Connection Plugins¶

Why This Exists¶

ssh is the default and covers most cases, but Ansible's connection layer is pluggable — the same modules and JSON contract work over a completely different transport when the target isn't a normal SSH-reachable Linux box.

What It Will Cover¶

• ssh (default) — shells out to the real local ssh binary; see SSH and Connectivity
• local — runs "on" the control node itself, no network hop (useful for delegate_to: localhost tasks)
• docker — execs into a running container instead of connecting over the network
• winrm — Windows managed nodes, paired with pywinrm
• paramiko — a pure-Python SSH implementation, a fallback when the system ssh binary's behavior is undesirable
• Pipelining — skips writing the module to a temp file, piping it directly into a remote Python process instead; one of the highest-value performance settings available, with a requiretty sudoers caveat to know about
• ControlPersist — SSH connection multiplexing, reusing one connection across multiple tasks in the same run instead of a fresh handshake per task

Common Mistakes¶

• Not enabling pipelining, leaving real performance on the table for free.
• Assuming winrm needs no extra setup — it requires pip install pywinrm and Windows-side configuration, unlike SSH which is on by default on most Linux distributions.

Interview Questions¶

• What does pipelining change about how a module reaches the managed node?
• Why would you use the docker connection plugin instead of ssh?

Next¶

Continue to Lookup and Filter Plugins.