IT Automation with Saltstack

Basic Unix/Linux administration knowledge is necessary to grasp the more advanced topics in this course.

Saltstack (Salt for short) is open source software developed to automate the configuration of server systems. During this course you will learn how to centrally administer and manage multiple server environments.

The course will be a good mixture of presentations, examples and lab exercises so that you can immediately apply what you have learnt.

Introduction

• Concepts
• Installation

Executing commands

• Remote command execution
• Local command execution

Selecting targets

• Using wildcard characters
• Using regular expressions
• Using list
• Using grains
• Using custom grains
• Using compound matching

Introduction to YAML

• File structure
• Data storage

Execution modules

• Managing users
• Managing packages
• Managing services
• Executing commands
• Creating execution modules
• Modules and virtual functions

Configuration management

• Defining state of infrastructure
• Running states
• State modules
• Specifying dependencies

Extending states with Jinja2

• Variables
• Control structures

Pillar

• Secure data storage
• Using pillar data in state formulas

State system

• Highstate
• Environments