from multiprocessing import Process
import paramiko
import logging
import sys


def sftp_read():
    # log.debug("Child process started")  # This line will cause exception if it is run in sub process.
    ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
    ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
    timeout = 60
    ssh.connect('my_server', username='my_user', password='my_password', timeout=timeout, auth_timeout=timeout,
                banner_timeout=timeout)
    sftp = ssh.open_sftp()
    fp = sftp.file('/home/my_user/my_file.txt')
    lines = fp.readlines()
    print ''.join(lines)
    fp.close()
    ssh.close()


def main():
    sftp_read()  # Call this function without multiprocessing

if __name__ == '__main__':
    logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stdout,
                        format='[%(asctime)s] {%(filename)s:%(lineno)d} %(levelname)s - %(message)s')
    log = logging.getLogger()
    log.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
    main()

[2018-11-20 10:38:45,051] {transport.py:1746} DEBUG - starting thread (client mode): 0x3052208L
[2018-11-20 10:38:45,051] {transport.py:1746} DEBUG - Local version/idstring: SSH-2.0-paramiko_2.4.2
[2018-11-20 10:38:45,405] {transport.py:1746} DEBUG - Remote version/idstring: SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.2p2 Ubuntu-4ubuntu2.6
[2018-11-20 10:38:45,405] {transport.py:1746} INFO - Connected (version 2.0, client OpenSSH_7.2p2)

def main():
    # Use multiprocessing to limit the running time to at most 15 seconds.
    p = Process(target=sftp_read)
    try:
        log.debug("About to start SSH")
        p.start()
        log.debug('Process started')
        p.join(15)
    finally:
        if p.is_alive():
            p.terminate()
            log.debug('Terminated')
        else:
            log.debug("Finished normally")

import logging
from multiprocessing import Pool
from os import getpid

def runs_in_subprocess():
    logging.info(
        "I am the child, with PID {}".format(getpid()))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    logging.basicConfig(
        format='GADZOOKS %(message)s', level=logging.DEBUG)

    logging.info(
        "I am the parent, with PID {}".format(getpid()))

    with Pool() as pool:
        pool.apply(runs_in_subprocess)

GADZOOKS I am the parent, with PID 3884
GADZOOKS I am the child, with PID 3885

from multiprocessing import get_context

def your_func():
    with get_context("spawn").Pool() as pool:
        # ... everything else is unchanged