diff --git a/playbooks/inventory/group_vars/all b/playbooks/inventory/group_vars/all
index 1c47d6b44..7ddd89e07 100644
--- a/playbooks/inventory/group_vars/all
+++ b/playbooks/inventory/group_vars/all
@@ -8,6 +8,11 @@ mysql_password:
 # If testing is true, then the environment is setup for using libvirt
 # virtual machines for the hardware instead of real hardware.
 # testing: true
+#
+# Normally this user should be ubuntu, however if cirros is used,
+# a user may wish to define a specific user for testing VM
+# connectivity during  atest sequence
+testing_user: ubuntu
 http_boot_folder: /httpboot
 ssh_public_key_path: "{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.ssh/id_rsa.pub"
 latest_os_ironic_url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/juliakreger/ansible-modules-extras/features/new-openstack/cloud/os_ironic.py
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-prepare-for-test/tasks/main.yml b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-prepare-for-test/tasks/main.yml
index 26fcf51da..ffb0499b1 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-prepare-for-test/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-prepare-for-test/tasks/main.yml
@@ -16,6 +16,10 @@
   wait_for: state=started port=22 host={{ item.split(',')[11] }} timeout=900
   with_lines:
     - cat {{ baremetal_csv_file }}
+- name: "Pausing for 4 seconds to allow testvm to become fully operational and to avoid any potential sshd startup race."
+  # NOTE(TheJulia): AFAIK sshd opens it's socket and then loads/generates
+  # keys, which can become visible as a race, hence the four second pause.
+  pause: seconds=4
 - name: "Adding testvms to Ansible Inventory"
   add_host: name="{{ item.split(',')[11] }}:22" groups=testvm
   with_lines:
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-test-vm/tasks/main.yml b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-test-vm/tasks/main.yml
index 9f9bc632d..58cb528a5 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/bifrost-test-vm/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/bifrost-test-vm/tasks/main.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,10 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 ---
 - name: "Execute ping step to verify connectivity and login to the host.  If this fails, the configdrive may not have loaded."
-  ping:
+  # NOTE(TheJulia): This is executed as a raw command to validate the remote
+  # hostname. This is because cirros lacks sftp support.
+  raw: hostname
+  register: instance_hostname
 - name: 'Error if hostname is set to "ubuntu"'
   # TODO: Presently this step is unable to cycle through each host and verify
   # it's hostname is properly set. Perhaps if there was some way to extract
@@ -22,5 +25,7 @@
   #
   # TODO: As time goes on, we may move to leveraging inventory information
   # which will allow this role to do validation of the remote node.
-  fail: msg='If this fails, the configdrive may not have been used as the hostname was set to the default "ubuntu"'
-  when: ansible_hostname == "ubuntu"
+  # NOTE(TheJulia): If we go down the path of additional validation, we need
+  # to keep things like Cirros in mind.
+  fail: msg='If this fails, the configdrive may not have been used as the hostname was set to the default.'
+  when: '"ubuntu" in instance_hostname.stdout or "cirros" in instance_hostname.stdout'
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/main.yml b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/main.yml
index 0561a202b..b0795ed40 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/defaults/main.yml
@@ -54,3 +54,5 @@ deploy_kernel_url: "http://{{ hostvars[inventory_hostname]['ansible_' + network_
 deploy_ramdisk_url: "http://{{ hostvars[inventory_hostname]['ansible_' + network_interface]['ipv4']['address'] }}:8080/coreos_production_pxe_image-oem.cpio.gz"
 deploy_image_filename: "trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
 deploy_image: "{{http_boot_folder}}/{{deploy_image_filename}}"
+# Use cirros instead of building an image via diskimage-builder
+use_cirros: false
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/tasks/main.yml b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/tasks/main.yml
index b8ec6a184..822daaf24 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/ironic-install/tasks/main.yml
@@ -235,6 +235,13 @@
 - name: "Download CoreOS image"
   get_url: url=http://tarballs.openstack.org/ironic-python-agent/coreos/files/coreos_production_pxe_image-oem.cpio.gz dest={{ http_boot_folder }}/coreos_production_pxe_image-oem.cpio.gz
   when: test_core_os_image_present.stat.exists == false
+- name: "Download cirros to use for deployment if requested"
+  get_url: url=http://download.cirros-cloud.net/0.3.4/cirros-0.3.4-x86_64-disk.img dest="{{deploy_image}}"
+  # TODO(TheJulia): We may want to revise any boolean operators to
+  # comparison statements like the one below when they are able to be
+  # set via the command line as there are oddities across ansible
+  # versions with auto-translation of true/false values.
+  when: use_cirros == true or "'true' in use_cirros"
 - name: "Test if Ubuntu 14.04 server cloud amd64 is present"
   stat: path={{ deploy_image }}
   register: test_os_image_present
diff --git a/playbooks/test-bifrost.yaml b/playbooks/test-bifrost.yaml
index 47c4561c1..51b213aad 100644
--- a/playbooks/test-bifrost.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/test-bifrost.yaml
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@
 - hosts: testvm
   name: "Tests connectivity to the VM"
   sudo: no
-  gather_facts: yes
-  remote_user: ubuntu
+  gather_facts: no
+  remote_user: "{{testing_user}}"
   roles:
     - role: bifrost-test-vm
 - hosts: localhost
diff --git a/scripts/test-bifrost.sh b/scripts/test-bifrost.sh
index 89f3ccf1e..b2ca558a2 100755
--- a/scripts/test-bifrost.sh
+++ b/scripts/test-bifrost.sh
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ ansible-playbook -vvvv -i inventory/localhost test-bifrost.yaml --syntax-check -
 set +e
 
 # Execute test playbook
-ansible-playbook -vvvv -i inventory/localhost test-bifrost.yaml
+ansible-playbook -vvvv -i inventory/localhost test-bifrost.yaml -e use_cirros=true -e testing_user=cirros
 EXITCODE=$?
 if [ $EXITCODE != 0 ]; then
     echo "*************************"