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Difficulty: MediumCapabilities of Configuration Management Mechanisms (Puppet, Chef, Ansible)

A network operations team needs to automate configuration management across a network of Cisco IOS XE routers. Organization policy strictly forbids installing specialized agent software or extra daemons on network devices. Furthermore, the automation workflow requires a push model where playbooks written in YAML are executed from a central machine over standard SSH. Which configuration management tool meets all of these operational requirements?

  1. Ansible, which utilizes an agentless architecture to push configurations defined in YAML over standard SSH.Answer
  2. B
    Puppet, which natively utilizes an agentless architecture to push configurations defined in Ruby DSL over TCP 8140.
  3. C
    Chef, which utilizes an agentless architecture to push configurations defined in JSON over HTTPS.
  4. D
    Puppet, which requires an agent-based architecture to push configurations defined in YAML over NETCONF.

Answer

Ansible, which utilizes an agentless architecture to push configurations defined in YAML over standard SSH.
Ansible is an agentless configuration management tool that uses SSH (or NETCONF) for network device communication, follows a push model from a central control node, and uses YAML data structure for Playbooks. This satisfies all specified security and operational constraints.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the agent requirements from the scenario.
The scenario forbids installing third-party agent software on target network devices, requiring an agentless framework.
Ansible communicates directly via native transport protocols (like SSH) without requiring an agent process on the managed node, whereas Puppet and Chef traditionally rely on agent daemons.
2
Identify the operational execution model (push vs pull).
The scenario requires a push model executed centrally.
Ansible operates via a push model where the control node initiates configuration deployment to target devices, whereas Puppet and Chef usually pull configurations periodically from a master/server.
3
Identify the file format and transport protocol requirements.
The requirement mandates YAML playbooks transmitted over SSH.
Ansible uses YAML for Playbooks and SSH as its primary network management transport.

Key Concept

Ansible Agentless Push Architecture and Attributes
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Topics

Capabilities of Configuration Management Mechanisms (Puppet, Chef, Ansible)

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