Configuring the Salt Master

The Salt system is amazingly simple and easy to configure, the two components of the Salt system each have a respective configuration file. The salt-master is configured via the master configuration file, and the salt-minion is configured via the minion configuration file.

See also

Example master configuration file.

The configuration file for the salt-master is located at /etc/salt/master by default. Atomic included configuration files can be placed in /etc/salt/master.d/*.conf. Warning: files with other suffixes than .conf will not be included. A notable exception is FreeBSD, where the configuration file is located at /usr/local/etc/salt. The available options are as follows:

Primary Master Configuration

interface

Default: 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces)

The local interface to bind to, must be an IP address.

interface: 192.168.0.1

ipv6

Default: False

Whether the master should listen for IPv6 connections. If this is set to True, the interface option must be adjusted too (for example: interface: '::').

When enabled, Salt also uses the IPv6 loopback address (::1) for internal IPC connections between daemon processes instead of 127.0.0.1. On Windows, this is required because Windows does not permit binding an AF_INET6 socket to an IPv4 address.

ipv6: True

publish_port

Default: 4505

The network port to set up the publication interface.

publish_port: 4505

master_id

Default: None

The id to be passed in the publish job to minions. This is used for MultiSyndics to return the job to the requesting master.

Note

This must be the same string as the syndic is configured with.

master_id: MasterOfMaster

user

Default: root

The user to run the Salt processes

user: root

Note

Starting with version 3006.0, Salt's offical packages ship with a default configuration which runs the Master as a non-priviledged user. The Master's configuration file has the user option set to user: salt. Unless you are absolutly sure want to run salt as some other user, care should be taken to preserve this setting in your Master configuration file..

enable_ssh_minions

Default: False

Tell the master to also use salt-ssh when running commands against minions.

enable_ssh_minions: True

Note

Enabling this does not influence the limitations on cross-minion communication. The Salt mine and publish.publish do not work from regular minions to SSH minions, the other way around is partly possible since 3007.0 (during state rendering on the master). This means you can use the mentioned functions to call out to regular minions in sls templates and wrapper modules, but state modules (which are executed on the remote) relying on them still do not work.

ret_port

Default: 4506

The port used by the return server, this is the server used by Salt to receive execution returns and command executions.

ret_port: 4506

pidfile

Default: /var/run/salt-master.pid

Specify the location of the master pidfile.

pidfile: /var/run/salt-master.pid

root_dir

Default: /

The system root directory to operate from, change this to make Salt run from an alternative root.

root_dir: /

Note

This directory is prepended to the following options: pki_dir, cachedir, sock_dir, log_file, autosign_file, autoreject_file, pidfile, autosign_grains_dir.

conf_file

Default: /etc/salt/master

The path to the master's configuration file.

conf_file: /etc/salt/master

pki_dir

Default: <LIB_STATE_DIR>/pki/master

The directory to store the pki authentication keys.

<LIB_STATE_DIR> is the pre-configured variable state directory set during installation via --salt-lib-state-dir. It defaults to /etc/salt. Systems following the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) might set it to /var/lib/salt.

pki_dir: /etc/salt/pki/master

cluster_id

New in version 3007.

When defined, the master will operate in cluster mode. The master will send the cluster key and id to minions instead of its own key and id. The master will also forward its local event bus to other masters defined by cluster_peers

cluster_id: master_cluster

cluster_peers

New in version 3007.

When cluster_peers is defined, this setting is a list of other master (hostnames or IPs) that will be in the cluster.

cluster_peers:
   - master2
   - master3

cluster_pki_dir

New in version 3007.

When cluster_pki_dir is defined, this sets the location of where this cluster will store its cluster public and private key as well as any minion keys. This setting will default to the value of pki_dir, but should be changed to the filesystem location shared between peers in the cluster.

cluster_pki_dir: /my/gluster/share/pki

cluster_pool_port

New in version 3007.2.

When cluster_pool_port is defined, it sets the TCP port number HAProxy listens on for incoming TCP connections. The default is 4520

cluster_pool_port: 4520

cluster_secret

New in version 3008.0.

Pre-shared string that authenticates a master joining the cluster. All peers must be configured with the same value. Leaving it unset matches empty against empty and provides no authentication -- always set a high-entropy value in production. See Master Cluster.

cluster_secret: "d8b4c2e1f07a4c3e8a1b5d0a9c7f3e42b6d9a1c4f8e2b7d0a3c6e9f1b4d7a0c3"

cluster_pub_fingerprint

New in version 3008.0.

Optional SHA-256 hex digest of the shared cluster public key. When set, a joining master rejects any discover-reply whose cluster public key does not hash to this value. Useful when the joining master cannot read the cluster public key from a shared cluster_pki_dir; otherwise leave unset and rely on cluster_secret to authenticate the join.

openssl dgst -sha256 /path/to/cluster_pki_dir/cluster.pub

cluster_pub_fingerprint: "3b1f9d...<64 hex chars>...c7a2"

extension_modules

Changed in version 2016.3.0: The default location for this directory has been moved. Prior to this version, the location was a directory named extmods in the Salt cachedir (on most platforms, /var/cache/salt/extmods). It has been moved into the master cachedir (on most platforms, /var/cache/salt/master/extmods).

Directory where custom modules are synced to. This directory can contain subdirectories for each of Salt's module types such as runners, output, wheel, modules, states, returners, engines, utils, etc. This path is appended to root_dir.

Note, any directories or files not found in the module_dirs location will be removed from the extension_modules path.

extension_modules: /root/salt_extmods

extmod_whitelist/extmod_blacklist

New in version 2017.7.0.

By using this dictionary, the modules that are synced to the master's extmod cache using saltutil.sync_* can be limited. If nothing is set to a specific type, then all modules are accepted. To block all modules of a specific type, whitelist an empty list.

extmod_whitelist:
  modules:
    - custom_module
  engines:
    - custom_engine
  pillars: []

extmod_blacklist:
  modules:
    - specific_module

Valid options:

• modules

• states

• grains

• renderers

• returners

• output

• proxy

• runners

• wheel

• engines

• queues

• pillar

• utils

• sdb

• cache

• clouds

• tops

• roster

• tokens

module_dirs

Default: []

Like extension_modules, but a list of extra directories to search for Salt modules.

module_dirs:
  - /var/cache/salt/minion/extmods

cachedir

Default: /var/cache/salt/master

The location used to store cache information, particularly the job information for executed salt commands.

This directory may contain sensitive data and should be protected accordingly.

cachedir: /var/cache/salt/master

verify_env

Default: True

Verify and set permissions on configuration directories at startup.

verify_env: True

keep_jobs_seconds

Default: 86400

Set the number of seconds to keep old job information. Note that setting this option to 0 disables the cache cleaner.

keep_jobs_seconds: 86400

gather_job_timeout

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: 10

The number of seconds to wait when the client is requesting information about running jobs.

gather_job_timeout: 10

timeout

Default: 5

Set the default timeout for the salt command and api.

ipc_write_timeout

New in version 3006.11.

Default: 15

How many seconds the event publisher process will wait after a client stops responding before the client will be disconnected.

ipc_write_timeout: 15

loop_interval

Default: 60

The loop_interval option controls the seconds for the master's Maintenance process check cycle. This process updates file server backends, cleans the job cache and executes the scheduler.

maintenance_interval

New in version 3006.0.

Default: 3600

Defines how often to restart the master's Maintenance process.

maintenance_interval: 9600

Note

Scheduled jobs will fail to trigger if their interval is greater than the maintenance_interval. Because the master scheduler only evaluates jobs during maintenance cycles, a default 3600-second (1-hour) maintenance interval will effectively ignore any job set to run every 7200 seconds (2 hours).

output

Default: nested

Set the default outputter used by the salt command.

outputter_dirs

Default: []

A list of additional directories to search for salt outputters in.

outputter_dirs: []

output_file

Default: None

Set the default output file used by the salt command. Default is to output to the CLI and not to a file. Functions the same way as the "--out-file" CLI option, only sets this to a single file for all salt commands.

output_file: /path/output/file

show_timeout

Default: True

Tell the client to show minions that have timed out.

show_timeout: True

show_jid

Default: False

Tell the client to display the jid when a job is published.

show_jid: False

color

Default: True

By default output is colored, to disable colored output set the color value to False.

color: False

color_theme

Default: ""

Specifies a path to the color theme to use for colored command line output.

color_theme: /etc/salt/color_theme

cli_summary

Default: False

When set to True, displays a summary of the number of minions targeted, the number of minions returned, and the number of minions that did not return.

cli_summary: False

sock_dir

Default: /var/run/salt/master

Set the location to use for creating Unix sockets for master process communication.

sock_dir: /var/run/salt/master

enable_gpu_grains

Default: False

Enable GPU hardware data for your master. Be aware that the master can take a while to start up when lspci and/or dmidecode is used to populate the grains for the master.

enable_gpu_grains: True

skip_grains

Default: False

MasterMinions should omit grains. A MasterMinion is "a minion function object for generic use on the master" that omit pillar. A RunnerClient creates a MasterMinion omitting states and renderer. Setting to True can improve master performance.

skip_grains: True

job_cache

Default: True

The master maintains a temporary job cache. While this is a great addition, it can be a burden on the master for larger deployments (over 5000 minions). Disabling the job cache will make previously executed jobs unavailable to the jobs system and is not generally recommended. Normally it is wise to make sure the master has access to a faster IO system or a tmpfs is mounted to the jobs dir.

job_cache: True

Note

Setting the job_cache to False will not cache minion returns, but the JID directory for each job is still created. The creation of the JID directories is necessary because Salt uses those directories to check for JID collisions. By setting this option to False, the job cache directory, which is /var/cache/salt/master/jobs/ by default, will be smaller, but the JID directories will still be present.

Note that the keep_jobs_seconds option can be set to a lower value, such as 3600, to limit the number of seconds jobs are stored in the job cache. (The default is 86400 seconds.)

Please see the Managing the Job Cache documentation for more information.

minion_data_cache

Default: True

The minion data cache is a cache of information about the minions stored on the master, this information is primarily the pillar, grains and mine data. The data is cached via the cache subsystem in the Master cachedir under the name of the minion or in a supported database. The data is used to predetermine what minions are expected to reply from executions.

minion_data_cache: True

cache

Default: localfs

Cache subsystem module to use for minion data cache. Common values:

• localfs — file-per-entry under cachedir. The default; fine for small deployments.

• mmap_cache — fast memory-mapped hash-table backend. Drop-in for localfs with an O(1) get/contains/updated and O(occupied) bulk listing. On large fleets salt-key -L and grain/pillar target matching can run orders of magnitude faster than localfs. Migrate existing data with salt-run cache.migrate. See Memory-Mapped Cache Backend for benchmarks, sizing, and durability notes.

• consul, redis, etcd, mysql — networked backends, useful for sharing cache across multiple masters.

The minion-key store is selected separately via keys.cache_driver (localfs_key by default; set to mmap_key for the memory-mapped variant).

cache: mmap_cache

memcache_expire_seconds

Default: 0

Memcache is an additional cache layer that keeps a limited amount of data fetched from the minion data cache for a limited period of time in memory that makes cache operations faster. It doesn't make much sense for the localfs cache driver but helps for more complex drivers like consul.

This option sets the memcache items expiration time. By default is set to 0 that disables the memcache.

memcache_expire_seconds: 30

memcache_max_items

Default: 1024

Set memcache limit in items that are bank-key pairs. I.e the list of minion_0/data, minion_0/mine, minion_1/data contains 3 items. This value depends on the count of minions usually targeted in your environment. The best one could be found by analyzing the cache log with memcache_debug enabled.

memcache_max_items: 1024

memcache_full_cleanup

Default: False

If cache storage got full, i.e. the items count exceeds the memcache_max_items value, memcache cleans up its storage. If this option set to False memcache removes the only one oldest value from its storage. If this set set to True memcache removes all the expired items and also removes the oldest one if there are no expired items.

memcache_full_cleanup: True

memcache_debug

Default: False

Enable collecting the memcache stats and log it on debug log level. If enabled memcache collect information about how many fetch calls has been done and how many of them has been hit by memcache. Also it outputs the rate value that is the result of division of the first two values. This should help to choose right values for the expiration time and the cache size.

memcache_debug: True

ext_job_cache

Default: ''

Used to specify a default returner for all minions. When this option is set, the specified returner needs to be properly configured and the minions will always default to sending returns to this returner. This will also disable the local job cache on the master.

ext_job_cache: redis

event_return

New in version 2015.5.0.

