SaltStack Basics

2.1 What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC)?

IaC is the practice of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools.

2.2 Salt States

Salt states are the primary configuration management components in SaltStack. They define the desired state of the system.

2.3 Minions and Master

In SaltStack, a Master is the central server that manages the configuration of multiple Minions, which are the client machines.

3.1 Install Salt Master

sudo apt-get install salt-master

3.2 Install Salt Minion

sudo apt-get install salt-minion

4.1 Configure Salt Master

Edit the configuration file located at /etc/salt/master. You can define settings such as the default backend, and file roots.

4.2 Configure Salt Minion

Edit the configuration file located at /etc/salt/minion. Set the Master address:

master: 

5.1 Running Commands

To execute a command on a Minion:

salt '*' test.ping

5.2 Applying States

To apply a state file:

salt '' state.apply 

5.3 Writing a Simple State File

Here's an example of a simple state file:

install_nginx:
  pkg.installed:
    - name: nginx