paramiko_ssh.py

import paramiko

ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
key = paramiko.RSAKey.from_private_key_file("id_rsa.pem")

###openssl rsa -in /path/to/encrypted/key -out /paht/to/decrypted/key
### remember to decrypt as it is encrypted by default (output as id_rsa.pem)
#key = paramiko.DSSKey.from_private_key_file(keyfilename) 

ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy()) 
ssh.connect("172.17.0.2", username="root", pkey=key)

ssh_stdin, ssh_stdout, ssh_stderr = ssh.exec_command("ls -axptr")
output=ssh_stdout.readlines()
print '\n'.join(output)
ssh.close()