When `--connection` argument is not specified, Ansible will use the
'smart' mode, which can either use `ssh` or `paramiko` transports,
depending of the version of OpenSSH available. If OpenSSH version is new
enough to support ControlPersist technology, `ssh` will be used.
See also http://docs.ansible.com/intro_configuration.html#transport.
In order to support some advanced features of Vagrant (e.g. multiple ssh
private key identities or ssh forwarding), the Ansible provisioner
already must force `ssh` connection mode.
Having to deal with the possible fallback to `paramiko` increase the
burden of special cases that Ansible provisioner must handle, without
any added value, as Vagrant is based on OpenSSH and its users are
usually using modern operating systems.
With this change, the Ansible provisioner will officially only support
`ssh`. It will still be possible to switch to another connection mode
via `raw_arguments`, but it will breach the "contract", and no
(community) support can be expected in such use case.
ref #3900, #3396
306c4f7eda