Default: ''

Specify the returner(s) to use to log events. Each returner may have installation and configuration requirements. Read the returner's documentation.

Note

Not all returners support event returns. Verify that a returner has an event_return() function before configuring this option with a returner.

event_return:
  - syslog
  - splunk

event_return_queue

New in version 2015.5.0.

Default: 0

On busy systems, enabling event_returns can cause a considerable load on the storage system for returners. Events can be queued on the master and stored in a batched fashion using a single transaction for multiple events. By default, events are not queued.

event_return_queue: 0

event_return_whitelist

New in version 2015.5.0.

Default: []

Only return events matching tags in a whitelist.

Changed in version 2016.11.0: Supports glob matching patterns.

event_return_whitelist:
  - salt/master/a_tag
  - salt/run/*/ret

event_return_blacklist

New in version 2015.5.0.

Default: []

Store all event returns _except_ the tags in a blacklist.

Changed in version 2016.11.0: Supports glob matching patterns.

event_return_blacklist:
  - salt/master/not_this_tag
  - salt/wheel/*/ret

max_event_size

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: 1048576

Passing very large events can cause the minion to consume large amounts of memory. This value tunes the maximum size of a message allowed onto the master event bus. The value is expressed in bytes.

max_event_size: 1048576

master_job_cache

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: local_cache

Specify the returner to use for the job cache. The job cache will only be interacted with from the salt master and therefore does not need to be accessible from the minions.

master_job_cache: redis

job_cache_store_endtime

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: False

Specify whether the Salt Master should store end times for jobs as returns come in.

job_cache_store_endtime: False

enforce_mine_cache

Default: False

By-default when disabling the minion_data_cache mine will stop working since it is based on cached data, by enabling this option we explicitly enabling only the cache for the mine system.

enforce_mine_cache: False

max_minions

Default: 0

The maximum number of minion connections allowed by the master. Use this to accommodate the number of minions per master if you have different types of hardware serving your minions. The default of 0 means unlimited connections. Please note that this can slow down the authentication process a bit in large setups.

max_minions: 100

con_cache

Default: False

If max_minions is used in large installations, the master might experience high-load situations because of having to check the number of connected minions for every authentication. This cache provides the minion-ids of all connected minions to all MWorker-processes and greatly improves the performance of max_minions.

con_cache: True

presence_events

Default: False

Causes the master to periodically look for actively connected minions. Presence events are fired on the event bus on a regular interval with a list of connected minions, as well as events with lists of newly connected or disconnected minions. This is a master-only operation that does not send executions to minions.

presence_events: False

detect_remote_minions

Default: False

When checking the minions connected to a master, also include the master's connections to minions on the port specified in the setting remote_minions_port. This is particularly useful when checking if the master is connected to any Heist-Salt minions. If this setting is set to True, the master will check all connections on port 22 by default unless a user also configures a different port with the setting remote_minions_port.

Changing this setting will check the remote minions the master is connected to when using presence events, the manage runner, and any other parts of the code that call the connected_ids method to check the status of connected minions.

detect_remote_minions: True

remote_minions_port

Default: 22

The port to use when checking for remote minions when detect_remote_minions is set to True.

remote_minions_port: 2222

ping_on_rotate

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: False

By default, the master AES key rotates every 24 hours. The next command following a key rotation will trigger a key refresh from the minion which may result in minions which do not respond to the first command after a key refresh.

To tell the master to ping all minions immediately after an AES key refresh, set ping_on_rotate to True. This should mitigate the issue where a minion does not appear to initially respond after a key is rotated.

Note that enabling this may cause high load on the master immediately after the key rotation event as minions reconnect. Consider this carefully if this salt master is managing a large number of minions.

If disabled, it is recommended to handle this event by listening for the aes_key_rotate event with the key tag and acting appropriately.

ping_on_rotate: False

transport

Default: zeromq

Changes the underlying transport layer. ZeroMQ is the recommended transport while additional transport layers are under development. Supported values are zeromq and tcp (experimental). This setting has a significant impact on performance and should not be changed unless you know what you are doing!

transport: zeromq

transport_opts

Default: {}

(experimental) Starts multiple transports and overrides options for each transport with the provided dictionary This setting has a significant impact on performance and should not be changed unless you know what you are doing! The following example shows how to start a TCP transport alongside a ZMQ transport.

transport_opts:
  tcp:
    publish_port: 4605
    ret_port: 4606
  zeromq: []

master_stats

Default: False

Turning on the master stats enables runtime throughput and statistics events to be fired from the master event bus. These events will report on what functions have been run on the master and how long these runs have, on average, taken over a given period of time.

master_stats_event_iter

Default: 60

The time in seconds to fire master_stats events. This will only fire in conjunction with receiving a request to the master, idle masters will not fire these events.

sock_pool_size

Default: 1

To avoid blocking waiting while writing a data to a socket, we support socket pool for Salt applications. For example, a job with a large number of target host list can cause long period blocking waiting. The option is used by ZMQ and TCP transports, and the other transport methods don't need the socket pool by definition. Most of Salt tools, including CLI, are enough to use a single bucket of socket pool. On the other hands, it is highly recommended to set the size of socket pool larger than 1 for other Salt applications, especially Salt API, which must write data to socket concurrently.

sock_pool_size: 15

ipc_mode

Default: ipc

The ipc strategy. (i.e., sockets versus tcp, etc.) Windows platforms lack POSIX IPC and must rely on TCP based inter-process communications. ipc_mode is set to tcp by default on Windows.

ipc_mode: ipc

ipc_write_buffer

Default: 0

The maximum size of a message sent via the IPC transport module can be limited dynamically or by sharing an integer value lower than the total memory size. When the value dynamic is set, salt will use 2.5% of the total memory as ipc_write_buffer value (rounded to an integer). A value of 0 disables this option.

ipc_write_buffer: 10485760

tcp_master_pub_port

Default: 4512

The TCP port on which events for the master should be published if ipc_mode is TCP.

tcp_master_pub_port: 4512

tcp_master_pull_port

Default: 4513

The TCP port on which events for the master should be pulled if ipc_mode is TCP.

tcp_master_pull_port: 4513

tcp_master_publish_pull

Default: 4514

The TCP port on which events for the master should be pulled fom and then republished onto the event bus on the master.

tcp_master_publish_pull: 4514

tcp_master_workers

Default: 4515

The TCP port for mworkers to connect to on the master.

tcp_master_workers: 4515

auth_events

New in version 2017.7.3.

Default: True

Determines whether the master will fire authentication events. Authentication events are fired when a minion performs an authentication check with the master.

auth_events: True

auth_events_autosign_grains

New in version 3008.

Default: []

Determines which actions the master will include autosign_grains for when firing authentication events.

auth_events_autosign_grains: ["accept", "pend", "reject", "full", "denied", "error"]

minion_data_cache_events

New in version 2017.7.3.

Default: True

Determines whether the master will fire minion data cache events. Minion data cache events are fired when a minion requests a minion data cache refresh.

minion_data_cache_events: True

http_connect_timeout

New in version 2019.2.0.

Default: 20

HTTP connection timeout in seconds. Applied when fetching files using tornado back-end. Should be greater than overall download time.

http_connect_timeout: 20

http_request_timeout

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: 3600

HTTP request timeout in seconds. Applied when fetching files using tornado back-end. Should be greater than overall download time.

http_request_timeout: 3600

use_yamlloader_old

New in version 2019.2.1.

Default: False

Use the pre-2019.2 YAML renderer. Uses legacy YAML rendering to support some legacy inline data structures. See the 2019.2.1 release notes for more details.

use_yamlloader_old: False

req_server_niceness

New in version 3001.

Default: None

Process priority level of the ReqServer subprocess of the master. Supported on POSIX platforms only.

req_server_niceness: 9

pub_server_niceness

New in version 3001.

Default: None

Process priority level of the PubServer subprocess of the master. Supported on POSIX platforms only.

pub_server_niceness: 9

fileserver_update_niceness

New in version 3001.

Default: None

Process priority level of the FileServerUpdate subprocess of the master. Supported on POSIX platforms only.

fileserver_update_niceness: 9

maintenance_niceness

New in version 3001.

Default: None

Process priority level of the Maintenance subprocess of the master. Supported on POSIX platforms only.

maintenance_niceness: 9

mworker_niceness

New in version 3001.

Default: None

Process priority level of the MWorker subprocess of the master. Supported on POSIX platforms only.

mworker_niceness: 9

mworker_queue_niceness

New in version 3001.

default: None

process priority level of the MWorkerQueue subprocess of the master. supported on POSIX platforms only.

mworker_queue_niceness: 9

event_return_niceness

New in version 3001.

default: None

process priority level of the EventReturn subprocess of the master. supported on POSIX platforms only.

event_return_niceness: 9

event_publisher_niceness

New in version 3001.

default: none

process priority level of the EventPublisher subprocess of the master. supported on POSIX platforms only.

event_publisher_niceness: 9

reactor_niceness

New in version 3001.

default: None

process priority level of the Reactor subprocess of the master. supported on POSIX platforms only.

reactor_niceness: 9

Salt-SSH Configuration

roster

Default: flat

Define the default salt-ssh roster module to use

roster: cache

roster_defaults

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default settings which will be inherited by all rosters.

roster_defaults:
  user: daniel
  sudo: True
  priv: /root/.ssh/id_rsa
  tty: True

roster_file

Default: /etc/salt/roster

Pass in an alternative location for the salt-ssh flat roster file.

roster_file: /root/roster

rosters

Default: None

Define locations for flat roster files so they can be chosen when using Salt API. An administrator can place roster files into these locations. Then, when calling Salt API, the roster_file parameter should contain a relative path to these locations. That is, roster_file=/foo/roster will be resolved as /etc/salt/roster.d/foo/roster etc. This feature prevents passing insecure custom rosters through the Salt API.

rosters:
 - /etc/salt/roster.d
 - /opt/salt/some/more/rosters

ssh_passwd

Default: ''

The ssh password to log in with.

ssh_passwd: ''

ssh_priv_passwd

Default: ''

Passphrase for ssh private key file.

ssh_priv_passwd: ''

ssh_port

Default: 22

The target system's ssh port number.

ssh_port: 22

ssh_scan_ports

Default: 22

Comma-separated list of ports to scan.

ssh_scan_ports: 22

ssh_scan_timeout

Default: 0.01

Scanning socket timeout for salt-ssh.

ssh_scan_timeout: 0.01

ssh_sudo

Default: False

Boolean to run command via sudo.

ssh_sudo: False

ssh_timeout

Default: 60

Number of seconds to wait for a response when establishing an SSH connection.

ssh_timeout: 60

ssh_user

Default: root

The user to log in as.

ssh_user: root

ssh_log_file

New in version 2016.3.5.

Default: /var/log/salt/ssh

Specify the log file of the salt-ssh command.

ssh_log_file: /var/log/salt/ssh

ssh_minion_opts

Default: None

Pass in minion option overrides that will be inserted into the SHIM for salt-ssh calls. The local minion config is not used for salt-ssh. Can be overridden on a per-minion basis in the roster (minion_opts)

ssh_minion_opts:
  gpg_keydir: /root/gpg

ssh_use_home_key

Default: False

Set this to True to default to using ~/.ssh/id_rsa for salt-ssh authentication with minions

ssh_use_home_key: False

ssh_identities_only

Default: False

Set this to True to default salt-ssh to run with -o IdentitiesOnly=yes. This option is intended for situations where the ssh-agent offers many different identities and allows ssh to ignore those identities and use the only one specified in options.

ssh_identities_only: False

ssh_list_nodegroups

Default: {}

List-only nodegroups for salt-ssh. Each group must be formed as either a comma-separated list, or a YAML list. This option is useful to group minions into easy-to-target groups when using salt-ssh. These groups can then be targeted with the normal -N argument to salt-ssh.

ssh_list_nodegroups:
  groupA: minion1,minion2
  groupB: minion1,minion3

Default: False

Run the ssh_pre_flight script defined in the salt-ssh roster. By default the script will only run when the thin dir does not exist on the targeted minion. This will force the script to run and not check if the thin dir exists first.

thin_extra_mods

Default: None

List of additional modules, needed to be included into the Salt Thin. Pass a list of importable Python modules that are typically located in the site-packages Python directory so they will be also always included into the Salt Thin, once generated.

min_extra_mods

Default: None

Identical as thin_extra_mods, only applied to the Salt Minimal.

thin_exclude_saltexts

Default: False

By default, Salt-SSH autodiscovers Salt extensions in the current Python environment and adds them to the Salt Thin. This disables that behavior.

