Salt Scripts

Means of interaction with Salt
@carsonoid groups the scripts by their purpose.

Action scripts

Interaction with Salt Master or Salt Minion

salt

salt '*' test.ping
salt runs on master, accepts the user command, applies them via salt-master process
(salt -> salt-master) --transport--> salt-minions

salt-call

salt-call runs the execution modules directly, doesn't require running salt-minion at all, unless --local option is passed it still requires salt-master connection

salt-run

salt-run runs on the master, talks to the salt-master process, allows to run runner modules. runner modules allows to orchestrate multi-minion installations

salt-ssh

Doesn't use Salt Minion process at all, requires only SSH daemon running. Installs python binaries on the remote minion.
It is much slower than using salt-minion More detailed description of salt-ssh can be found here

salt-cloud

Runs on the master. Requires additional configuration of:

• cloud provider connection
• image profiles (of the vm)

Connects to desired cloud provider, allocates the resources, uses salt-ssh to provision image after its creation.

Daemon scripts

Tools to extend access to salt

salt-api

Runs on the salt-master and communicates with salt-master process. Exposes multiple connectors and ACL.

Using curl, access API like so: curl -sSk https://salt.local:9191/login -H 'Accept: application/x-yaml' -d username=saltuser -d password=saltpassword -d eauth=auto

salt-proxy

Pretends to be salt-minion, allows provisioning of the devices that cannot run salt-minion or cannot be connected via SSH. Salt-master is not aware of the proxy.

salt-syndic

Runs on multiple salt-masters and proxies traffic from multiple masters to one desired (uber) salt-master.

Utility scripts

Salt itself management

salt-key

Runs on salt-master, manages minion keys.

List all of the keys: salt-key -L
Accept key: salt-key -a minion_id

salt-cp

Copy files from salt-master to salt-minion (other way around as well)

spm

Salt Package Manager, standarization over multiple salt formulas. Currently adding formulas requires changes in Salt Master configuration. With spm this is no longer necessary.

salt-extend

Boilerplate generator for custom modules.

salt-unity

Wrapper over any other script: salt-unity key -L.
This is useful for tools that require listing allowed user commands (like sudoers file)