Salt part two

Salt states

From the documentation,

The core of the Salt State system is the SLS, or SaLt State file. The SLS is a representation of the state in which a system should be in, and is set up to contain this data in a simple format. This is often called configuration management.

The default location for salt state files (sls) is defined per environment in master configuration, e.g.

file_roots:
  base:
    - /srv/salt/base/state/

In our environment all of the sls files for the base environment are under /srv/salt/base/state
State files can be further organised by creating directories under this base directory, e.g.

/srv/salt/base/state/
  |
  top.sls
  + core
     |
     + network
     |   |
     |   init.sls
     |   |
     |   + resolver
     |     |
     |     init.sls
     |
     init.sls
     motd.sls

top.sls is a special state file, it contains the state defintion for the top (or high) state.
It is usually just a call to other state files (all of which can also be run individually).
This is a portion of our top.sls

####
# 'base' environment
base:
  '*':
      # Apply to all minion
      #
      # Core states
    - core
      # SSH
    - ssh/config
  'type:lxc':
      # Apply only to containers
    - match: grain
    - core/network/resolver

That demonstrates several aspects of the top state,

• it’s contents are targeted per environment.
  
• parts of the top state can be further targetted at groups of minions.
  in the example above the core/network/resolver state is applied only to containers (type:lxc) as determined by a grain (match:grain).
  
  

init.sls state files are also special.
For a directory representing a state (core in the example above) salt will look for init.sls when applying the state.
e.g. when applying the core state salt will execute init.sls.

This is our core/init.sls

install_core_packages:
  pkg.installed:
    - pkgs:
      # Ensure these packages are installed
      - rsync
      - curl
      - wget
      - unzip

# Include other state files
include:
    # set date, time and timezone
  - core.timedate
    # set motd
  - core.motd
    # create management user accounts
  - core.user.manage

Remaining state files are run by salt when requested.
Note that all of this is executed by the single core entry in top.sls.

Salt executes state file when the state.apply module is called.

## Apply the top.sls to all minions
$ salt '*' state.apply

## Apply the core/motd state
$ salt '*' state.apply core.motd