Which protocol does Ansible use to connect to managed nodes and deploy modules?

Ansible primarily uses SSH (Secure Shell) to communicate with and manage remote nodes. SSH provides a secure, encrypted channel for executing commands and transferring files, which is essential for automation and configuration management. Ansible leverages existing SSH daemons on managed nodes, requiring no special agent software to be installed on them. Telnet is incorrect because it is an insecure, unencrypted protocol and is not used by Ansible for node management. Kerberos is an authentication protocol, not a transport protocol for command execution, so it's incorrect. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is used for network device monitoring and management, not for executing arbitrary commands or deploying configurations like Ansible does, making it incorrect.