diff --git a/lib/vulcano/backend/ssh.rb b/lib/vulcano/backend/ssh.rb
index 9c8371873..b4a1ea980 100644
--- a/lib/vulcano/backend/ssh.rb
+++ b/lib/vulcano/backend/ssh.rb
@@ -4,12 +4,14 @@ module Vulcano::Backends
   class SSH < Vulcano.backend(1)
     name 'ssh'
 
+    attr_reader :os
     def initialize(conf)
       @conf = conf
       @files = {}
       @conf['host'] ||
         fail('You must specify a SSH host.')
       @ssh = start_ssh
+      @os = OS.new(self)
     end
 
     def file(path)
@@ -22,9 +24,6 @@ module Vulcano::Backends
       cmd.force_encoding('binary') if cmd.respond_to?(:force_encoding)
 
       @ssh.open_channel do |channel|
-        channel.request_pty do |_, success|
-          abort 'Could not obtain pty on SSH channel ' if !success
-        end
         channel.exec(cmd) do |_, success|
           unless success
             abort 'Couldn\'t execute command on SSH.'
@@ -84,6 +83,10 @@ module Vulcano::Backends
         user_known_hosts_file: '/dev/null',
         global_known_hosts_file: '/dev/null',
         number_of_password_prompts: 0,
+        keepalive: true,
+        keepalive_interval: 60,
+        compression: true,
+        compression_level: 6,
         password: @conf['password'] || ssh_config[:password],
         keys: keys,
       }
@@ -91,5 +94,12 @@ module Vulcano::Backends
       validate_options(options)
       Net::SSH.start(host, user, options)
     end
+
+    class OS < OSCommon
+      def initialize(backend)
+        super(backend, { family: 'unix' })
+      end
+    end
+
   end
 end
diff --git a/test/runner/test_ssh.rb b/test/runner/test_ssh.rb
index a0f721859..9c7b0a683 100644
--- a/test/runner/test_ssh.rb
+++ b/test/runner/test_ssh.rb
@@ -3,16 +3,21 @@ require_relative 'helper'
 require 'vulcano/backend'
 
 backends = {}
+backend_conf = Vulcano::Backend.target_config({
+  'target' => 'ssh://vagrant@localhost',
+  'key_file' => '/root/.ssh/id_rsa',
+})
 
 backends[:specinfra_ssh] = proc {
-  backend_conf = Vulcano::Backend.target_config({
-    'target' => 'ssh://vagrant@localhost',
-    'key_file' => '/root/.ssh/id_rsa',
-  })
   backend_class = Vulcano::Backend.registry['specinfra']
   backend_class.new(backend_conf)
 }
 
+backends[:ssh] = proc {
+  backend_class = Vulcano::Backend.registry['ssh']
+  backend_class.new(backend_conf)
+}
+
 tests = ARGV
 
 backends.each do |type, get_backend|