![Targeting Minions
• List: “minion1,minion2
• Globs: “minion*”
• Regular expression: “minion([2|3])”
• Grains: “OS: Ubuntu”
• Combinations of the above](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/intro-salt-20151003-151019032719-lva1-app6891/85/Introduction-to-Systems-Management-with-SaltStack-14-320.jpg)
Introduction to Systems Management with SaltStack
- 1. Introduction to Systems Management with SaltStack Craig Sebenik Infrastructure Engineer@Matterport 3 Oct 2015
- 2. • Introduction • Architecture Overview • Execution Modules • States • Data - Minion and Master • Extending Salt • Demo • Summary
- 3. What Is SaltStack? • System and Configuration Management • Encrypted communication channel • Remote execution framework • 100% open: one of the most active on github • Scales to tens of thousands of nodes • Built (and extended) with python
- 4. What Am I Covering? • Simple/quick overview of salt • Very simple examples • Only a basic single master topology • Only the core functionality • Glossing over details: ask questions!
- 5. Who Am I? • Degrees in Chemistry, Mathematics, Food • Computational Chemist (lifetime ago) • Abbott Labs, Eastman Kodak, Parke-Davis • Sysadmin/SRE • NetApp, LinkedIn, Matterport
- 6. One More Thing About Me…
- 7. Quick History Of Salt • Initial release in March 2011 • States added a few months later • Pillars added March 2012 • Salt SSH added Sept 2013 • Salt Cloud merged in Jan 2014 • Custom transport (RAET) added in Jul 2014
- 8. • Introduction • Architecture Overview • Execution Modules • States • Data - Minion and Master • Extending Salt • Demo • Summary
- 9. Minions and Master • Master: central command and control • Minion: paired with master • Encrypted communication • Communication over ZeroMQ using MessagePack • Target minions based on their attributes
- 10. Quick Example
- 11. What Does This Mean? • Central management of many nodes • Ensuring hosts match a “recipe” • Easy to add more hosts that match a template
- 14. Targeting Minions • List: “minion1,minion2 • Globs: “minion*” • Regular expression: “minion([2|3])” • Grains: “OS: Ubuntu” • Combinations of the above
- 15. Set up Trust With salt-key • Salt uses standard public key encryption • Key exchange • Master needs to verify identity of minions • User needs to “accept” the minion’s key • Minion’s public key stored on master • Master’s public key stored on minion
- 16. • Introduction • Architecture Overview • Execution Modules • States • Data - Minion and Master • Extending Salt • Demo • Summary
- 17. Execution Modules • Salt comes with over 100 modules • Over 1000 functions • Examples: • pkg.install, pkg.remove • file.copy, file.find, file.chown • user.add, user.info
- 18. Minor Vocabulary Clarification • Modules contains functions • Modules correspond to python files • Functions correspond to methods • There are some exceptions, but beyond today’s scope
- 19. Add User To All Hosts
- 20. What’s Happening • Master looks at target (‘*’) and determines hosts • Puts message out on event bus • Over ZeroMQ using messagepack • Minion sees message and executes • All execution is on minion, not master • Minion returns data back to master
- 21. Master Maintains Job Data • Job cache on master • Contains history of jobs run and data returned • Tools to query the job cache • Default is to cache 24 hours of history • Performance penalties when storing longer
- 22. Commands Sent In Parallel • Command sent via event bus • Minions see and execute • Jobs are done asynchronously
- 23. Can Run Locally • Command to run locally: salt-call • No central coordination • Data *IS* still returned to master • Can bypass with “—local” flag
- 24. Documentation • Function called “sys.doc” • Uses python docstrings • Important when writing your own custom modules/functions
- 26. • Introduction • Architecture Overview • Execution Modules • States • Data - Minion and Master • Extending Salt • Demo • Summary
- 27. States • Recipe for how a host should be configured • Default file format is YAML (with jinja) • Write state files on the master • Master will sync to minion automatically • States use the remote execution framework • But, they are not the same
- 28. State Example
- 30. Running highstate • Running individual states can be tedious • Collect all states for a host (or “template”) in a single file: top.ls • Called: top file • Target just like running the “salt” command
- 31. Example Top File
- 35. • Introduction • Architecture Overview • Execution Modules • States • Data - Minion and Master • Extending Salt • Demo • Summary
- 36. Data: Minion and Master • Grains: minion side data • Example: host operating system • Pillars: master side data • Example: database passwords
- 37. Grains: Minion-Side Data • Data gathered on the minion • Master has a cache of minion grains • Salt comes with a number of grains built in • OS name (eg CentOS) • number of CPUs • kernel version
- 38. Viewing Grains
- 40. Adding Grains • Minion config • /etc/salt/grains • Via command • sudo salt minion grains.setval foo bar • Via python (will discuss later)
- 41. Pillars: Master-Side Data • Data sent to a specific minion (from master) • Typically used for sensitive data • E.g. passwords • Uses a “top file” (just like “states”)
- 42. Pillar Example
- 46. • Introduction • Architecture Overview • Execution Modules • States • Data - Minion and Master • Extending Salt • Demo • Summary
- 47. Extending Salt • Jinja • Custom modules/functions (python) • salt python API (LocalClient) • Customizations are synced via salt command • Easy to automate
- 48. Templates Using jinja • Jinja is a widely used python templating language • Inspired by Django’s templates • Default template for flask applications • Gives basic control commands to flat files
- 49. Jinja Example
- 50. Running The ‘vim state’
- 52. Custom Modules are NOT Automatically Synced
- 55. • Introduction • Architecture Overview • Execution Modules • States • Data - Minion and Master • Extending Salt • Demo • Summary
- 56. Demo Minions • minion1: development database server • minion2: development application server • minion3: production database server • minion4: production application server
- 57. • Introduction • Architecture Overview • Execution Modules • States • Data - Minion and Master • Extending Salt • Demo • Summary
- 58. Summary • Master and minions encrypted communications • Grains: minion-side data, Pillars: master-side data • Execution functions run on the minions • States are formulas/recipes to define a host • Collect multiple states with highstate • Lots of ways to extend salt functionality
- 59. Other Features • Runners: master side orchestration • Orchestrate Runner: master coordination of states • Salt cloud: manage cloud virtual machines • Salt ssh: like normal salt without minion process • More advanced topologies • multi-master • master-less minions (with salt-call) • GitFS
- 60. References • https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ • https://docs.saltstack.com/en/getstarted/ • https://github.com/saltstack/salt