CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Salt
We’re not just talking about NaCl.
1.1 The 30 second summary
Salt is:
• a configuration management system, capable of maintaining remote nodes in defined states (for example,
ensuring that specific packages are installed and specific services are running)
• a distributed remote execution system used to execute commands and query data on remote nodes, either
individually or by arbitrary selection criteria
It was developed in order to bring the best solutions found in the world of remote execution together and make them
beer, faster, and more malleable. Salt accomplishes this through its ability to handle large loads of information, and
not just dozens but hundreds and even thousands of individual servers quickly through a simple and manageable
interface.
1.2 Simplicity
Providing versatility between massive scale deployments and smaller systems may seem daunting, but Salt is very
simple to set up and maintain, regardless of the size of the project. e architecture of Salt is designed to work with
any number of servers, from a handful of local network systems to international deployments across different data
centers. e topology is a simple server/client model with the needed functionality built into a single set of daemons.
While the default configuration will work with lile to no modification, Salt can be fine tuned to meet specific needs.
1.3 Parallel execution
e core functions of Salt:
• enable commands to remote systems to be called in parallel rather than serially
• use a secure and encrypted protocol
• use the smallest and fastest network payloads possible
• provide a simple programming interface
Salt also introduces more granular controls to the realm of remote execution, allowing systems to be targeted not
just by hostname, but also by system properties.
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