Note

When the list of modules/extensions to include in the Salt Thin changes for any reason (e.g. Saltext was added/removed, thin_exclude_saltexts, thin_saltext_allowlist or thin_saltext_blocklist was changed), you typically need to regenerate the Salt Thin by passing --regen-thin to the next Salt-SSH invocation.

thin_saltext_allowlist

Default: None

A list of Salt extension distribution names which are allowed to be included in the Salt Thin (when thin_exclude_saltexts is inactive) and they are discovered. Any extension not in this list will be excluded. If unset, all discovered extensions are added, unless present in thin_saltext_blocklist.

thin_saltext_blocklist

Default: None

A list of Salt extension distribution names which should never be included in the Salt Thin (when thin_exclude_saltexts is inactive).

Master Security Settings

open_mode

Default: False

Open mode is a dangerous security feature. One problem encountered with pki authentication systems is that keys can become "mixed up" and authentication begins to fail. Open mode turns off authentication and tells the master to accept all authentication. This will clean up the pki keys received from the minions. Open mode should not be turned on for general use. Open mode should only be used for a short period of time to clean up pki keys. To turn on open mode set this value to True.

open_mode: False

auto_accept

Default: False

Enable auto_accept. This setting will automatically accept all incoming public keys from minions.

auto_accept: False

keysize

Default: 2048

The size of key that should be generated when creating new keys.

keysize: 2048

autosign_timeout

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: 120

Time in minutes that a incoming public key with a matching name found in pki_dir/minion_autosign/keyid is automatically accepted. Expired autosign keys are removed when the master checks the minion_autosign directory. This method to auto accept minions can be safer than an autosign_file because the keyid record can expire and is limited to being an exact name match. This should still be considered a less than secure option, due to the fact that trust is based on just the requesting minion id.

autosign_file

Default: not defined

If the autosign_file is specified incoming keys specified in the autosign_file will be automatically accepted. Matches will be searched for first by string comparison, then by globbing, then by full-string regex matching. This should still be considered a less than secure option, due to the fact that trust is based on just the requesting minion id.

Changed in version 2018.3.0: For security reasons the file must be readonly except for its owner. If permissive_pki_access is True the owning group can also have write access, but if Salt is running as root it must be a member of that group. A less strict requirement also existed in previous version.

autoreject_file

New in version 2014.1.0.

Default: not defined

Works like autosign_file, but instead allows you to specify minion IDs for which keys will automatically be rejected. Will override both membership in the autosign_file and the auto_accept setting.

autosign_grains_dir

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: not defined

If the autosign_grains_dir is specified, incoming keys from minions with grain values that match those defined in files in the autosign_grains_dir will be accepted automatically. Grain values that should be accepted automatically can be defined by creating a file named like the corresponding grain in the autosign_grains_dir and writing the values into that file, one value per line. Lines starting with a # will be ignored. Minion must be configured to send the corresponding grains on authentication. This should still be considered a less than secure option, due to the fact that trust is based on just the requesting minion.

Please see the Autoaccept Minions from Grains documentation for more information.

autosign_grains_dir: /etc/salt/autosign_grains

permissive_pki_access

Default: False

Enable permissive access to the salt keys. This allows you to run the master or minion as root, but have a non-root group be given access to your pki_dir. To make the access explicit, root must belong to the group you've given access to. This is potentially quite insecure. If an autosign_file is specified, enabling permissive_pki_access will allow group access to that specific file.

permissive_pki_access: False

publisher_acl

Default: {}

Enable user accounts on the master to execute specific modules. These modules can be expressed as regular expressions.

publisher_acl:
  fred:
    - test.ping
    - pkg.*

publisher_acl_blacklist

Default: {}

Blacklist users or modules

This example would blacklist all non sudo users, including root from running any commands. It would also blacklist any use of the "cmd" module.

This is completely disabled by default.

publisher_acl_blacklist:
  users:
    - root
    - '^(?!sudo_).*$'   #  all non sudo users
  modules:
    - cmd.*
    - test.echo

sudo_acl

Default: False

Enforce publisher_acl and publisher_acl_blacklist when users have sudo access to the salt command.

sudo_acl: False

external_auth

Default: {}

The external auth system uses the Salt auth modules to authenticate and validate users to access areas of the Salt system.

external_auth:
  pam:
    fred:
      - test.*

token_expire

Default: 43200

Time (in seconds) for a newly generated token to live.

Default: 12 hours

token_expire: 43200

token_expire_user_override

Default: False

Allow eauth users to specify the expiry time of the tokens they generate.

A boolean applies to all users or a dictionary of whitelisted eauth backends and usernames may be given:

token_expire_user_override:
  pam:
    - fred
    - tom
  ldap:
    - gary

keep_acl_in_token

Default: False

Set to True to enable keeping the calculated user's auth list in the token file. This is disabled by default and the auth list is calculated or requested from the eauth driver each time.

Note: keep_acl_in_token will be forced to True when using external authentication for REST API (rest is present under external_auth). This is because the REST API does not store the password, and can therefore not retroactively fetch the ACL, so the ACL must be stored in the token.

keep_acl_in_token: False

eauth_acl_module

Default: ''

Auth subsystem module to use to get authorized access list for a user. By default it's the same module used for external authentication.

eauth_acl_module: django

file_recv

Default: False

Allow minions to push files to the master. This is disabled by default, for security purposes.

file_recv: False

file_recv_max_size

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: 100

Set a hard-limit on the size of the files that can be pushed to the master. It will be interpreted as megabytes.

file_recv_max_size: 100

master_sign_pubkey

Default: False

Sign the master auth-replies with a cryptographic signature of the master's public key. Please see the tutorial how to use these settings in the Multimaster-PKI with Failover Tutorial

master_sign_pubkey: True

master_sign_key_name

Default: master_sign

The customizable name of the signing-key-pair without suffix.

master_sign_key_name: <filename_without_suffix>

master_pubkey_signature

Default: master_pubkey_signature

The name of the file in the master's pki-directory that holds the pre-calculated signature of the master's public-key.

master_pubkey_signature: <filename>

master_use_pubkey_signature

Default: False

Instead of computing the signature for each auth-reply, use a pre-calculated signature. The master_pubkey_signature must also be set for this.

master_use_pubkey_signature: True

rotate_aes_key

Default: True

Rotate the salt-masters AES-key when a minion-public is deleted with salt-key. This is a very important security-setting. Disabling it will enable deleted minions to still listen in on the messages published by the salt-master. Do not disable this unless it is absolutely clear what this does.

rotate_aes_key: True

publish_session

Default: 86400

The number of seconds between AES key rotations on the master.

publish_session: Default: 86400

publish_signing_algorithm

New in version 3006.9.

Default: PKCS1v15-SHA1

The RSA signing algorithm used by this minion when connecting to the master's request channel. Valid values are PKCS1v15-SHA1 and PKCS1v15-SHA224. Minions must be at version 3006.9 or greater if this is changed from the default setting.

minimum_auth_version

New in version 3006.17,3007.9.

Default: 3

Enforce a minimum authentication protocol version from minions connecting to the master. This setting protects against authentication downgrade attacks (CVE-2025-62349) where a malicious minion attempts to use an older, less secure authentication protocol version to bypass security features introduced in newer protocol versions.

Authentication protocol versions and their security features:

• Version 0/1: No message signing, no nonce, no security features (legacy, insecure)

• Version 2: Message signing and nonce, but missing TTL validation, token validation, and minion ID matching (partially secure)

• Version 3+: Full security with message signing, nonce, TTL checks, token validation, minion ID matching, and session keys (default and recommended)

Security-by-Default:

The default value of 3 enforces modern authentication protocol for maximum security. New installations automatically receive protection against authentication downgrade attacks without requiring additional configuration.

Important for Upgrades:

If you are upgrading a Salt deployment with minions running older versions that do not support authentication protocol version 3, you must temporarily lower this value during the upgrade process to prevent minions from being locked out.

Upgrade Path for Environments with Older Minions:

1. Before upgrading your Salt Master, set minimum_auth_version: 0 in master config

2. Upgrade your Salt Master to a version supporting minimum_auth_version

3. Restart the Salt Master

4. Upgrade all minions to a version supporting authentication protocol v3+

5. Remove the minimum_auth_version: 0 override (or explicitly set to 3)

6. Restart the Salt Master to enforce the secure default

# Default - enforces modern authentication protocol (secure)
minimum_auth_version: 3

# Temporary setting for upgrades with older minions
minimum_auth_version: 0

Warning

Setting minimum_auth_version to a value higher than what your minions support will prevent those minions from authenticating. Ensure all minions are upgraded before increasing this value. Check your minion versions before changing this setting.

Note

When a minion's authentication is rejected due to insufficient protocol version, a warning message will be logged on the master including the minion ID and the protocol version it attempted to use.

ssl

New in version 2016.11.0.

Default: None

TLS/SSL connection options. This could be set to a dictionary containing arguments corresponding to python ssl.wrap_socket method. For details see Tornado and Python documentation.

Note: to set enum arguments values like cert_reqs and ssl_version use constant names without ssl module prefix: CERT_REQUIRED or PROTOCOL_SSLv23.

ssl:
    keyfile: <path_to_keyfile>
    certfile: <path_to_certfile>
    ssl_version: PROTOCOL_TLSv1_2

disable_aes_with_tls

New in version 3008.0.

Default: False

When set to True, Salt will skip application-layer AES encryption when TLS is active with validated certificates. This optimization can improve performance by eliminating redundant encryption, as TLS already provides encryption at the transport layer.

Requirements for optimization to activate:

1. disable_aes_with_tls: true on both master and minion

2. Valid SSL configuration (ssl option configured)

3. Mutual TLS authentication (cert_reqs: CERT_REQUIRED)

4. TCP or WebSocket transport (not ZeroMQ)

5. Valid peer certificates

6. Minion certificates must contain minion ID in CN or SAN

If any requirement is not met, Salt automatically falls back to standard AES encryption. This ensures the feature is safe to enable and maintains backward compatibility.

transport: tcp
ssl:
    certfile: /etc/pki/tls/certs/salt-master.crt
    keyfile: /etc/pki/tls/private/salt-master.key
    ca_certs: /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
    cert_reqs: CERT_REQUIRED
disable_aes_with_tls: true

Warning

Minion certificates must contain the minion ID in either the Common Name (CN) or Subject Alternative Name (SAN) field to prevent impersonation attacks.

See TLS Encryption Optimization for detailed configuration and security information.

use_os_truststore

New in version 3008.0.

Default: False

If True, Salt will use the native operating system certificate store for SSL/TLS verification instead of the bundled certifi CA bundle. This is the recommended setting for environments with transparent proxies or internal root CAs deployed via Group Policy or a device-management system.

Platform mapping:

• Windows — Local Machine Certificate Store (CryptoAPI)

• macOS — Keychain

• Linux — /etc/ssl/certs or /etc/pki/tls

use_os_truststore: True

Requirements

The truststore package must be installed (Python 3.10 or newer). If the package is not present, Salt logs a warning and falls back to certifi. The ca_truststore grain reports which store is active.

Warning

Do not install pip-system-certs into the Salt Python environment. That package ships a .pth file that unconditionally activates the OS trust store on every Python startup, before Salt reads its configuration, completely bypassing this setting.

Interaction with ca_bundle

An explicit ca_bundle: /path/to/bundle.pem setting always takes precedence over use_os_truststore. Use ca_bundle when you need to pin a specific certificate file regardless of the OS store.

PKI architecture

This setting has no effect on Salt's master/minion key authentication system (pki_dir, AES session keys, minion key acceptance). It only affects outbound HTTPS/TLS connections made by Salt — HTTP runner, gitfs, fileserver backends, cloud drivers, and similar components.

