Remarks#

This section provides an overview of what salt-stack is, and why a developer might want to use it.

It should also mention any large subjects within salt-stack, and link out to the related topics. Since the Documentation for salt-stack is new, you may need to create initial versions of those related topics.

Versions#

Installation or Setup

Salt can be installed via :

• salt-bootstrap: a shell script, that can install salt (client and/or master packages) on standard Unix/Linux platform,
• Platform Specific binaries: available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux,
• Package Management systems: available for pacman, apt-get, yum and other package management systems.

Salt Installation via Salt-Bootstrap

Download Salt:

• via curl: curl -o bootstrap_salt.sh -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com
• via wget: wget -O bootstrap_salt.sh https://bootstrap.saltstack.com

bootstrap_salt.sh provides many options. Among them executing the script with:

• -M flag will install salt-master,
• -N flag will not install salt-minion package,
• -A flag can be used to define the salt-master ip.

It can be invoked with the version of salt to be installed.

Common pattern are:

• sh bootstrap_salt.sh -M -N stable to install a “stable” salt master,
• sh bootstrap_salt.sh -A <ip> stable to install a “stable” salt minion, with the master IP defined.

Official Documentation can be found here.

Salt Installation via platform specific binaries:

Latest stable installers can be found here:

• Windows
• Mac OS

Salt Installation via package management systems

Under Ubuntu 16.04

• add the saltstack repository key to APT via:

wget -O - https://repo.saltstack.com/apt/ubuntu/16.04/amd64/latest/SALTSTACK-GPG-KEY.pub | sudo apt-key add -

• add the repository in apt configuration via sudo echo "deb https://repo.saltstack.com/apt/ubuntu/16.04/amd64/latest denial main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/saltstack.list
• update your apt cache via apt-get update

If you wish to install a salt-master run apt-get install salt-master, otherwise apt-get install salt-minion.

Instructions for other OSes can be found here

Command Syntax

Salt commands are executed using a common structure:

salt '*'      pkg.install       vim
     [target] [module.function] [arguments]

The target determines which systems apply the command. In the example above we target all ('*') the Salt minions. See the targeting minions documentation for more information about targeting Salt minions.

The command (module.function) is the function to execute. In the above example we use the pkg.install function to tell the targets to install a package.

The arguments provide any extra data that is needed by the function you are calling. In the example above we tell the pkg.install function to install the package named vim.

Version Numbers

As of Salt version 2014.1.0, Salt uses a date based system for version numbers. Version numbers are in the format YYYY.MM.R. The year (YYYY) and month (MM) indicate when the release was created. The bugfix release number (R) increments within that feature release.

In order to distinguish future releases from the current release, code names are used. Salt uses the periodic table to derive the next codename. The first release in the date based system was code name Hydrogen, each subsequent release will go to the next atomic release.