Salt stack configuration management

Configuration management is one of the most significant concepts in SaltStack. It is used to create a reusable configuration template, called a state. The state describes everything required to put a system component or an application into a known configuration.

Salt State

Salt state is a reusable configuration for a specific part of a system. States are easier to understand and described using a simple yaml.

Create a Salt State

Salt states are easy to create. Let us create a simple state, create a file named samples.sls and add the following lines in it.

#cat samples.sls

install_network_packages:

   pkg.installed:

      - pkgs:

         - rsync

         - lftp

         - curl

save the file and run the following command

#salt ubuntu-01 state.apply samples.sls

Here, we installed rsync, lftp, and curl through the pkg.installed module using the Salt state in a salt-minion,

Apply Salt State

we have created a state using the ‘.sls’ file. Salt has a default state file called the top.sls file. The top file is used to apply multiple state files to Salt minions. The top file describes where states should be applied. Well, States and the Top file work together to create the core of SaltStack’s configuration management capability.

create a simple top.sls file in the directory saltstack/salt and add the following

#cat top.sls

base:

  '*':

      - common

   'ubuntu-01':

      - samples

Here, the state commonly applies to all system state, samples applies to minion ubuntu-01

Run the Salt master and apply the state as shown below

#salt '*' state.apply

Apply Batch Size

If we have a large number of connected minions, then you can limit how many systems are updated at once. It is performed by using the –batch-size option, which is defined below.

#salt --batch-size 5 '*' state.apply

Relevant Blogs:

Salt stack grains 

Salt state functions 

Introduction to YAML

AWS multi cloud configuration with vpn