diff --git a/playbooks/zuul/infra-puppet-beaker-rspec/pre.yaml b/playbooks/zuul/infra-puppet-beaker-rspec/pre.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3e47b9a706
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playbooks/zuul/infra-puppet-beaker-rspec/pre.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+- hosts: all
+  roles:
+    - role: ensure-virtualenv
diff --git a/playbooks/zuul/infra-puppet-beaker-rspec/run.yaml b/playbooks/zuul/infra-puppet-beaker-rspec/run.yaml
index 5d9adb0361..9e75c489ec 100644
--- a/playbooks/zuul/infra-puppet-beaker-rspec/run.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/zuul/infra-puppet-beaker-rspec/run.yaml
@@ -15,7 +15,13 @@
           echo "Match address ::1" | sudo tee -a /etc/ssh/sshd_config
           echo "    PermitRootLogin without-password" | sudo tee -a /etc/ssh/sshd_config
           mkdir -p ~/.ssh
-          ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa -b 2048 -P ""
+          if [ -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa ] ; then
+              # A key already exists, we'll use it but ensure it is in pem
+              # format for ruby's net-ssh
+              ssh-keygen -p -m PEM -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa -N '' -P ''
+          else
+              ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa -b 2048 -P ""
+          fi
           sudo mkdir -p /root/.ssh
           cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | sudo tee -a /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
           if [ -f /usr/bin/yum ]; then
diff --git a/zuul.d/puppet.yaml b/zuul.d/puppet.yaml
index d2d64a17b2..5f034e4649 100644
--- a/zuul.d/puppet.yaml
+++ b/zuul.d/puppet.yaml
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@
     description: |
       Base job for beaker-rspec tests for Infra's puppet modules.
     nodeset: ubuntu-xenial
+    pre-run: playbooks/zuul/infra-puppet-beaker-rspec/pre.yaml
     run: playbooks/zuul/infra-puppet-beaker-rspec/run.yaml
     vars:
       nodeset: nodepool-xenial