alt” everyday and haven’t run into a problem yet so hopefully it should be robust. We’ll see what happens on a wider scale ! can I ask you to commit a copy of ssh.py as ssh\_alt.py in devel ? It seems to me that the pull request will be more valuable this way because ssh\_alt will be compared to something. otherwise you will have just one bug green file for ssh\_alt.py. But then maybe I am wrong. tell me what you prefer and I’ll send the PR. Jerome ---
**Author:** ![PhilEv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@PhilEv](https://forum.ansible.com/u/PhilEv)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/14 "2013-12-09T15:10:20Z")
From grepping the ansible-playbook output : 85 TASKS (some being loop) and in more details: 177 ok 3 skipping 11 changed Yes running the control node in the data center is what we do. In that case, I was curious to give a try to ssh\_alt and share the results. the tasks are mostly about setting some values in some config files, and restart some daemons I should have mentioned an important point: the improvement observed is mostly linked to things being done out of the real work done by tasks as the playbook has been run once before the measurements. All of the four runs got the same final output: ok=87 changed=7 unreachable=0 failed=0 ---
**Author:** ![Jerome\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/76d3ee/32.png) [@Jerome\_Wagner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jerome_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/15 "2013-12-09T15:20:05Z")
Thanks for the tests. on \> 100 tasks, there is I think a visible an effect as soon as the ssh round trip time is superior de 20 ms. ssh ~ 100 \* 20ms\* 5 ssh\_alt ~ 100 \* 20ms \* 1 or 2 (depending on how many calls to copy / template there are) Maybe there would be some room for a shared “speed test playbook” measuring different aspects of ansible. Jerome ---
**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:** [December 9, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/16 "2013-12-09T15:58:53Z")
Yes, definitely want to get ssh\_alt in there for manual testing by a dozen or two people before we decide to replace the main one. Please send a PR and I’ll put it at the top of my queue to review and get merged in. Thanks! –Michael ---
**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:** [December 9, 2013, 3:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/17 "2013-12-09T15:59:54Z")
Thanks, with that being 177 tasks I don’t think the numbers were _that_ bad, I would have been worried if there were 1/10th of that though 🙂 The new improvements will definitely help things! ---
**Author:** ![Jerome\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/76d3ee/32.png) [@Jerome\_Wagner](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jerome_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/18 "2013-12-09T19:35:06Z")
PR sent under [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/5226](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/5226) ---
**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:** [December 11, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ssh-alt-new-version/14046/19 "2013-12-11T00:30:40Z")
Ok I had merged this but had to revert as async wasn’t working, can you take a look, and we can merge once async is operational? Thanks!!!