Note

On Windows, the LocalSystem service account (the default account for the salt-master and salt-minion Windows services) only has access to the Local Machine certificate store, not the Current User store. Certificates must be deployed to the Local Machine store, for example via Group Policy, to be visible to Salt.

Note

On Windows, certificate verification is performed via a CryptoAPI service call rather than a simple file read. This may add a small amount of latency on the first TLS connection made by a new process compared with the simple file read used with certifi. On Linux and macOS the performance difference is negligible.

preserve_minion_cache

Default: False

By default, the master deletes its cache of minion data when the key for that minion is removed. To preserve the cache after key deletion, set preserve_minion_cache to True.

WARNING: This may have security implications if compromised minions auth with a previous deleted minion ID.

preserve_minion_cache: False

allow_minion_key_revoke

Default: True

Controls whether a minion can request its own key revocation. When True the master will honor the minion's request and revoke its key. When False, the master will drop the request and the minion's key will remain accepted.

allow_minion_key_revoke: False

optimization_order

Default: [0, 1, 2]

In cases where Salt is distributed without .py files, this option determines the priority of optimization level(s) Salt's module loader should prefer.

Note

This option is only supported on Python 3.5+.

optimization_order:
  - 2
  - 0
  - 1

Master Large Scale Tuning Settings

max_open_files

Default: 100000

Each minion connecting to the master uses AT LEAST one file descriptor, the master subscription connection. If enough minions connect you might start seeing on the console(and then salt-master crashes):

Too many open files (tcp_listener.cpp:335)
Aborted (core dumped)

max_open_files: 100000

By default this value will be the one of ulimit -Hn, i.e., the hard limit for max open files.

To set a different value than the default one, uncomment, and configure this setting. Remember that this value CANNOT be higher than the hard limit. Raising the hard limit depends on the OS and/or distribution, a good way to find the limit is to search the internet for something like this:

raise max open files hard limit debian

worker_threads

Default: 5

The number of MWorker processes to start for receiving commands and replies from minions. If minions are stalling on replies because you have many minions, raise the worker_threads value.

Worker threads should not be put below 3 when using the peer system, but can drop down to 1 worker otherwise.

Standards for busy environments:

• Use one worker thread per 200 minions.

• The value of worker_threads should not exceed 1½ times the available CPU cores.

Note

When the master daemon starts, it is expected behaviour to see multiple salt-master processes, even if worker_threads is set to 1. At a minimum, a controlling process will start along with a Publisher, an EventPublisher, and a number of MWorker processes will be started. The number of MWorker processes is tuneable by the worker_threads configuration value while the others are not.

worker_threads: 5

Note

worker_threads only controls the size of the single default worker pool used by the legacy code path. For finer-grained routing — for example to give _auth its own dedicated MWorkers — see worker_pools, worker_pools_enabled, and the tunable worker pools topic guide. When worker_pools is unset the master automatically builds a single catchall pool sized by worker_threads, so existing configurations behave exactly as before.

worker_pools_enabled

New in version 3008.0.

Default: True

Master-level switch for the tunable worker pools feature. When True (the default) the master uses worker_pools (or, if that is unset, a single catchall pool sized by worker_threads) to route requests to per-pool MWorkers. When False the master falls back to the legacy single-queue MWorker model.

The default value preserves the historical behavior when no other pool settings are provided, so upgrading does not require any configuration changes. Set this to False only if you need to disable pooled routing entirely — for example to debug a transport issue.

worker_pools_enabled: True

worker_pools

New in version 3008.0.

Default: {} (an implicit single catchall pool sized by worker_threads)

Defines the MWorker pools the master should start and the commands each pool should service. When unset, the master builds a single pool named default with worker_count equal to worker_threads and a catchall that receives every command — equivalent to the pre-3008.0 behavior.

Each key under worker_pools names a pool. The value is a dictionary with two required fields:

worker_count

Integer >= 1. The number of MWorker processes to start for the pool.

commands

List of command strings. Each string must be either an exact command name (for example _auth or _return) or the single catchall entry "*".

A command may be mapped to at most one pool. Exactly one pool must use the "*" catchall so that every command has a routing destination; payloads whose cmd is not matched by an explicit mapping are sent to that pool.

The master refuses to start if the configuration is invalid — for example if two pools claim the same command, if no pool (or more than one pool) uses the "*" catchall, or if a pool has no commands. See tunable worker pools for a full walkthrough of the validation rules and recommended layouts.

worker_pools:
  auth:
    worker_count: 2
    commands:
      - _auth
  default:
    worker_count: 8
    commands:
      - "*"

pub_hwm

Default: 1000

The zeromq high water mark on the publisher interface.

pub_hwm: 1000

zmq_backlog

Default: 1000

The listen queue size of the ZeroMQ backlog.

zmq_backlog: 1000

Master Module Management

runner_dirs

Default: []

Set additional directories to search for runner modules.

runner_dirs:
  - /var/lib/salt/runners

utils_dirs

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: []

Set additional directories to search for util modules.

utils_dirs:
  - /var/lib/salt/utils

cython_enable

Default: False

Set to true to enable Cython modules (.pyx files) to be compiled on the fly on the Salt master.

cython_enable: False

Master State System Settings

state_top

Default: top.sls

The state system uses a "top" file to tell the minions what environment to use and what modules to use. The state_top file is defined relative to the root of the base environment. The value of "state_top" is also used for the pillar top file

state_top: top.sls

state_top_saltenv

This option has no default value. Set it to an environment name to ensure that only the top file from that environment is considered during a highstate.

Note

Minions which have an explicit saltenv set will use that environment's top file, ignoring this master config option.

Note

Using this option does not change the merging strategy. For instance, if top_file_merging_strategy is set to merge, and state_top_saltenv is set to foo, then any sections for environments other than foo in the top file for the foo environment will be ignored. With state_top_saltenv set to base, all states from all environments in the base top file will be applied, while all other top files are ignored. The only way to set state_top_saltenv to something other than base and not have the other environments in the targeted top file ignored, would be to set top_file_merging_strategy to merge_all.

state_top_saltenv: dev

top_file_merging_strategy

Changed in version 2016.11.0: A merge_all strategy has been added.

Default: merge

When no specific fileserver environment (a.k.a. saltenv) has been specified for a highstate, all environments' top files are inspected. This config option determines how the SLS targets in those top files are handled.

When set to merge, the base environment's top file is evaluated first, followed by the other environments' top files. The first target expression (e.g. '*') for a given environment is kept, and when the same target expression is used in a different top file evaluated later, it is ignored. Because base is evaluated first, it is authoritative. For example, if there is a target for '*' for the foo environment in both the base and foo environment's top files, the one in the foo environment would be ignored. The environments will be evaluated in no specific order (aside from base coming first). For greater control over the order in which the environments are evaluated, use env_order. Note that, aside from the base environment's top file, any sections in top files that do not match that top file's environment will be ignored. So, for example, a section for the qa environment would be ignored if it appears in the dev environment's top file. To keep use cases like this from being ignored, use the merge_all strategy.

When set to same, then for each environment, only that environment's top file is processed, with the others being ignored. For example, only the dev environment's top file will be processed for the dev environment, and any SLS targets defined for dev in the base environment's (or any other environment's) top file will be ignored. If an environment does not have a top file, then the top file from the default_top config parameter will be used as a fallback.

When set to merge_all, then all states in all environments in all top files will be applied. The order in which individual SLS files will be executed will depend on the order in which the top files were evaluated, and the environments will be evaluated in no specific order. For greater control over the order in which the environments are evaluated, use env_order.

top_file_merging_strategy: same

env_order

Default: []

When top_file_merging_strategy is set to merge, and no environment is specified for a highstate, this config option allows for the order in which top files are evaluated to be explicitly defined.

env_order:
  - base
  - dev
  - qa

master_tops

Default: {}

The master_tops option replaces the external_nodes option by creating a pluggable system for the generation of external top data. The external_nodes option is deprecated by the master_tops option. To gain the capabilities of the classic external_nodes system, use the following configuration:

master_tops:
  ext_nodes: <Shell command which returns yaml>

renderer

Default: jinja|yaml

The renderer to use on the minions to render the state data.

renderer: jinja|json

userdata_template

New in version 2016.11.4.

Default: None

The renderer to use for templating userdata files in salt-cloud, if the userdata_template is not set in the cloud profile. If no value is set in the cloud profile or master config file, no templating will be performed.

userdata_template: jinja

jinja_env

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: {}

jinja_env overrides the default Jinja environment options for all templates except sls templates. To set the options for sls templates use jinja_sls_env.

Note

The Jinja2 Environment documentation is the official source for the default values. Not all the options listed in the jinja documentation can be overridden using jinja_env or jinja_sls_env.

The default options are:

jinja_env:
  block_start_string: '{%'
  block_end_string: '%}'
  variable_start_string: '{{'
  variable_end_string: '}}'
  comment_start_string: '{#'
  comment_end_string: '#}'
  line_statement_prefix:
  line_comment_prefix:
  trim_blocks: False
  lstrip_blocks: False
  newline_sequence: '\n'
  keep_trailing_newline: False

jinja_sls_env

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: {}

jinja_sls_env sets the Jinja environment options for sls templates. The defaults and accepted options are exactly the same as they are for jinja_env.

The default options are:

jinja_sls_env:
  block_start_string: '{%'
  block_end_string: '%}'
  variable_start_string: '{{'
  variable_end_string: '}}'
  comment_start_string: '{#'
  comment_end_string: '#}'
  line_statement_prefix:
  line_comment_prefix:
  trim_blocks: False
  lstrip_blocks: False
  newline_sequence: '\n'
  keep_trailing_newline: False

Example using line statements and line comments to increase ease of use:

If your configuration options are

jinja_sls_env:
  line_statement_prefix: '%'
  line_comment_prefix: '##'

With these options jinja will interpret anything after a % at the start of a line (ignoreing whitespace) as a jinja statement and will interpret anything after a ## as a comment.

This allows the following more convenient syntax to be used:

## (this comment will not stay once rendered)
# (this comment remains in the rendered template)
## ensure all the formula services are running
% for service in formula_services:
enable_service_{{ service }}:
  service.running:
    name: {{ service }}
% endfor

The following less convenient but equivalent syntax would have to be used if you had not set the line_statement and line_comment options:

{# (this comment will not stay once rendered) #}
# (this comment remains in the rendered template)
{# ensure all the formula services are running #}
{% for service in formula_services %}
enable_service_{{ service }}:
  service.running:
    name: {{ service }}
{% endfor %}

jinja_trim_blocks

Deprecated since version 2018.3.0: Replaced by jinja_env and jinja_sls_env

New in version 2014.1.0.

Default: False

If this is set to True, the first newline after a Jinja block is removed (block, not variable tag!). Defaults to False and corresponds to the Jinja environment init variable trim_blocks.

jinja_trim_blocks: False

jinja_lstrip_blocks

Deprecated since version 2018.3.0: Replaced by jinja_env and jinja_sls_env

New in version 2014.1.0.

