How do Jenkins agents (nodes) and the controller relate?
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Quick Answer
The controller schedules and orchestrates; agents execute the build steps, isolating workloads from the controller.
Detailed Answer
Running builds on the controller is discouraged for security and scale. Agents (static VMs, Docker, or Kubernetes pods via the k8s plugin) provide clean, ephemeral executors. The controller distributes jobs to agents by label, letting you match builds to environments.
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Interview Tip
Mention ephemeral Kubernetes agents for modern setups.
jenkinsagentscontroller