Getting Started With Saltify¶

Destroy Options¶

For obvious reasons, the destroy action does not actually vaporize hardware. If the salt master is connected, it can tear down parts of the client machines. It will remove the client's key from the salt master, and can execute the following options:

- remove_config_on_destroy: true
  # default: true
  # Deactivate salt-minion on reboot and
  # delete the minion config and key files from its "/etc/salt" directory,
  #   NOTE: If deactivation was unsuccessful (older Ubuntu machines) then when
  #   salt-minion restarts it will automatically create a new, unwanted, set
  #   of key files. Use the "force_minion_config" option to replace them.

- shutdown_on_destroy: false
  # default: false
  # last of all, send a "shutdown" command to the client.

Wake On LAN¶

In addition to connecting a hardware machine to a Salt master, you have the option of sending a wake-on-LAN magic packet to start that machine running.

The "magic packet" must be sent by an existing salt minion which is on the same network segment as the target machine. (Or your router must be set up especially to route WoL packets.) Your target machine must be set up to listen for WoL and to respond appropriately.

You must provide the Salt node id of the machine which will send the WoL packet (parameter wol_sender_node), and the hardware MAC address of the machine you intend to wake, (parameter wake_on_lan_mac). If both parameters are defined, the WoL will be sent. The cloud master will then sleep a while (parameter wol_boot_wait) to give the target machine time to boot up before we start probing its SSH port to begin deploying Salt to it. The default sleep time is 30 seconds.

# /etc/salt/cloud.profiles.d/saltify.conf

salt-this-machine:
  ssh_host: 12.34.56.78
  ssh_username: root
  key_filename: '/etc/salt/mysshkey.pem'
  provider: my-saltify-config
  wake_on_lan_mac: '00:e0:4c:70:2a:b2'  # found with ifconfig
  wol_sender_node: bevymaster  # its on this network segment
  wol_boot_wait: 45  # seconds to sleep

Using Map Files¶

The settings explained in the section above may also be set in a map file. An example of how to use the Saltify driver with a map file follows:

# /etc/salt/saltify-map

make_salty:
  - my-instance-0:
      ssh_host: 12.34.56.78
      ssh_username: root
      password: very-bad-password
  - my-instance-1:
      ssh_host: 44.33.22.11
      ssh_username: root
      password: another-bad-pass

In this example, the names my-instance-0 and my-instance-1 will be the identifiers of the deployed minions.

Note: The ssh_host directive is also used for Windows hosts, even though they do not typically run the SSH service. It indicates IP address or host name for the target system.

Note: When using a cloud map with the Saltify driver, the name of the profile to use, in this case make_salty, must be defined in a profile config. For example:

# /etc/salt/cloud.profiles.d/saltify.conf

make_salty:
  provider: my-saltify-config

The machines listed in the map file can now be "Salted" by applying the following salt map command:

salt-cloud -m /etc/salt/saltify-map

This command will install salt on the machines specified in the map and will give each machine their minion id of my-instance-0 and my-instance-1, respectively. If the command was executed on the salt-master, its Salt key will automatically be signed on the master.

Connectivity to the new "Salted" instances can now be verified with Salt:

salt 'my-instance-*' test.version

Bulk Deployments¶

When deploying large numbers of Salt Minions using Saltify, it may be preferable to organize the configuration in a way that duplicates data as little as possible. For example, if a group of target systems have the same credentials, they can be specified in the profile, rather than in a map file.

# /etc/salt/cloud.profiles.d/saltify.conf

make_salty:
  provider: my-saltify-config
  ssh_username: root
  password: very-bad-password

# /etc/salt/saltify-map

make_salty:
  - my-instance-0:
      ssh_host: 12.34.56.78
  - my-instance-1:
      ssh_host: 44.33.22.11

If ssh_host is not provided, its default value will be the Minion identifier (my-instance-0 and my-instance-1, in the example above). For deployments with working DNS resolution, this can save a lot of redundant data in the map. Here is an example map file using DNS names instead of IP addresses:

# /etc/salt/saltify-map

make_salty:
  - my-instance-0
  - my-instance-1