SaltStack and Ansible are both popular Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools used for automation and configuration management. SaltStack, also known as Salt, is built on a master-minion model and uses a YAML-based configuration language. It is known for its high-speed data collection and execution capabilities, which are facilitated by the ZeroMQ messaging library that establishes persistent TCP connections between the master and minions. SaltStack is designed to be scalable and flexible, capable of handling thousands of minions per master.
On the other hand, Ansible is an open-source tool that emphasizes simplicity and agentless architecture. It uses YAML to write its Playbooks, which describe automation jobs. Ansible's agentless nature means it communicates with nodes over SSH or WinRM without requiring an agent to be installed on the remote systems, making it easy to deploy and manage.
References:
* SaltStack's architecture and features are detailed in the comparison articles I found, which highlight its scalability and flexibility12.
* Ansible's simplicity and agentless architecture are also discussed, along with its use of YAML for Playbooks