Default: False

If this is set to True, leading spaces and tabs are stripped from the start of a line to a block. Defaults to False and corresponds to the Jinja environment init variable lstrip_blocks.

jinja_lstrip_blocks: False

failhard

Default: False

Set the global failhard flag. This informs all states to stop running states at the moment a single state fails.

failhard: False

state_verbose

Default: True

Controls the verbosity of state runs. By default, the results of all states are returned, but setting this value to False will cause salt to only display output for states that failed or states that have changes.

state_verbose: False

state_output

Default: full

The state_output setting controls which results will be output full multi line:

• full, terse - each state will be full/terse

• mixed - only states with errors will be full

• changes - states with changes and errors will be full

full_id, mixed_id, changes_id and terse_id are also allowed; when set, the state ID will be used as name in the output.

state_output: full

state_output_diff

Default: False

The state_output_diff setting changes whether or not the output from successful states is returned. Useful when even the terse output of these states is cluttering the logs. Set it to True to ignore them.

state_output_diff: False

state_output_profile

Default: True

The state_output_profile setting changes whether profile information will be shown for each state run.

state_output_profile: True

state_output_pct

Default: False

The state_output_pct setting changes whether success and failure information as a percent of total actions will be shown for each state run.

state_output_pct: False

state_compress_ids

Default: False

The state_compress_ids setting aggregates information about states which have multiple "names" under the same state ID in the highstate output.

state_compress_ids: False

state_aggregate

Default: False

Automatically aggregate all states that have support for mod_aggregate by setting to True.

state_aggregate: True

Or pass a list of state module names to automatically aggregate just those types.

state_aggregate:
  - pkg

state_events

Default: False

Send progress events as each function in a state run completes execution by setting to True. Progress events are in the format salt/job/<JID>/prog/<MID>/<RUN NUM>.

state_events: True

yaml_utf8

Default: False

Enable extra routines for YAML renderer used states containing UTF characters.

yaml_utf8: False

runner_returns

Default: True

If set to False, runner jobs will not be saved to job cache (defined by master_job_cache).

runner_returns: False

Master File Server Settings

fileserver_backend

Default: ['roots']

Salt supports a modular fileserver backend system, this system allows the salt master to link directly to third party systems to gather and manage the files available to minions. Multiple backends can be configured and will be searched for the requested file in the order in which they are defined here. The default setting only enables the standard backend roots, which is configured using the file_roots option.

Example:

fileserver_backend:
  - roots
  - gitfs

Note

For masterless Salt, this parameter must be specified in the minion config file.

fileserver_followsymlinks

New in version 2014.1.0.

Default: True

By default, the file_server follows symlinks when walking the filesystem tree. Currently this only applies to the default roots fileserver_backend.

fileserver_followsymlinks: True

fileserver_ignoresymlinks

New in version 2014.1.0.

Default: False

If you do not want symlinks to be treated as the files they are pointing to, set fileserver_ignoresymlinks to True. By default this is set to False. When set to True, any detected symlink while listing files on the Master will not be returned to the Minion.

fileserver_ignoresymlinks: False

fileserver_list_cache_time

New in version 2014.1.0.

Changed in version 2016.11.0: The default was changed from 30 seconds to 20.

Default: 20

Salt caches the list of files/symlinks/directories for each fileserver backend and environment as they are requested, to guard against a performance bottleneck at scale when many minions all ask the fileserver which files are available simultaneously. This configuration parameter allows for the max age of that cache to be altered.

Set this value to 0 to disable use of this cache altogether, but keep in mind that this may increase the CPU load on the master when running a highstate on a large number of minions.

Note

Rather than altering this configuration parameter, it may be advisable to use the fileserver.clear_file_list_cache runner to clear these caches.

fileserver_list_cache_time: 5

fileserver_verify_config

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: True

By default, as the master starts it performs some sanity checks on the configured fileserver backends. If any of these sanity checks fail (such as when an invalid configuration is used), the master daemon will abort.

To skip these sanity checks, set this option to False.

fileserver_verify_config: False

hash_type

Default: sha256

The hash_type is the hash to use when discovering the hash of a file on the master server. The default is sha256, but md5, sha1, sha224, sha384, and sha512 are also supported.

hash_type: sha256

file_buffer_size

Default: 1048576

The buffer size in the file server in bytes.

file_buffer_size: 1048576

file_ignore_regex

Default: ''

A regular expression (or a list of expressions) that will be matched against the file path before syncing the modules and states to the minions. This includes files affected by the file.recurse state. For example, if you manage your custom modules and states in subversion and don't want all the '.svn' folders and content synced to your minions, you could set this to '/.svn($|/)'. By default nothing is ignored.

file_ignore_regex:
  - '/\.svn($|/)'
  - '/\.git($|/)'

file_ignore_glob

Default ''

A file glob (or list of file globs) that will be matched against the file path before syncing the modules and states to the minions. This is similar to file_ignore_regex above, but works on globs instead of regex. By default nothing is ignored.

file_ignore_glob:
  - '\*.pyc'
  - '\*/somefolder/\*.bak'
  - '\*.swp'

Note

Vim's .swp files are a common cause of Unicode errors in file.recurse states which use templating. Unless there is a good reason to distribute them via the fileserver, it is good practice to include '\*.swp' in the file_ignore_glob.

master_roots

Default: ''

A master-only copy of the file_roots dictionary, used by the state compiler.

Example:

master_roots:
  base:
    - /srv/salt-master

roots: Master's Local File Server

file_roots

Changed in version 3005.

Default:

base:
  - /srv/salt

Salt runs a lightweight file server written in ZeroMQ to deliver files to minions. This file server is built into the master daemon and does not require a dedicated port.

The file server works on environments passed to the master. Each environment can have multiple root directories. The subdirectories in the multiple file roots cannot match, otherwise the downloaded files will not be able to be reliably ensured. A base environment is required to house the top file.

As of 2018.3.5 and 2019.2.1, it is possible to have __env__ as a catch-all environment.

Example:

file_roots:
  base:
    - /srv/salt
  dev:
    - /srv/salt/dev/services
    - /srv/salt/dev/states
  prod:
    - /srv/salt/prod/services
    - /srv/salt/prod/states
  __env__:
    - /srv/salt/default

Taking dynamic environments one step further, __env__ can also be used in the file_roots filesystem path as of version 3005. It will be replaced with the actual saltenv and searched for states and data to provide to the minion. Note this substitution ONLY occurs for the __env__ environment. For instance, this configuration:

file_roots:
  __env__:
    - /srv/__env__/salt

is equivalent to this static configuration:

file_roots:
  dev:
    - /srv/dev/salt
  test:
    - /srv/test/salt
  prod:
    - /srv/prod/salt

Note

For masterless Salt, this parameter must be specified in the minion config file.

roots_update_interval

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: 60

This option defines the update interval (in seconds) for file_roots.

Note

Since file_roots consists of files local to the minion, the update process for this fileserver backend just reaps the cache for this backend.

roots_update_interval: 120

gitfs: Git Remote File Server Backend

gitfs_remotes

Default: []

When using the git fileserver backend at least one git remote needs to be defined. The user running the salt master will need read access to the repo.

The repos will be searched in order to find the file requested by a client and the first repo to have the file will return it. Branches and tags are translated into salt environments.

gitfs_remotes:
  - git://github.com/saltstack/salt-states.git
  - file:///var/git/saltmaster

Note

file:// repos will be treated as a remote and copied into the master's gitfs cache, so only the local refs for those repos will be exposed as fileserver environments.

As of 2014.7.0, it is possible to have per-repo versions of several of the gitfs configuration parameters. For more information, see the GitFS Walkthrough.

gitfs_provider

New in version 2014.7.0.

Optional parameter used to specify the provider to be used for gitfs. More information can be found in the GitFS Walkthrough.

Must be either pygit2 or gitpython. If unset, then each will be tried in that same order, and the first one with a compatible version installed will be the provider that is used.

gitfs_provider: gitpython

gitfs_ssl_verify

Default: True

Specifies whether or not to ignore SSL certificate errors when fetching from the repositories configured in gitfs_remotes. The False setting is useful if you're using a git repo that uses a self-signed certificate. However, keep in mind that setting this to anything other True is a considered insecure, and using an SSH-based transport (if available) may be a better option.

gitfs_ssl_verify: False

Note

pygit2 only supports disabling SSL verification in versions 0.23.2 and newer.

Changed in version 2015.8.0: This option can now be configured on individual repositories as well. See here for more info.

Changed in version 2016.11.0: The default config value changed from False to True.

gitfs_proxy

New in version 3008.0.

Default: ''

Specifies the URL of the proxy server that will be used to connect to the repositories configured in gitfs_remotes. By default, no proxy server will be used.

gitfs_proxy: http://foo.com:8080/

gitfs_mountpoint

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: ''

Specifies a path on the salt fileserver which will be prepended to all files served by gitfs. This option can be used in conjunction with gitfs_root. It can also be configured for an individual repository, see here for more info.

gitfs_mountpoint: salt://foo/bar

Note

The salt:// protocol designation can be left off (in other words, foo/bar and salt://foo/bar are equivalent). Assuming a file baz.sh in the root of a gitfs remote, and the above example mountpoint, this file would be served up via salt://foo/bar/baz.sh.

gitfs_root

Default: ''

Relative path to a subdirectory within the repository from which Salt should begin to serve files. This is useful when there are files in the repository that should not be available to the Salt fileserver. Can be used in conjunction with gitfs_mountpoint. If used, then from Salt's perspective the directories above the one specified will be ignored and the relative path will (for the purposes of gitfs) be considered as the root of the repo.

gitfs_root: somefolder/otherfolder

Changed in version 2014.7.0: This option can now be configured on individual repositories as well. See here for more info.

gitfs_base

Default: master

Defines which branch/tag should be used as the base environment.

gitfs_base: salt

Changed in version 2014.7.0: This option can now be configured on individual repositories as well. See here for more info.

gitfs_saltenv

New in version 2016.11.0.

Default: []

Global settings for per-saltenv configuration parameters. Though per-saltenv configuration parameters are typically one-off changes specific to a single gitfs remote, and thus more often configured on a per-remote basis, this parameter can be used to specify per-saltenv changes which should apply to all remotes. For example, the below configuration will map the develop branch to the dev saltenv for all gitfs remotes.

gitfs_saltenv:
  - dev:
    - ref: develop

gitfs_disable_saltenv_mapping

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: False

When set to True, all saltenv mapping logic is disregarded (aside from which branch/tag is mapped to the base saltenv). To use any other environments, they must then be defined using per-saltenv configuration parameters.

gitfs_disable_saltenv_mapping: True

Note

This is is a global configuration option, see here for examples of configuring it for individual repositories.

gitfs_ref_types

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: ['branch', 'tag', 'sha']

This option defines what types of refs are mapped to fileserver environments (i.e. saltenvs). It also sets the order of preference when there are ambiguously-named refs (i.e. when a branch and tag both have the same name). The below example disables mapping of both tags and SHAs, so that only branches are mapped as saltenvs:

gitfs_ref_types:
  - branch

Note

This is is a global configuration option, see here for examples of configuring it for individual repositories.

Note

sha is special in that it will not show up when listing saltenvs (e.g. with the fileserver.envs runner), but works within states and with cp.cache_file to retrieve a file from a specific git SHA.

gitfs_saltenv_whitelist

New in version 2014.7.0.

Changed in version 2018.3.0: Renamed from gitfs_env_whitelist to gitfs_saltenv_whitelist

Default: []

Used to restrict which environments are made available. Can speed up state runs if the repos in gitfs_remotes contain many branches/tags. More information can be found in the GitFS Walkthrough.

gitfs_saltenv_whitelist:
  - base
  - v1.*
  - 'mybranch\d+'

gitfs_saltenv_blacklist

New in version 2014.7.0.

Changed in version 2018.3.0: Renamed from gitfs_env_blacklist to gitfs_saltenv_blacklist

Default: []

Used to restrict which environments are made available. Can speed up state runs if the repos in gitfs_remotes contain many branches/tags. More information can be found in the GitFS Walkthrough.

gitfs_saltenv_blacklist:
  - base
  - v1.*
  - 'mybranch\d+'

gitfs_global_lock

New in version 2015.8.9.

Default: True

When set to False, if there is an update lock for a gitfs remote and the pid written to it is not running on the master, the lock file will be automatically cleared and a new lock will be obtained. When set to True, Salt will simply log a warning when there is an update lock present.

On single-master deployments, disabling this option can help automatically deal with instances where the master was shutdown/restarted during the middle of a gitfs update, leaving a update lock in place.

However, on multi-master deployments with the gitfs cachedir shared via GlusterFS, nfs, or another network filesystem, it is strongly recommended not to disable this option as doing so will cause lock files to be removed if they were created by a different master.

