diff --git a/automation/check-patch.packages b/automation/check-patch.packages
index 8da18dad..eaaa820b 100644
--- a/automation/check-patch.packages
+++ b/automation/check-patch.packages
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+ansible
 bats
 dnf
 dnf-command(builddep)
diff --git a/automation/check-patch.packages.el7 b/automation/check-patch.packages.el7
index e9407f92..3d018e3b 100644
--- a/automation/check-patch.packages.el7
+++ b/automation/check-patch.packages.el7
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+ansible
 bats
 git
 libffi-devel
diff --git a/lago/plugins/vm.py b/lago/plugins/vm.py
index 9efcfc06..890137db 100644
--- a/lago/plugins/vm.py
+++ b/lago/plugins/vm.py
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ def extract_paths(self, paths, ignore_nopath):
             :exc:`~lago.plugins.vm.ExtractPathError`: on all other failures.
         """
         if self.vm.alive() and self.vm.ssh_reachable(
-            tries=1, propagate_fail=False
+            tries=5, propagate_fail=False
         ):
             self._extract_paths_scp(paths=paths, ignore_nopath=ignore_nopath)
         else:
diff --git a/lago/sdk.py b/lago/sdk.py
index de21c6c6..b11bb9e9 100644
--- a/lago/sdk.py
+++ b/lago/sdk.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 from lago import cmd
 from lago.config import config as lago_config
+from lago.lago_ansible import LagoAnsible
 from lago import workdir as lago_workdir
 from lago.log_utils import get_default_log_formatter
 from sdk_utils import SDKWrapper, setup_sdk_logging
@@ -136,3 +137,62 @@ def destroy(self):
         entirely the Lago working directory.
         """
         self._workdir.destroy()
+
+    def ansible_inventory_temp_file(
+        self, keys=['vm-type', 'groups', 'vm-provider']
+    ):
+        """
+        Context manager which returns Ansible inventory written on a tempfile.
+        This is the same as :func:`~ansible_inventory`, only the inventory file
+        is written to a tempfile.
+
+        Args:
+            keys (list of str): Path to the keys that will be used to
+                create groups.
+
+        Yields:
+            tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile: Temp file containing the inventory
+        """
+        lansible = LagoAnsible(self._prefix)
+        return lansible.get_inventory_temp_file(keys=keys)
+
+    def ansible_inventory(
+        self,
+        keys=['vm-type', 'groups', 'vm-provider'],
+    ):
+        """
+        Get an Ansible inventory as a string, ``keys`` should be list on which
+        to group the hosts by. You can use any key defined in LagoInitFile.
+
+        Examples of possible `keys`:
+
+            `keys=['disks/0/metadata/arch']`, would group the hosts by the
+            architecture.
+
+            `keys=['/disks/0/metadata/distro', 'disks/0/metadata/arch']`,
+                would create groups by architecture and also by distro.
+
+            `keys=['groups']` - would group hosts by the groups defined for
+                each VM in the LagoInitFile, i.e.:
+
+                    domains:
+
+                        vm-01:
+                            ...
+                            groups: web-server
+                            ..
+                        vm-02:
+                            ..
+                            groups: db-server
+
+
+        Args:
+            keys (list of str): Path to the keys that will be used to
+                create groups.
+
+        Returns:
+            str: INI-like Ansible inventory
+        """
+
+        lansible = LagoAnsible(self._prefix)
+        return lansible.get_inventory_str(keys=keys)
diff --git a/lago/ssh.py b/lago/ssh.py
index bccf4cd3..41daaa36 100644
--- a/lago/ssh.py
+++ b/lago/ssh.py
@@ -366,6 +366,8 @@ def get_ssh_client(
                     host_name,
                     err,
                 )
+            except EOFError as err:
+                LOGGER.debug('EOFError connecting to %s: %s', host_name, err)
             ssh_tries -= 1
             time.sleep(1)
         else:
diff --git a/tests/functional-sdk/test_sdk_sanity.py b/tests/functional-sdk/test_sdk_sanity.py
index c9c2170b..f5c73624 100644
--- a/tests/functional-sdk/test_sdk_sanity.py
+++ b/tests/functional-sdk/test_sdk_sanity.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import uuid
 from jinja2 import Environment, BaseLoader
 from lago import sdk
+from lago.utils import run_command
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope='module')
@@ -15,7 +16,7 @@ def init_str(images):
     init_template = textwrap.dedent(
         """
     domains:
-      {% for vm_name, template in images.iteritems() %}
+      {% for vm_name, template in images.viewitems() %}
       {{ vm_name }}:
         memory: 1024
         nics:
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@ def init_str(images):
           - /etc/resolv.conf
           - /etc/sysconfig
           - /etc/NetworkManager
+        groups: group{{ loop.index % 2 }}
       {% endfor %}
 
     nets:
@@ -205,3 +207,37 @@ def test_load_env_up(env, vms, tmp_workdir):
         assert vm.state() == 'running'
     for vm in loaded_env.get_vms().values():
         assert vm.ssh_reachable(tries=200)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.check_merged
+def test_ansible_inventory(monkeypatch, env, test_results, vms):
+
+    # ansible returns the results in a bulk to stdout. Ideally we would test
+    # forthe hostname of each machine, but that is broken on debian.
+    # Instead, we let it compute something and count the unique occurences.
+
+    cmd = 'echo __abcd$(( 24 + 12 ))efgh___'
+    expected = '__abcd36efgh__'
+    results = []
+
+    with env.ansible_inventory_temp_file(keys=['groups']) as inv:
+        for group in ['group0', 'group1']:
+            logfile = os.path.join(
+                test_results, 'ansible-{0}.log'.format(group)
+            )
+            monkeypatch.setenv('ANSIBLE_LOG_PATH', logfile)
+            monkeypatch.setenv('ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING', 'False')
+            res = run_command(
+                [
+                    'ansible', 'groups={0}'.format(group), '-v', '-u', 'root',
+                    '-i', inv.name, '-m', 'raw', '-a', cmd
+                ]
+            )
+
+            assert res.code == 0
+            assert res.out is not None
+            results.append(res)
+
+    occurences = sum([result.out.count(expected) for result in results])
+
+    assert occurences == len(vms.keys())