1. Introduction to Salt

You can use Salt as a configuration management tool similar to Ansible or Puppet.

This guide describes how to use Salt for configuration management in Foreman. This guide contains information about how to install the Salt plugin, how to integrate Foreman with an existing Salt Master, and how to configure hosts with Salt.

Note

Salt offers two distinct modes of operation: Clientless using SSH or the Salt Minion client software.
Additional resources

2. Salt architecture

You need a Salt Master that either runs on your Foreman server or Smart Proxy server with the Salt plugin enabled. You can also use an existing Salt Master by installing and configuring the relevant Smart Proxy features on the existing Salt Master host.

For more information on installing a Salt Master, consult the official Salt documentation. Alternatively, use the bootstrap instructions found in the official Salt package repository.

Terminology

  • Hosts are referred to as Salt Minions.

  • Information in form of key-value pairs gathered from Salt Minions is referred to as Salt Grains.

  • Configuration templates are referred to as Salt States.

  • Bundles of Salt States are referred to as Salt Environments.

Use the same Salt version on the Salt Master as you are using on your Salt Minions. You can use content management in Foreman to provide hosts with the correct version of the Salt Minion client software.

Table 1. Required ports from Salt Master to Salt Minions
Port Protocol Service Required For

4505 and 4506

TCP

HTTPS

Salt Master to Salt Minions

9191

TCP

HTTPS

Salt API

3. Installing the Salt plugin

To configure hosts with Salt, you must install the Salt plugin.

Procedure

  • On your Foreman server, install the Salt plugin:

    # foreman-installer \
--enable-foreman-plugin-salt \
--enable-foreman-proxy-plugin-salt

4. Configuring Salt

After you have installed the Salt plugin, you need to connect it to a Salt Master. This is required when adding Salt support to an existing Foreman installation, when adding an existing Salt Master to Foreman, or when setting up Salt on Smart Proxy.

Perform all actions on your Salt Master unless noted otherwise. This is either your Foreman server or Smart Proxy server with Salt enabled.

4.1. Configuring Salt on Foreman server

You need to configure Foreman server to use the Salt plugin.

Procedure

  1. On your Foreman server, extend the /etc/sudoers file to allow the foreman-proxy user to run Salt:

    Cmd_Alias SALT = /usr/bin/salt, /usr/bin/salt-key
foreman-proxy ALL = NOPASSWD: SALT
Defaults:foreman-proxy !requiretty

  2. On your Foreman server, add a user called saltuser to access the Salt API:

    # adduser --no-create-home --shell /bin/false --home-dir / saltuser
# passwd saltuser

    Enter the password for the Salt user twice.

    Note

    The command adduser saltuser -p password does not work. Using it prevents you from importing Salt States.

4.2. Authenticating Salt Minions using Salt autosign Grains

Configure Foreman to automatically accept Salt Minions using Salt autosign Grains.

Procedure

  1. Add the reactor to the salt/auth event.

  2. Copy the Salt runners into your file_roots runners directory. The directory depends on your /etc/salt/master config. If it is configured to use /srv/salt, create the runners folder /srv/salt/_runners and copy the Salt runners into it.

    # mkdir -p /srv/salt/_runners
# cp /usr/share/foreman-proxy/salt/runners/* /srv/salt/_runners/

  3. Restart the Salt Master service:

    # systemctl restart salt-master

  4. Enable the Salt reactors and runners in your Salt Environment:

    # salt-run saltutil.sync_all

4.3. Authenticating Salt Minions using host names

Configure Foreman to authenticate Salt Minions based on their host names. This relies on the autosign.conf file that stores the host names of Salt Minions the Salt Master accepts.