# Disable global lock
gitfs_global_lock: False

gitfs_update_interval

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: 60

This option defines the default update interval (in seconds) for gitfs remotes. The update interval can also be set for a single repository via a per-remote config option

gitfs_update_interval: 120

GitFS Authentication Options

These parameters only currently apply to the pygit2 gitfs provider. Examples of how to use these can be found in the GitFS Walkthrough.

gitfs_user

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: ''

Along with gitfs_password, is used to authenticate to HTTPS remotes.

gitfs_user: git

Note

This is is a global configuration option, see here for examples of configuring it for individual repositories.

gitfs_password

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: ''

Along with gitfs_user, is used to authenticate to HTTPS remotes. This parameter is not required if the repository does not use authentication.

gitfs_password: mypassword

Note

This is is a global configuration option, see here for examples of configuring it for individual repositories.

gitfs_insecure_auth

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: False

By default, Salt will not authenticate to an HTTP (non-HTTPS) remote. This parameter enables authentication over HTTP. Enable this at your own risk.

gitfs_insecure_auth: True

Note

This is is a global configuration option, see here for examples of configuring it for individual repositories.

gitfs_pubkey

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: ''

Along with gitfs_privkey (and optionally gitfs_passphrase), is used to authenticate to SSH remotes. Required for SSH remotes.

gitfs_pubkey: /path/to/key.pub

Note

This is is a global configuration option, see here for examples of configuring it for individual repositories.

gitfs_privkey

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: ''

Along with gitfs_pubkey (and optionally gitfs_passphrase), is used to authenticate to SSH remotes. Required for SSH remotes.

gitfs_privkey: /path/to/key

Note

This is is a global configuration option, see here for examples of configuring it for individual repositories.

gitfs_passphrase

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: ''

This parameter is optional, required only when the SSH key being used to authenticate is protected by a passphrase.

gitfs_passphrase: mypassphrase

Note

This is is a global configuration option, see here for examples of configuring it for individual repositories.

gitfs_refspecs

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: ['+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*', '+refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*']

When fetching from remote repositories, by default Salt will fetch branches and tags. This parameter can be used to override the default and specify alternate refspecs to be fetched. More information on how this feature works can be found in the GitFS Walkthrough.

gitfs_refspecs:
  - '+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*'
  - '+refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*'
  - '+refs/pull/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/pr/*'
  - '+refs/pull/*/merge:refs/remotes/origin/merge/*'

hgfs: Mercurial Remote File Server Backend

hgfs_remotes

New in version 0.17.0.

Default: []

When using the hg fileserver backend at least one mercurial remote needs to be defined. The user running the salt master will need read access to the repo.

The repos will be searched in order to find the file requested by a client and the first repo to have the file will return it. Branches and/or bookmarks are translated into salt environments, as defined by the hgfs_branch_method parameter.

hgfs_remotes:
  - https://username@bitbucket.org/username/reponame

Note

As of 2014.7.0, it is possible to have per-repo versions of the hgfs_root, hgfs_mountpoint, hgfs_base, and hgfs_branch_method parameters. For example:

hgfs_remotes:
  - https://username@bitbucket.org/username/repo1
    - base: saltstates
  - https://username@bitbucket.org/username/repo2:
    - root: salt
    - mountpoint: salt://foo/bar/baz
  - https://username@bitbucket.org/username/repo3:
    - root: salt/states
    - branch_method: mixed

hgfs_branch_method

New in version 0.17.0.

Default: branches

Defines the objects that will be used as fileserver environments.

• branches - Only branches and tags will be used

• bookmarks - Only bookmarks and tags will be used

• mixed - Branches, bookmarks, and tags will be used

hgfs_branch_method: mixed

Note

Starting in version 2014.1.0, the value of the hgfs_base parameter defines which branch is used as the base environment, allowing for a base environment to be used with an hgfs_branch_method of bookmarks.

Prior to this release, the default branch will be used as the base environment.

hgfs_mountpoint

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: ''

Specifies a path on the salt fileserver which will be prepended to all files served by hgfs. This option can be used in conjunction with hgfs_root. It can also be configured on a per-remote basis, see here for more info.

hgfs_mountpoint: salt://foo/bar

Note

The salt:// protocol designation can be left off (in other words, foo/bar and salt://foo/bar are equivalent). Assuming a file baz.sh in the root of an hgfs remote, this file would be served up via salt://foo/bar/baz.sh.

hgfs_root

New in version 0.17.0.

Default: ''

Relative path to a subdirectory within the repository from which Salt should begin to serve files. This is useful when there are files in the repository that should not be available to the Salt fileserver. Can be used in conjunction with hgfs_mountpoint. If used, then from Salt's perspective the directories above the one specified will be ignored and the relative path will (for the purposes of hgfs) be considered as the root of the repo.

hgfs_root: somefolder/otherfolder

Changed in version 2014.7.0: Ability to specify hgfs roots on a per-remote basis was added. See here for more info.

hgfs_base

New in version 2014.1.0.

Default: default

Defines which branch should be used as the base environment. Change this if hgfs_branch_method is set to bookmarks to specify which bookmark should be used as the base environment.

hgfs_base: salt

hgfs_saltenv_whitelist

New in version 2014.7.0.

Changed in version 2018.3.0: Renamed from hgfs_env_whitelist to hgfs_saltenv_whitelist

Default: []

Used to restrict which environments are made available. Can speed up state runs if your hgfs remotes contain many branches/bookmarks/tags. Full names, globs, and regular expressions are supported. If using a regular expression, the expression must match the entire minion ID.

If used, only branches/bookmarks/tags which match one of the specified expressions will be exposed as fileserver environments.

If used in conjunction with hgfs_saltenv_blacklist, then the subset of branches/bookmarks/tags which match the whitelist but do not match the blacklist will be exposed as fileserver environments.

hgfs_saltenv_whitelist:
  - base
  - v1.*
  - 'mybranch\d+'

hgfs_saltenv_blacklist

New in version 2014.7.0.

Changed in version 2018.3.0: Renamed from hgfs_env_blacklist to hgfs_saltenv_blacklist

Default: []

Used to restrict which environments are made available. Can speed up state runs if your hgfs remotes contain many branches/bookmarks/tags. Full names, globs, and regular expressions are supported. If using a regular expression, the expression must match the entire minion ID.

If used, branches/bookmarks/tags which match one of the specified expressions will not be exposed as fileserver environments.

If used in conjunction with hgfs_saltenv_whitelist, then the subset of branches/bookmarks/tags which match the whitelist but do not match the blacklist will be exposed as fileserver environments.

hgfs_saltenv_blacklist:
  - base
  - v1.*
  - 'mybranch\d+'

hgfs_update_interval

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: 60

This option defines the update interval (in seconds) for hgfs_remotes.

hgfs_update_interval: 120

svnfs: Subversion Remote File Server Backend

svnfs_remotes

New in version 0.17.0.

Default: []

When using the svn fileserver backend at least one subversion remote needs to be defined. The user running the salt master will need read access to the repo.

The repos will be searched in order to find the file requested by a client and the first repo to have the file will return it. The trunk, branches, and tags become environments, with the trunk being the base environment.

svnfs_remotes:
  - svn://foo.com/svn/myproject

Note

As of 2014.7.0, it is possible to have per-repo versions of the following configuration parameters:

• svnfs_root

• svnfs_mountpoint

• svnfs_trunk

• svnfs_branches

• svnfs_tags

For example:

svnfs_remotes:
  - svn://foo.com/svn/project1
  - svn://foo.com/svn/project2:
    - root: salt
    - mountpoint: salt://foo/bar/baz
  - svn//foo.com/svn/project3:
    - root: salt/states
    - branches: branch
    - tags: tag

svnfs_mountpoint

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: ''

Specifies a path on the salt fileserver which will be prepended to all files served by hgfs. This option can be used in conjunction with svnfs_root. It can also be configured on a per-remote basis, see here for more info.

svnfs_mountpoint: salt://foo/bar

Note

The salt:// protocol designation can be left off (in other words, foo/bar and salt://foo/bar are equivalent). Assuming a file baz.sh in the root of an svnfs remote, this file would be served up via salt://foo/bar/baz.sh.

svnfs_root

New in version 0.17.0.

Default: ''

Relative path to a subdirectory within the repository from which Salt should begin to serve files. This is useful when there are files in the repository that should not be available to the Salt fileserver. Can be used in conjunction with svnfs_mountpoint. If used, then from Salt's perspective the directories above the one specified will be ignored and the relative path will (for the purposes of svnfs) be considered as the root of the repo.

svnfs_root: somefolder/otherfolder

Changed in version 2014.7.0: Ability to specify svnfs roots on a per-remote basis was added. See here for more info.

svnfs_trunk

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: trunk

Path relative to the root of the repository where the trunk is located. Can also be configured on a per-remote basis, see here for more info.

svnfs_trunk: trunk

svnfs_branches

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: branches

Path relative to the root of the repository where the branches are located. Can also be configured on a per-remote basis, see here for more info.

svnfs_branches: branches

svnfs_tags

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: tags

Path relative to the root of the repository where the tags are located. Can also be configured on a per-remote basis, see here for more info.

svnfs_tags: tags

svnfs_saltenv_whitelist

New in version 2014.7.0.

Changed in version 2018.3.0: Renamed from svnfs_env_whitelist to svnfs_saltenv_whitelist

Default: []

Used to restrict which environments are made available. Can speed up state runs if your svnfs remotes contain many branches/tags. Full names, globs, and regular expressions are supported. If using a regular expression, the expression must match the entire minion ID.

If used, only branches/tags which match one of the specified expressions will be exposed as fileserver environments.

If used in conjunction with svnfs_saltenv_blacklist, then the subset of branches/tags which match the whitelist but do not match the blacklist will be exposed as fileserver environments.

svnfs_saltenv_whitelist:
  - base
  - v1.*
  - 'mybranch\d+'

svnfs_saltenv_blacklist

New in version 2014.7.0.

Changed in version 2018.3.0: Renamed from svnfs_env_blacklist to svnfs_saltenv_blacklist

Default: []

Used to restrict which environments are made available. Can speed up state runs if your svnfs remotes contain many branches/tags. Full names, globs, and regular expressions are supported. If using a regular expression, the expression must match the entire minion ID.

If used, branches/tags which match one of the specified expressions will not be exposed as fileserver environments.

If used in conjunction with svnfs_saltenv_whitelist, then the subset of branches/tags which match the whitelist but do not match the blacklist will be exposed as fileserver environments.

svnfs_saltenv_blacklist:
  - base
  - v1.*
  - 'mybranch\d+'

svnfs_update_interval

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: 60

This option defines the update interval (in seconds) for svnfs_remotes.

svnfs_update_interval: 120

minionfs: MinionFS Remote File Server Backend

minionfs_env

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: base

Environment from which MinionFS files are made available.

minionfs_env: minionfs

minionfs_mountpoint

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: ''

Specifies a path on the salt fileserver from which minionfs files are served.

minionfs_mountpoint: salt://foo/bar

Note

The salt:// protocol designation can be left off (in other words, foo/bar and salt://foo/bar are equivalent).

minionfs_whitelist

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: []

Used to restrict which minions' pushed files are exposed via minionfs. If using a regular expression, the expression must match the entire minion ID.

If used, only the pushed files from minions which match one of the specified expressions will be exposed.

If used in conjunction with minionfs_blacklist, then the subset of hosts which match the whitelist but do not match the blacklist will be exposed.

minionfs_whitelist:
  - server01
  - dev*
  - 'mail\d+.mydomain.tld'

minionfs_blacklist

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: []

Used to restrict which minions' pushed files are exposed via minionfs. If using a regular expression, the expression must match the entire minion ID.

If used, only the pushed files from minions which match one of the specified expressions will not be exposed.

If used in conjunction with minionfs_whitelist, then the subset of hosts which match the whitelist but do not match the blacklist will be exposed.

minionfs_blacklist:
  - server01
  - dev*
  - 'mail\d+.mydomain.tld'

minionfs_update_interval

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: 60

This option defines the update interval (in seconds) for MinionFS.

Note

Since MinionFS consists of files local to the master, the update process for this fileserver backend just reaps the cache for this backend.

minionfs_update_interval: 120

s3fs: S3 File Server Backend

New in version 0.16.0.

See the s3fs documentation for usage examples.

s3fs_update_interval

New in version 2018.3.0.

Default: 60

This option defines the update interval (in seconds) for s3fs.

s3fs_update_interval: 120

fileserver_interval

New in version 3006.0.

Default: 3600

Defines how often to restart the master's FilesServerUpdate process.

fileserver_interval: 9600

Pillar Configuration

pillar_roots

Changed in version 3005.

Default:

base:
  - /srv/pillar

Set the environments and directories used to hold pillar sls data. This configuration is the same as file_roots:

As of 2017.7.5 and 2018.3.1, it is possible to have __env__ as a catch-all environment.

