Extending SaltStack

Description:

Salt already ships with a very powerful set of tools, but that doesn't mean that they all suit your needs perfectly. By adding your own modules and enhancing existing ones, you can bring the functionality that you need to increase your productivity. Extending SaltStack follows a tutorial-based approach to explain different types of modules, from fundamentals to complete and full-functioning modules.

Key Features

Get the most up-to-date practical resource on writing new Salt modules and extending Salt
Learn through use cases and encounter both commonly-used modules as well as advanced ones
Effectively troubleshoot problems and hiccups encountered while building and putting modules to work

Book Description

Starting with the Loader system that drives Salt, this book will guide you through the most common types of modules. First you will learn how to write execution modules. Then you will extend the configuration using the grain, pillar, and SDB modules. Next up will be state modules and then the renderers that can be used with them. This will be followed with returner and output modules, which increase your options to manage return data. After that, there will be modules for external file servers, clouds, beacons, and finally external authentication and wheel modules to manage the master.

With this guide in hand, you will be prepared to create, troubleshoot, and manage the most common types of Salt modules and take your infrastructure to new heights!

What you will learn

Understand the working of Salt's Loader system
Write several of the most common types of Salt modules
Interact between different kinds of modules and build new ones
Submit open source modules upstream to the Salt project
Make Salt interact with third-party services and applications

About the Author

Joseph Hall has been working with SaltStack for a very long time. His first commit was on March 14, 2011, making him the second contributor to the Salt codebase. At the time his Python skills weren't very good, but writing Salt modules made them better. He has written a number of Salt modules and is planning to write many more. He has also written Mastering SaltStack, Packt Publishing.

Table of Contents

Starting with the Basics
Writing Execution Modules
Extending Salt Configuration
Wrapping States Around Execution Modules
Rendering Data
Handling Return Data
Scripting with Runners
Adding External File Servers
Connecting to the Cloud
Monitoring with Beacons
Extending the Master
Connecting Different Modules
Contributing Code Upstream