Procedure

  1. On your Salt Master, add the foreman-proxy user that is running Salt to the root user group:

    # usermod -a -G foreman-proxy root

  2. On your Salt Master, enable the autosign.conf file in /etc/salt/master:

    autosign_file: /etc/salt/autosign.conf
permissive_pki_access: True

  3. On your Salt Master, create the /etc/salt/autosign.conf file and set appropriate ownership and permissions:

    # touch /etc/salt/autosign.conf
# chown root:foreman-proxy /etc/salt/autosign.conf
# chmod 660 /etc/salt/autosign.conf

4.4. Enabling Salt Grain uploads

Hosts running the Salt Minion client software can upload Salt Grains to Foreman server or Smart Proxy server. Salt Grains are collected system properties, for example the operating system or IP address of a Salt Minion.

Procedure

  • On your Salt Master, edit /etc/salt/foreman.yaml:

    :proto: https
:host: foreman.example.com
:port: 443
:ssl_ca: "/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/ssl_ca.pem"
:ssl_cert: "/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/client_cert.pem"
:ssl_key: "/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/client_key.pem"
:timeout: 10
:salt: /usr/bin/salt
:upload_grains: true

4.5. Configuring the Salt API

Configure the Salt API on your Salt Master.

Procedure

  • On your Salt master, edit /etc/foreman-proxy/settings.d/salt.yml:

    :use_api: true
:api_auth: pam
:api_url: https://foreman.example.com:9191
:api_username: saltuser
:api_password: password

    Ensure to use the password of the previously created saltuser.

4.6. Activating Salt

Use this procedure to activate Salt plugin on your Foreman.

Procedure

  1. On your Salt Master, restart all Salt services:

    # systemctl restart salt-master salt-api

  2. On your Foreman server, restart all Foreman services:

    # foreman-maintain service restart

  3. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Smart Proxies.

  4. Click Refresh for the relevant Smart Proxy.

5. Setting up Salt Minions

Salt Minions require the Salt Minion client software to interact with your Salt Master.

5.1. Providing the Salt Client to Salt Minions

Provide the Salt Client to your hosts.

Procedure

  1. Create a product called Salt. For more information, see Creating a custom product.

  2. Create a repository within the Salt product for each operating system supported by Foreman that you want to install the Salt Minion client software on. For more information, see Adding RPM repositories or Adding Deb repositories.

    Add the operating system to the name of the repository, for example Salt for Ubuntu 20.04.

    You can find the upstream URL for the Salt packages on the official Salt package repository. The URL depends on both the Salt version and the operating system, for example https://repo.saltproject.io/py3/ubuntu/20.04/amd64/3003/.

  3. Synchronize the previously created products. For more information, see Synchronizing repositories.

  4. Create a content view for each repository. For more information, see Creating a content view.

  5. Create a composite content view for each major version of each operating system to make the new content available. For more information, see Create a composite content view.

  6. Add each of your operating system specific Salt content views to your main composite content view for that operating system and version.

  7. Publish a new version of the composite content view from the previous step.

  8. Promote the content view from the previous step to your lifecycle environments as appropriate. For more information, see Promoting a content view.

  9. Optional: Create activation keys for your composite content view and lifecycle environment combinations.

5.2. Creating a host group with Salt

You can create a host group with Salt enabled to bundle provisioning and configuration settings for hosts.

Procedure

  1. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Configure > Host Groups.

  2. Click Create Host Group.

  3. Click the Host Group tab and select a Salt Environment and a Salt Master.

  4. Click the Salt States tab and assign Salt States to your host group.

  5. Click the Activation Keys tab and select an activation key containing the Salt Minion client software.

  6. Click Submit to save your host group.

Hosts deployed using this host group automatically install and configure the required Salt Minion client software and register with your Salt Master. For more information, see Creating a Host Group Managing hosts.

5.3. Deploying Salt Minion hosts

Deploy hosts that are fully provisioned and configured for Salt usage.

Prerequisites

  1. A Salt Master

  2. A Salt Environment

  3. A content view containing the required Salt Minion client software

  4. An activation key

  5. A lifecycle environment

Procedure

  1. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Hosts > Create Host.

  2. Select the previously created host group with Salt enabled.

  3. Click Submit to deploy a host.

5.4. Verifying the connection between Salt Master and Salt Minions

Verify the connection between your Salt Master and Salt Minions.