Example:

pillar_roots:
  base:
    - /srv/pillar
  dev:
    - /srv/pillar/dev
  prod:
    - /srv/pillar/prod
  __env__:
    - /srv/pillar/others

Taking dynamic environments one step further, __env__ can also be used in the pillar_roots filesystem path as of version 3005. It will be replaced with the actual pillarenv and searched for Pillar data to provide to the minion. Note this substitution ONLY occurs for the __env__ environment. For instance, this configuration:

pillar_roots:
  __env__:
    - /srv/__env__/pillar

is equivalent to this static configuration:

pillar_roots:
  dev:
    - /srv/dev/pillar
  test:
    - /srv/test/pillar
  prod:
    - /srv/prod/pillar

on_demand_ext_pillar

New in version 2016.3.6,2016.11.3,2017.7.0.

Default: ['libvirt', 'virtkey']

The external pillars permitted to be used on-demand using pillar.ext.

on_demand_ext_pillar:
  - libvirt
  - virtkey
  - git

Warning

This will allow minions to request specific pillar data via pillar.ext, and may be considered a security risk. However, pillar data generated in this way will not affect the in-memory pillar data, so this risk is limited to instances in which states/modules/etc. (built-in or custom) rely upon pillar data generated by pillar.ext.

decrypt_pillar

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: []

A list of paths to be recursively decrypted during pillar compilation.

decrypt_pillar:
  - 'foo:bar': gpg
  - 'lorem:ipsum:dolor'

Entries in this list can be formatted either as a simple string, or as a key/value pair, with the key being the pillar location, and the value being the renderer to use for pillar decryption. If the former is used, the renderer specified by decrypt_pillar_default will be used.

decrypt_pillar_delimiter

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: :

The delimiter used to distinguish nested data structures in the decrypt_pillar option.

decrypt_pillar_delimiter: '|'
decrypt_pillar:
  - 'foo|bar': gpg
  - 'lorem|ipsum|dolor'

decrypt_pillar_default

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: gpg

The default renderer used for decryption, if one is not specified for a given pillar key in decrypt_pillar.

decrypt_pillar_default: my_custom_renderer

decrypt_pillar_renderers

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: ['gpg']

List of renderers which are permitted to be used for pillar decryption.

decrypt_pillar_renderers:
  - gpg
  - my_custom_renderer

gpg_decrypt_must_succeed

New in version 3005.

Default: False

If this is True and the ciphertext could not be decrypted, then an error is raised.

Sending the ciphertext through basically is never desired, for example if a state is setting a database password from pillar and gpg rendering fails, then the state will update the password to the ciphertext, which by definition is not encrypted.

Warning

The value defaults to False for backwards compatibility. In the Chlorine release, this option will default to True.

gpg_decrypt_must_succeed: False

pillar_opts

Default: False

The pillar_opts option adds the master configuration file data to a dict in the pillar called master. This can be used to set simple configurations in the master config file that can then be used on minions.

Note that setting this option to True means the master config file will be included in all minion's pillars. While this makes global configuration of services and systems easy, it may not be desired if sensitive data is stored in the master configuration.

pillar_opts: False

pillar_safe_render_error

Default: True

The pillar_safe_render_error option prevents the master from passing pillar render errors to the minion. This is set on by default because the error could contain templating data which would give that minion information it shouldn't have, like a password! When set True the error message will only show:

Rendering SLS 'my.sls' failed. Please see master log for details.

pillar_safe_render_error: True

ext_pillar

The ext_pillar option allows for any number of external pillar interfaces to be called when populating pillar data. The configuration is based on ext_pillar functions. The available ext_pillar functions can be found herein:

salt/pillar

By default, the ext_pillar interface is not configured to run.

Default: []

ext_pillar:
  - hiera: /etc/hiera.yaml
  - cmd_yaml: cat /etc/salt/yaml
  - reclass:
      inventory_base_uri: /etc/reclass

There are additional details at Pillars

ext_pillar_first

New in version 2015.5.0.

Default: False

This option allows for external pillar sources to be evaluated before pillar_roots. External pillar data is evaluated separately from pillar_roots pillar data, and then both sets of pillar data are merged into a single pillar dictionary, so the value of this config option will have an impact on which key "wins" when there is one of the same name in both the external pillar data and pillar_roots pillar data. By setting this option to True, ext_pillar keys will be overridden by pillar_roots, while leaving it as False will allow ext_pillar keys to override those from pillar_roots.

Note

For a while, this config option did not work as specified above, because of a bug in Pillar compilation. This bug has been resolved in version 2016.3.4 and later.

ext_pillar_first: False

pillarenv_from_saltenv

Default: False

When set to True, the pillarenv value will assume the value of the effective saltenv when running states. This essentially makes salt-run pillar.show_pillar saltenv=dev equivalent to salt-run pillar.show_pillar saltenv=dev pillarenv=dev. If pillarenv is set on the CLI, it will override this option.

pillarenv_from_saltenv: True

Note

For salt remote execution commands this option should be set in the Minion configuration instead.

pillar_raise_on_missing

New in version 2015.5.0.

Default: False

Set this option to True to force a KeyError to be raised whenever an attempt to retrieve a named value from pillar fails. When this option is set to False, the failed attempt returns an empty string.

Git External Pillar (git_pillar) Configuration Options

git_pillar_provider

New in version 2015.8.0.

Specify the provider to be used for git_pillar. Must be either pygit2 or gitpython. If unset, then both will be tried in that same order, and the first one with a compatible version installed will be the provider that is used.

git_pillar_provider: gitpython

git_pillar_base

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: master

If the desired branch matches this value, and the environment is omitted from the git_pillar configuration, then the environment for that git_pillar remote will be base. For example, in the configuration below, the foo branch/tag would be assigned to the base environment, while bar would be mapped to the bar environment.

git_pillar_base: foo

ext_pillar:
  - git:
    - foo https://mygitserver/git-pillar.git
    - bar https://mygitserver/git-pillar.git

git_pillar_branch

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: master

If the branch is omitted from a git_pillar remote, then this branch will be used instead. For example, in the configuration below, the first two remotes would use the pillardata branch/tag, while the third would use the foo branch/tag.

git_pillar_branch: pillardata

ext_pillar:
  - git:
    - https://mygitserver/pillar1.git
    - https://mygitserver/pillar2.git:
      - root: pillar
    - foo https://mygitserver/pillar3.git

git_pillar_env

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: '' (unset)

Environment to use for git_pillar remotes. This is normally derived from the branch/tag (or from a per-remote env parameter), but if set this will override the process of deriving the env from the branch/tag name. For example, in the configuration below the foo branch would be assigned to the base environment, while the bar branch would need to explicitly have bar configured as its environment to keep it from also being mapped to the base environment.

git_pillar_env: base

ext_pillar:
  - git:
    - foo https://mygitserver/git-pillar.git
    - bar https://mygitserver/git-pillar.git:
      - env: bar

For this reason, this option is recommended to be left unset, unless the use case calls for all (or almost all) of the git_pillar remotes to use the same environment irrespective of the branch/tag being used.

git_pillar_root

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

Path relative to the root of the repository where the git_pillar top file and SLS files are located. In the below configuration, the pillar top file and SLS files would be looked for in a subdirectory called pillar.

git_pillar_root: pillar

ext_pillar:
  - git:
    - master https://mygitserver/pillar1.git
    - master https://mygitserver/pillar2.git

Note

This is a global option. If only one or two repos need to have their files sourced from a subdirectory, then git_pillar_root can be omitted and the root can be specified on a per-remote basis, like so:

ext_pillar:
  - git:
    - master https://mygitserver/pillar1.git
    - master https://mygitserver/pillar2.git:
      - root: pillar

In this example, for the first remote the top file and SLS files would be looked for in the root of the repository, while in the second remote the pillar data would be retrieved from the pillar subdirectory.

git_pillar_ssl_verify

New in version 2015.8.0.

Changed in version 2016.11.0.

Default: False

Specifies whether or not to ignore SSL certificate errors when contacting the remote repository. The False setting is useful if you're using a git repo that uses a self-signed certificate. However, keep in mind that setting this to anything other True is a considered insecure, and using an SSH-based transport (if available) may be a better option.

In the 2016.11.0 release, the default config value changed from False to True.

git_pillar_ssl_verify: True

Note

pygit2 only supports disabling SSL verification in versions 0.23.2 and newer.

git_pillar_proxy

New in version 3008.0.

Default: ''

Specifies the URL of the proxy server that will be used to connect to the remote repository. By default, no proxy server will be used.

git_pillar_proxy: http://foo.com:8080/

git_pillar_global_lock

New in version 2015.8.9.

Default: True

When set to False, if there is an update/checkout lock for a git_pillar remote and the pid written to it is not running on the master, the lock file will be automatically cleared and a new lock will be obtained. When set to True, Salt will simply log a warning when there is an lock present.

On single-master deployments, disabling this option can help automatically deal with instances where the master was shutdown/restarted during the middle of a git_pillar update/checkout, leaving a lock in place.

However, on multi-master deployments with the git_pillar cachedir shared via GlusterFS, nfs, or another network filesystem, it is strongly recommended not to disable this option as doing so will cause lock files to be removed if they were created by a different master.

# Disable global lock
git_pillar_global_lock: False

git_pillar_includes

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: True

Normally, when processing git_pillar remotes, if more than one repo under the same git section in the ext_pillar configuration refers to the same pillar environment, then each repo in a given environment will have access to the other repos' files to be referenced in their top files. However, it may be desirable to disable this behavior. If so, set this value to False.

For a more detailed examination of how includes work, see this explanation from the git_pillar documentation.

git_pillar_includes: False

git_pillar_update_interval

New in version 3000.

Default: 60

This option defines the default update interval (in seconds) for git_pillar remotes. The update is handled within the global loop, hence git_pillar_update_interval should be a multiple of loop_interval.

git_pillar_update_interval: 120

Git External Pillar Authentication Options

These parameters only currently apply to the pygit2 git_pillar_provider. Authentication works the same as it does in gitfs, as outlined in the GitFS Walkthrough, though the global configuration options are named differently to reflect that they are for git_pillar instead of gitfs.

git_pillar_user

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

Along with git_pillar_password, is used to authenticate to HTTPS remotes.

git_pillar_user: git

git_pillar_password

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

Along with git_pillar_user, is used to authenticate to HTTPS remotes. This parameter is not required if the repository does not use authentication.

git_pillar_password: mypassword

git_pillar_insecure_auth

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: False

By default, Salt will not authenticate to an HTTP (non-HTTPS) remote. This parameter enables authentication over HTTP. Enable this at your own risk.

git_pillar_insecure_auth: True

git_pillar_pubkey

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

Along with git_pillar_privkey (and optionally git_pillar_passphrase), is used to authenticate to SSH remotes.

git_pillar_pubkey: /path/to/key.pub

git_pillar_privkey

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

Along with git_pillar_pubkey (and optionally git_pillar_passphrase), is used to authenticate to SSH remotes.

git_pillar_privkey: /path/to/key

git_pillar_passphrase

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

This parameter is optional, required only when the SSH key being used to authenticate is protected by a passphrase.

git_pillar_passphrase: mypassphrase

git_pillar_refspecs

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: ['+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*', '+refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*']

When fetching from remote repositories, by default Salt will fetch branches and tags. This parameter can be used to override the default and specify alternate refspecs to be fetched. This parameter works similarly to its GitFS counterpart, in that it can be configured both globally and for individual remotes.

git_pillar_refspecs:
  - '+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*'
  - '+refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*'
  - '+refs/pull/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/pr/*'
  - '+refs/pull/*/merge:refs/remotes/origin/merge/*'

git_pillar_verify_config

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: True

By default, as the master starts it performs some sanity checks on the configured git_pillar repositories. If any of these sanity checks fail (such as when an invalid configuration is used), the master daemon will abort.

To skip these sanity checks, set this option to False.

git_pillar_verify_config: False

Pillar Merging Options

pillar_source_merging_strategy

New in version 2014.7.0.

Default: smart

The pillar_source_merging_strategy option allows you to configure merging strategy between different sources. It accepts 5 values:

• none:

  It will not do any merging at all and only parse the pillar data from the passed environment and 'base' if no environment was specified.

