How can you manage virtual machines with SaltStack?

1 Install and configure SaltStack

Before you can manage virtual machines with SaltStack, you need to install and configure the SaltStack components on your system. The main components are the Salt master, which is the central server that controls the Salt minions, which are the agents that run on the target servers or virtual machines. You can install SaltStack from the official repositories, or use the bootstrap script to install it on any Linux distribution. You also need to configure the Salt master and minion files, which are located in /etc/salt/, to set up the communication and authentication between them. You can use the salt-key command to accept or reject the minion keys on the master.

2 Create virtual machines with Salt Cloud

Salt Cloud is a module that allows you to create and manage virtual machines on various cloud platforms or hypervisors using SaltStack. You can use Salt Cloud to provision virtual machines from predefined profiles, or create custom profiles with your own settings and parameters. You can also use Salt Cloud to execute Salt commands on the virtual machines, such as installing Salt minion, applying states, or running functions. To use Salt Cloud, you need to create a cloud configuration file, which is located in /etc/salt/cloud, and a cloud provider file, which is located in /etc/salt/cloud.providers.d/, where you specify the credentials and options for your cloud platform or hypervisor. You can use the salt-cloud command to create, delete, query, or update virtual machines with Salt Cloud.

4 Run commands on virtual machines with Salt Remote Execution

Salt Remote Execution is a feature that allows you to run arbitrary commands or functions on your servers or virtual machines using SaltStack. You can use Salt Remote Execution to perform tasks such as installing packages, restarting services, checking status, or running scripts on your virtual machines. You can use the salt command to run commands or functions on your virtual machines, or use the salt-run command to run commands or functions on the Salt master. You can also use the salt-cp command to copy files or directories from the Salt master to your virtual machines.

5 Monitor and manage virtual machines with Salt Events and Reactors

Salt Events and Reactors are components that enable you to monitor and manage your servers or virtual machines based on events that occur on them. Events are messages that are sent by the Salt minions or the Salt master when something happens, such as a state change, a command execution, or a service failure. Reactors are actions that are triggered by events, such as sending notifications, running commands, or applying states. You can use the salt-event command to listen to events on the Salt master, or use the salt-call event.send command to send custom events from your virtual machines. You can also use the reactor configuration file, which is located in /etc/salt/master.d/, to define the rules and actions for your reactors.