Procedure

  1. Connect to your Salt Master using SSH:

    # ssh root@salt-master.example.com

  2. Ping your Salt Minions:

    # salt "*" test.ping

  3. Display all Salt Grains of all connected Salt Minions:

    # salt "*" grains.items

6. Using Salt

Salt Minions managed by Foreman are associated with a Salt Master and a Salt Environment. The associated Salt Environment within Foreman must match the actual Salt Environment from the file_roots option in the /etc/salt/master file. You can configure hosts with Salt after they are associated with your Foreman server or Smart Proxy server and the Salt Minion client software is installed.

6.1. Using the Salt Hammer CLI

You can use Hammer CLI to configure hosts using Salt. Run hammer --help for more information.

Prerequisites

  • Install hammer_cli_foreman_salt on your Foreman server

Examples

  • Creating a Salt State:

    # hammer salt-state create \
--name My_Salt_State

  • Viewing information about a Salt Minion:

    # hammer salt-minion info \
--name salt-minion.example.com

  • Adding Salt States to a Salt Minion:

    # hammer salt-minion update \
--name salt-minion.example.com \
--salt-states My_Salt_State

6.2. Using the Salt API

Foreman Salt extends the Foreman REST API with Salt-specific features. View the full API documentation on your Foreman server at http://foreman.example.com/apidoc/v2.html.

Example

  • Use curl to get a list of keys from smartproxy.example.com:

    # curl -u My_User_Name:My_Password \
-H "Accept: version=2,application/json" \
https://foreman.example.com/salt/api/v2/salt_keys/smartproxy.example.com

6.3. Importing Salt States

A Salt State configures parts of a host, for example, a service or the installation of a package. You can import Salt States from your Salt Master to Foreman. The Salt Master configuration in this guide uses a Salt Environment called base that includes the Salt States stored in /srv/salt/.

Procedure

  1. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Configure > Salt > States.

  2. Click Import from FQDN.

  3. Optional: Click Edit to assign Salt States to Salt Environments.

  4. Optional: Click Delete to remove a Salt State from your Foreman. This only removes the Salt State from Foreman, not from the disk of your Salt Master.

  5. Click Submit to import the Salt States.

After you have imported Salt States, you can assign them to hosts or Host Groups. Salt applies these Salt States to any hosts they are assigned to every time you run state.highstate. For more information, see Running Salt.

Note

Configure the paths for Salt States and Salt Pillars in /etc/salt/master. By default, Salt States are located in /srv/salt and and Salt Pillars in /srv/pillar.

6.4. Viewing Salt autosign keys

The Salt Keys page lists hosts and their Salt keys. You can manually accept, reject, or delete keys.

Use the Salt Autosign feature to automatically accept signing requests from hosts. By default, hosts are supplied with a Salt key during host provisioning.

Note

This feature only covers the Salt Autosign using the autosign.conf authentication.
Procedure

  1. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Smart Proxies.

  2. Select a Smart Proxy.

  3. In the Actions drop down menu, click Salt Keys.

6.5. Enabling Salt report uploads

The Salt Master can directly upload Salt reports to Foreman.

Procedure

  1. Connect to your Salt Master using SSH:

    # ssh root@salt-master.example.com

  2. Ensure that the Salt reactor is present:

    # file /usr/share/foreman-proxy/salt/reactors/foreman_report_upload.sls

  3. Copy report upload script:

    # cp /usr/share/foreman-proxy/salt/runners/foreman_report_upload.py /srv/salt/_runners/

  4. Restart the Salt Master service:

    # systemctl restart salt-master

  5. Enable the new runner:

    # salt-run saltutil.sync_all

  6. If you use a cron job to upload facts from your Salt Master to Foreman, disable the cron job:

    # rm -f /etc/cron.d/smart_proxy_salt

Alternatively, you can upload Salt reports from your Salt Master to Foreman manually:

# /usr/sbin/upload-salt-reports

6.6. Viewing Salt reports

You can view uploaded Salt reports from Salt Minions in Foreman.

