Salt

Salt is a configuration management system that uses easy to understand yaml-syntax and jinja-Templates.

Installation

Client

wget -O - http://bootstrap.saltstack.org | sudo sh

oder:

curl -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com | sudo sh

Note

avamis rules need machine_id grain - that is read from /etc/machine-id or if that doesn’t exist from /var/lib/dbus/machine-id

Either install systemd-machine-id-setup (for systemd based distros) or dbus-uuidgen (package dbus on ubuntu) to have it generated.

Master

wget -O - http://bootstrap.saltstack.org | sudo sh -s -- -M

Note

If wget seems to stop, there is a possible sudo error. Try pressing ENTER.

Note

Due to strange behaviour of apt starting with 12.10, an old version of salt may be installed. You can check the version of salt with salt-minion --version and compare this version with that installed on the master. To update to the desired stable version, issue the following commands:

sudo apt-get install -y software-properties-common python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:saltstack/salt
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Configuration of Master

• Salt by default is too verbose, decrease it a little bit:

  echo "state_verbose: False" > /etc/salt/master.d/9999user.conf
  

• Setup configuration root directories:

  cat >> /etc/salt/master.d/9999user.conf << EOF
  file_roots:
    base:
      - /srv/salt/tdf
      - /srv/salt/base
  EOF
  

• Setup metadata root directories:

  cat >> /etc/salt/master.d/9999user.conf << EOF
  pillar_roots:
    base:
      - /srv/pillar/tdf
      - /srv/pillar/base
  EOF
  

• Clone the configuration repositories as normal user (don’t forget to user ssh -A to forward your local key):

  sudo mkdir /srv/salt /srv/pillar
  sudo chown :users /srv/salt /srv/pillar
  sudo chmod g+rwxs /srv/salt /srv/pillar
  git clone git@pumbaa.documentfoundation.org:salt/salt /srv/salt
  git clone git@pumbaa.documentfoundation.org:salt/pillar /srv/pillar
  cd /srv/salt; git config core.sharedRepository group
  cd /srv/pillar; git config core.sharedRepository group
  

• Restart the master:

  /etc/init.d/salt-master restart
  

• Setup ufw:

  ufw allow in 4505
  ufw allow in 4506/tcp
  

Adding a Minion

• Set master in /etc/salt/minion.d/9999user.conf:

  echo "master: ####master.fqdn####" > /etc/salt/minion.d/9999user.conf
  

Note

For version 0.17 and 0.17.1 of the salt minion, the FQDN is not reported correctly on Debian-based systems. Please issue this command additionally:

echo "id: ####minion.fqdn####" >> /etc/salt/minion.d/9999user.conf

• Restart the minion:

  /etc/init.d/salt-minion restart
  

• On the master, accept the key of the minion:

  salt-key -a ####minion.fqdn####
  

• Test the connection:

  salt '####minion.fqdn####' test.ping
  

Start

/etc/init.d/salt-master start
/etc/init.d/salt-minion start

Stop

/etc/init.d/salt-master stop
/etc/init.d/salt-minion stop

Disable

Using the default upstart way:

sh -c "echo 'manual' > /etc/init/salt-master.override"
sh -c "echo 'manual' > /etc/init/salt-minion.override"

Enable

sudo rm /etc/init/salt-master.override
sudo rm /etc/init/salt-minion.override

Responsible

Alexander Werner <alex@documentfoundation.org>