This document discusses Salt, an open source systems management and configuration management tool. It provides an overview of Salt's key concepts including the master-minion architecture, remote execution capabilities, configuration management using states, pillars and formulas, and its event-driven infrastructure. It also describes how Salt can be used to provision and manage cloud infrastructure using Salt Cloud.

1. Salt – A Scalable Systems
Management Solution for Datacenters
FrOSCon 2016, St. Augustin August 21, 2016
Sebastian Meyer
Linux Consultant & Trainer
B1 Systems GmbH
meyer@b1-systems.de
B1 Systems GmbH - Linux/Open Source Consulting,Training, Support & Development

2. Introducing B1 Systems
founded in 2004
operating both nationally and internationally
nearly 100 employees
provider for IBM, SUSE, Oracle & HP
vendor-independent (hardware and software)
focus:
consulting
support
development
training
operations
solutions
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3. Areas of Expertise
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4. Salt – Introduction
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5. Yet Another Systems Management Solution?
takes inspiration from Puppet, Chef or Ansible
focuses on the entire system life cycle
easily scalable to a few thousand systems
convenient and easy to learn
configuration management and remote execution
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6. Salt – Concept
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7. Master & Minions
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8. Scalability: Masters, Syndics & Minions
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9. High Availability: Multiple Masters& Minions
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10. Salt Modes
minions pull from master
master pushes to Minions
minions apply states locally
master applies states on minions via SSH
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11. Remote Execution System
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12. Salt Command
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13. Grains
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14. Configuration Management
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15. States
ID:
module.function:
- name: name
- argument1: value
- argument2:
- value1
- value2
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16. Top File
base:
’*’:
- monitoring
- ssh
- syslog
’*lan*’:
- ntp.lan
’*dmz*’:
- ntp.dmz
- firewall
all servers:
monitoring
ssh config
syslog
servers in LAN:
ntp config
servers in DMZ:
ntp config
firewall
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17. Pillars
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18. Pillar Data
Pillar Example
ntp:
{% if grains[’id’].startswith(’myntpserver’) %}
ntpservers: ["0.us.pool.ntp.org","1.us.pool.ntp.org"]
comment: ’’
{% else %}
ntpservers: ["10.1.1.20","10.1.1.21"]
comment: ’myinternalservers’
{% endif %}
Source: https://github.com/saltstack-formulas/ntp-formula/blob/master/pillar.example
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19. Pillars and States
States top.sls
base:
’*’:
- monitoring
- ssh
- syslog
- ntp
’*dmz*’:
- firewall
Pillar top.sls
base:
’*’:
- monitoring
- ssh
- syslog
’*lan*’:
- ntp.lan
’*dmz*’:
- ntp.dmz
- firewall
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20. Deploying the State
Master pushes to minions
salt ’*’ state.highstate
salt ’*’ state.sls mystate
Minions pull from master
salt-call state.highstate
salt-call state.sls mystate
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21. Reusing States: Formulas
reusing existing code
roughly the same as Puppet modules/Ansible roles
collection of States and files
github.com/saltstack-formulas/ for "official" formulas
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22. Using Formulas
directly from VCS or local
extendable via include
configurable via Pillar data
variables mapped via Jinja map
requirements across Formulas possible
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23. Demo
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24. Returners
salt ’*’ disk.usage --return redis_return
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25. Salts Event Driven Infrastructure
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26. Overview
actions trigger events
events are communicated via the event bus
reactors execute trigger actions responding to events
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27. Event Bus
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28. Actions & Events
master# salt ’salt-minion-01’ disk.percent /srv
salt-minion-01:
11%
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29. Actions & Events
20160422163250339970 {
[...]
}
salt/job/20160422163250339970/new {
"_stamp": "2016-04-22T14:32:50.340357",
"arg": [ "/srv" ],
"fun": "disk.percent",
"jid": "20160422163250339970",
"minions": [ "salt-minion-01" ],
"tgt": "salt-minion-01",
"tgt_type": "glob",
"user": "root"
}
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30. Actions & Events
salt/job/20160422163250339970/ret/salt-minion-01 {
"_stamp": "2016-04-22T14:32:50.536877",
"cmd": "_return",
"fun": "disk.percent",
"fun_args": [ "/srv" ],
"id": "salt-minion-01",
"jid": "20160422163250339970",
"retcode": 0,
"return": "11%",
"success": true
}
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31. Events in a State
b1/mystate/status/update:
event.send:
- data:
status: "Installation done!"
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32. Beacons
hook into system on minion
create events
inotify, diskusage, load, journald ...
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33. Beacons - Example
inotify Beacon
beacons:
inotify:
/etc/motd:
mask:
- modify
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34. Reactors
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35. Calling Reactors on Events
Reactor Example
reactor:
- ’salt/minion/*/start’:
- /srv/reactor/start.sls
- ’b1/mystate/status/*’:
- salt://reactor/status.sls
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36. Demo
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37. Use Cases?
load-balancing
job automation
alerting
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38. Salt Cloud
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39. Overview
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40. Providers
Amazon EC2 Provider Example
my-ec2:
driver: ec2
id: ’MYEC2ID’
key: ’adsfrf453fMYKEYasdsadg43’
private_key: /etc/salt/my_key.pem
keyname: my_key
securitygroup: default
minion:
master: saltmaster.example.com
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41. Profiles
profile name
provider
image or template
options for the instance
minion options
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42. Profiles
LXC Profile Example
myfancyprofile:
provider: lxc-host01
lxc_profile:
template: ubuntu
options:
release: trusty
password: test123
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43. Maps
Mapfile
profile1:
- instance_name_1
- instance_name_2
profile2:
- instance_name_3:
grains:
mykey: myvalue
- instance_name_4
Execute Mapfile
salt-cloud -m /path/to/mapfile
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44. Bootstrapping a New Salt Environment
Mapfile
profile1:
- instance_name_1:
make_master: True
minion:
master: myoldmaster
local_master: True
- instance_name_2
- instance_name_3
- instance_name_4
...
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45. Saltify Existing Machines 1/2
Saltify Provider
saltify-all-machines:
driver: saltify
minion:
master: mysaltmaster
Saltify Profile
salt-machine:
provider: saltify-all-machines
ssh_username: root
key_filename: ’/etc/salt/pki/master/ssh/salt-ssh.rsa’
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46. Saltify Existing Machines 2/2
Mapfile
salt-machine:
- first-machine:
ssh_host: 1.2.3.4
- second-machine:
ssh_host: 1.2.3.5
- third-machine:
ssh_host: 1.2.3.6
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47. Thank You!
For more information, refer to info@b1-systems.de
or +49 (0)8457 - 931096
B1 Systems GmbH - Linux/Open Source Consulting,Training, Support & Development