Procedure

  • To view all Salt reports, in the Foreman web UI, navigate to Monitor > Reports > Config Management.

  • To view Salt reports associated with a host, in the Foreman web UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts, select a host, and click the Reports tab.

6.7. Salt variables

You can configure Salt Variables within Foreman. The configured values are available as Salt Pillar data.

6.8. Viewing ENC parameters

You can use Foreman as an external node classifier for Salt. Click Salt ENC on the host overview page to view assigned Salt States. This shows a list of parameters that are made available for Salt usage as Salt Pillar data.

You can check what parameters are truly available on the Salt side by completing the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Connect to your Salt Master using SSH:

    # ssh root@salt-master.example.com

  2. View available ENC parameters:

    # salt '*' pillar.items

  3. Optional: Refresh the Salt Pillar data if a parameter is missing:

    # salt '*' saltutil.refresh_pillar

6.9. Running Salt

You can run arbitrary Salt functions, such as salt.highstate, using remote execution on one or more Salt Minions. This applies all relevant Salt States on your hosts.

Procedure

  1. In the Foreman web UI, navigate to Monitor > Jobs and click Run job.

    • If you want to run Salt highstate, select Salt as Job category and Salt Run state.highstate – Salt default as Job template and click Next.

    • If you want to run a Salt function, select Salt-Call as Job category and Salt Run function – SSH default as Job template and click Next.

      In the Function field, enter the name of the function that you want to trigger, for example, pillar.items or test.ping.

  2. Select hosts on which you want to run the job. If you do not select any hosts, the job will run on all hosts you can see in the current context.

  3. Click Next.

  4. Optional: To configure advanced settings for the job, fill in the Advanced fields. To learn more about advanced settings, see Advanced Settings in the Job Wizard in Managing hosts.

  5. Click Next.

  6. Select Immediate execution to execute the job immediately and click Next.

  7. Review job details. You have the option to return to any part of the job wizard and edit the information.

  8. Click Run to schedule the job for execution.

Alternatively, you can define recurrent actions using the native Salt way. For example, you can schedule hourly state.highstate runs on individual Salt Minions by extending /etc/salt/minion:

schedule:
  highstate:
    function: state.highstate
    minutes: 60

7. Salt example

This example uses a Salt State to manage the /etc/motd file on one or more Salt Minions. It demonstrates the use of Foreman as an external node classifier and the use of Salt Grains.

Procedure

  1. Create a global parameter called vendor_name with the string Foreman as its value.

  2. Add a new Salt State called motd to your Salt Master.

  3. Create the /srv/salt/motd/ directory:

    # mkdir -p /srv/salt/motd/

  4. Create /srv/salt/motd/init.sls as a Salt State file:

    /etc/motd:
  file.managed:
    - user: root
    - group: root
    - mode: 0644
    - source: salt://motd/motd.template
    - template: jinja

  5. Create /srv/salt/motd/motd.template as a template referenced by the Salt State file:

    Welcome to {{ grains['fqdn'] }} Powered by {{ salt['pillar.get']('vendor_name') }}

    Access the fqdn Salt Grain from within this template and retrieve the vendor_name parameter from the Salt Pillar.

  6. Import the motd Salt State into Foreman. For more information, see Importing Salt States.

  7. Verify that Salt has been given access to the vendor_name parameter by running either of the following commands on your Salt Master:

    # salt '*' pillar.items | grep -A 1 vendor_name
# salt '*' pillar.get vendor_name

    If the output does not include the value of the vendor_name parameter, you must refresh the Salt Pillar data first:

    # salt '*' saltutil.refresh_pillar

    For information about how to refresh Salt Pillar data, see Viewing ENC parameters.

  8. Add the motd Salt State to your Salt Minions or a host group.

  9. Run state.highstate to apply the Salt State. For more information, see Running Salt.

  10. Optional: Verify the contents of /etc/motd on a Salt Minion.