What is the primary distinction between Ansible and Puppet?

The primary distinction between Ansible and Puppet lies in their architectural designs, particularly regarding the management of nodes. Ansible is designed to be agentless, meaning that it does not require any software agent to be installed on the managed devices. Instead, it uses SSH for communication, which simplifies the setup and maintenance process. In contrast, Puppet operates on an agent-based model where a Puppet agent must be installed on each managed node to facilitate communication with the Puppet master server. This fundamental difference in how the two tools interact with the devices they manage is crucial for determining their suitability for various environments and administrative preferences, especially when considering scalability and ease of management in dynamic infrastructures.

While other options touch on some aspects of Ansible and Puppet, they do not accurately capture this key difference. For instance, the statements about declarative approaches or specific operating systems do not reflect the primary organizational structure of these tools.