Salting Things Up in the Sysadmin's World

Explore the world of configuration management with SaltStack in this 37-minute EuroPython Conference talk. Dive into the features, pros, and cons of this Python-based system that leverages YAML and Jinja2. Learn why configuration management tools are necessary and how to deploy your own SaltStack setup. Gain insights into SaltStack's terminology, environment, states, grains, pillars, and more. Discover how to handle monitoring, secure connections, and encryption. Compare SaltStack with Puppet and understand how to manage dependencies. Ideal for Python developers venturing into system administration or experienced sysadmins with a passion for Python, this talk assumes familiarity with Python and GNU/Linux concepts.

Introduction
Who am I
What is configuration management
Quantity
Lazy people
How it all began
Salt
Terminology
Environment
Top File
State
HiState
Matching
Note Groups
No Groups
Grains
Pillar
Pillar Antioch
Pillar Data
Questions
Twoparter
Node classifier
Anode configuration changes
Master debugging
Salt is evolving
Beginner questions
How would I do that
Why Salt
Monitoring
Secure connections
Language
Puppet
Pinal
Pilar encryption
File encryption
Threat model
Encryption
Salt vs Puppet
Managing Dependencies
Include State Files
Split by Files
declarative world order
what happens if the grains raise an exception
when is the code actually executed
how do you manage logging