200-901 Infrastructure and Automation Practice Question
A network engineer is evaluating configuration management tools for a Cisco environment. The engineer wants to describe the push-based model where a central server runs playbooks that connect to managed devices over SSH to apply changes. Which tool uses this architecture?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that any automation tool connects over SSH, when most agent-based tools pull policy instead of pushing it.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Ansible
Ansible's defining architecture is agentless and push-based: the control node runs playbooks and opens SSH sessions to managed devices to execute modules. Puppet and Chef rely on agents that pull configuration, and SaltStack's signature design uses minion agents, so only Ansible matches the described model.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Chef
Why it's wrong here
Chef uses a client-server model where the chef-client agent runs on each managed node, pulls cookbooks and policy from the Chef server, and converges the node. That pull-based agent architecture differs from the push-over-SSH model the engineer wants to describe.
- ✗
Puppet
Why it's wrong here
Puppet typically uses a pull-based model in which agents on managed nodes periodically fetch a catalog from the Puppet master and enforce it. Although it can run agentless in some modes, its classic architecture is not the SSH push model described, so it does not match the engineer's requirement.
- ✗
SaltStack
Why it's wrong here
SaltStack can operate in agentless mode using SSH, but its primary and most characteristic architecture is the master-minion model with persistent ZeroMQ connections and minion agents. Because the question describes the classic SSH push model associated with Ansible, SaltStack is not the best match.
- ✓
Ansible
Why this is correct
Ansible is agentless and push-based: the control node executes playbooks and connects to managed devices over SSH to apply tasks. This matches the described architecture exactly, since no software agent must be installed on the Cisco devices and the central server initiates every change.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This 200-901 question is part of Courseiva's 975-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Cisco exam blueprint
This 200-901 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 200-901 exam.