  New in version 2016.3.4.

• recurse:

  It will recursively merge data. For example, theses 2 sources:

  foo: 42
  bar:
      element1: True
  

  bar:
      element2: True
  baz: quux
  

  will be merged as:

  foo: 42
  bar:
      element1: True
      element2: True
  baz: quux
  

• aggregate:

  instructs aggregation of elements between sources that use the #!yamlex renderer.

  For example, these two documents:

  foo: 42
  bar: !aggregate {
    element1: True
  }
  baz: !aggregate quux
  

  bar: !aggregate {
    element2: True
  }
  baz: !aggregate quux2
  

  will be merged as:

  foo: 42
  bar:
    element1: True
    element2: True
  baz:
    - quux
    - quux2
  

  Note

  This requires that the render pipeline defined in the renderer master configuration ends in yamlex.

• overwrite:

  Will use the behaviour of the 2014.1 branch and earlier.

  Overwrites elements according the order in which they are processed.

  First pillar processed:

  A:
    first_key: blah
    second_key: blah
  

  Second pillar processed:

  A:
    third_key: blah
    fourth_key: blah
  

  will be merged as:

  A:
    third_key: blah
    fourth_key: blah
  

• smart (default):

  Guesses the best strategy based on the "renderer" setting.

Note

In order for yamlex based features such as !aggregate to work as expected across documents using the default smart merge strategy, the renderer config option must be set to jinja|yamlex or similar.

pillar_merge_lists

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: False

Recursively merge lists by aggregating them instead of replacing them.

pillar_merge_lists: False

pillar_includes_override_sls

New in version 2017.7.6,2018.3.1.

Default: False

Prior to version 2017.7.3, keys from pillar includes would be merged on top of the pillar SLS. Since 2017.7.3, the includes are merged together and then the pillar SLS is merged on top of that.

Set this option to True to return to the old behavior.

pillar_includes_override_sls: True

Pillar Cache Options

pillar_cache

New in version 2015.8.8.

Default: False

A master can cache pillars locally to bypass the expense of having to render them for each minion on every request. This feature should only be enabled in cases where pillar rendering time is known to be unsatisfactory and any attendant security concerns about storing pillars in a master cache have been addressed.

When enabling this feature, be certain to read through the additional pillar_cache_* configuration options to fully understand the tunable parameters and their implications.

pillar_cache: False

Note

Setting pillar_cache: True has no effect on targeting minions with pillar.

pillar_cache_ttl

New in version 2015.8.8.

Default: 3600

If and only if a master has set pillar_cache: True, the cache TTL controls the amount of time, in seconds, before the cache is considered invalid by a master and a fresh pillar is recompiled and stored. The cache TTL does not prevent pillar cache from being refreshed before its TTL expires.

pillar_cache_backend

New in version 2015.8.8.

Default: disk

If an only if a master has set pillar_cache: True, one of several storage providers can be utilized:

• disk (default):

  The default storage backend. This caches rendered pillars to the master cache. Rendered pillars are serialized and deserialized as msgpack structures for speed. Note that pillars are stored UNENCRYPTED. Ensure that the master cache has permissions set appropriately (sane defaults are provided).

• memory [EXPERIMENTAL]:

  An optional backend for pillar caches which uses a pure-Python in-memory data structure for maximal performance. There are several caveats, however. First, because each master worker contains its own in-memory cache, there is no guarantee of cache consistency between minion requests. This works best in situations where the pillar rarely if ever changes. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, this means that unencrypted pillars will be accessible to any process which can examine the memory of the salt-master! This may represent a substantial security risk.

pillar_cache_backend: disk

Master Reactor Settings

reactor

Default: []

Defines a salt reactor. See the Reactor documentation for more information.

reactor:
  - 'salt/minion/*/start':
    - salt://reactor/startup_tasks.sls

reactor_refresh_interval

Default: 60

The TTL for the cache of the reactor configuration.

reactor_refresh_interval: 60

reactor_worker_threads

Default: 10

The number of workers for the runner/wheel in the reactor.

reactor_worker_threads: 10

reactor_worker_hwm

Default: 10000

The queue size for workers in the reactor.

reactor_worker_hwm: 10000

Salt-API Master Settings

There are some settings for salt-api that can be configured on the Salt Master.

api_logfile

Default: /var/log/salt/api

The logfile location for salt-api.

api_logfile: /var/log/salt/api

api_pidfile

Default: /var/run/salt-api.pid

If this master will be running salt-api, specify the pidfile of the salt-api daemon.

api_pidfile: /var/run/salt-api.pid

rest_timeout

Default: 300

Used by salt-api for the master requests timeout.

rest_timeout: 300

netapi_enable_clients

New in version 3006.0.

Default: []

Used by salt-api to enable access to the listed clients. Unless a client is addded to this list, requests will be rejected before authentication is attempted or processing of the low state occurs.

This can be used to only expose the required functionality via salt-api.

Configuration with all possible clients enabled:

netapi_enable_clients:
  - local
  - local_async
  - local_batch
  - local_subset
  - runner
  - runner_async
  - ssh
  - wheel
  - wheel_async

Note

Enabling all clients is not recommended - only enable the clients that provide the functionality required.

Syndic Server Settings

A Salt syndic is a Salt master used to pass commands from a higher Salt master to minions below the syndic. Using the syndic is simple. If this is a master that will have syndic servers(s) below it, set the order_masters setting to True.

If this is a master that will be running a syndic daemon for passthrough the syndic_master setting needs to be set to the location of the master server.

Do not forget that, in other words, it means that it shares with the local minion its ID and PKI directory.

order_masters

Default: False

Extra data needs to be sent with publications if the master is controlling a lower level master via a syndic minion. If this is the case the order_masters value must be set to True

order_masters: False

syndic_master

Changed in version 2016.3.5,2016.11.1: Set default higher level master address.

Default: masterofmasters

If this master will be running the salt-syndic to connect to a higher level master, specify the higher level master with this configuration value.

syndic_master: masterofmasters

You can optionally connect a syndic to multiple higher level masters by setting the syndic_master value to a list:

syndic_master:
  - masterofmasters1
  - masterofmasters2

Each higher level master must be set up in a multi-master configuration.

syndic_master_port

Default: 4506

If this master will be running the salt-syndic to connect to a higher level master, specify the higher level master port with this configuration value.

syndic_master_port: 4506

syndic_pidfile

Default: /var/run/salt-syndic.pid

If this master will be running the salt-syndic to connect to a higher level master, specify the pidfile of the syndic daemon.

syndic_pidfile: /var/run/syndic.pid

syndic_log_file

Default: /var/log/salt/syndic

If this master will be running the salt-syndic to connect to a higher level master, specify the log file of the syndic daemon.

syndic_log_file: /var/log/salt-syndic.log

syndic_failover

New in version 2016.3.0.

Default: random

The behaviour of the multi-syndic when connection to a master of masters failed. Can specify random (default) or ordered. If set to random, masters will be iterated in random order. If ordered is specified, the configured order will be used.

syndic_failover: random

syndic_wait

Default: 5

The number of seconds for the salt client to wait for additional syndics to check in with their lists of expected minions before giving up.

syndic_wait: 5

syndic_forward_all_events

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: False

Option on multi-syndic or single when connected to multiple masters to be able to send events to all connected masters.

syndic_forward_all_events: False

syndic_retries

New in version 3006.16.

Default: 3

The maximum number of retries for a syndic return attempt to the Master of Masters. If multiple Master of Masters listed, it will attempt this number of retries for each master in the list.

syndic_retries: 4

Peer Publish Settings

Salt minions can send commands to other minions, but only if the minion is allowed to. By default "Peer Publication" is disabled, and when enabled it is enabled for specific minions and specific commands. This allows secure compartmentalization of commands based on individual minions.

peer

Default: {}

The configuration uses regular expressions to match minions and then a list of regular expressions to match functions. The following will allow the minion authenticated as foo.example.com to execute functions from the test and pkg modules.

peer:
  foo\.example\.com:
      - test\..*
      - pkg\..*

This will allow all minions to execute all commands:

peer:
  .*:
      - .*

This is not recommended, since it would allow anyone who gets root on any single minion to instantly have root on all of the minions!

It is also possible to limit target hosts with the Compound Matcher. You can achieve this by adding another layer in between the source and the allowed functions:

peer:
  '.*\.example\.com':
    - 'G@role:db':
      - test\..*
      - pkg\..*

Note

Notice that the source hosts are matched by a regular expression on their minion ID, while target hosts can be matched by any of the available matchers.

Note that globbing and regex matching on pillar values is not supported. You can only match exact values.

peer_run

Default: {}

The peer_run option is used to open up runners on the master to access from the minions. The peer_run configuration matches the format of the peer configuration.

The following example would allow foo.example.com to execute the manage.up runner:

peer_run:
  foo.example.com:
      - manage.up

Master Logging Settings

log_file

Default: /var/log/salt/master

The master log can be sent to a regular file, local path name, or network location. See also log_file.

Examples:

log_file: /var/log/salt/master

log_file: file:///dev/log

log_file: udp://loghost:10514

log_level

Default: warning

The level of messages to send to the console. See also log_level.

log_level: warning

Any log level below the info level is INSECURE and may log sensitive data. This currently includes: #. profile #. debug #. trace #. garbage #. all

log_level_logfile

Default: warning

The level of messages to send to the log file. See also log_level_logfile. When it is not set explicitly it will inherit the level set by log_level option.

log_level_logfile: warning

Any log level below the info level is INSECURE and may log sensitive data. This currently includes: #. profile #. debug #. trace #. garbage #. all

log_datefmt

Default: %H:%M:%S

The date and time format used in console log messages. See also log_datefmt.

log_datefmt: '%H:%M:%S'

log_datefmt_logfile

Default: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S

The date and time format used in log file messages. See also log_datefmt_logfile.

log_datefmt_logfile: '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'

log_fmt_console

Default: [%(levelname)-8s] %(message)s

The format of the console logging messages. See also log_fmt_console.

Note

Log colors are enabled in log_fmt_console rather than the color config since the logging system is loaded before the master config.

Console log colors are specified by these additional formatters:

%(colorlevel)s %(colorname)s %(colorprocess)s %(colormsg)s

Since it is desirable to include the surrounding brackets, '[' and ']', in the coloring of the messages, these color formatters also include padding as well. Color LogRecord attributes are only available for console logging.

log_fmt_console: '%(colorlevel)s %(colormsg)s'
log_fmt_console: '[%(levelname)-8s] %(message)s'

log_fmt_logfile

Default: %(asctime)s,%(msecs)03d [%(name)-17s][%(levelname)-8s] %(message)s

The format of the log file logging messages. See also log_fmt_logfile.

log_fmt_logfile: '%(asctime)s,%(msecs)03d [%(name)-17s][%(levelname)-8s] %(message)s'

log_granular_levels

Default: {}

This can be used to control logging levels more specifically. See also log_granular_levels.

log_rotate_max_bytes

Default: 0

The maximum number of bytes a single log file may contain before it is rotated. A value of 0 disables this feature. Currently only supported on Windows. On other platforms, use an external tool such as 'logrotate' to manage log files. log_rotate_max_bytes

log_rotate_backup_count

Default: 0

The number of backup files to keep when rotating log files. Only used if log_rotate_max_bytes is greater than 0. Currently only supported on Windows. On other platforms, use an external tool such as 'logrotate' to manage log files. log_rotate_backup_count

Node Groups

nodegroups

Default: {}

Node groups allow for logical groupings of minion nodes. A group consists of a group name and a compound target.

nodegroups:
  group1: 'L@foo.domain.com,bar.domain.com,baz.domain.com or bl*.domain.com'
  group2: 'G@os:Debian and foo.domain.com'
  group3: 'G@os:Debian and N@group1'
  group4:
    - 'G@foo:bar'
    - 'or'
    - 'G@foo:baz'

More information on using nodegroups can be found here.

Range Cluster Settings

range_server

Default: 'range:80'

The range server (and optional port) that serves your cluster information https://github.com/ytoolshed/range/wiki/%22yamlfile%22-module-file-spec

range_server: range:80

Include Configuration

Configuration can be loaded from multiple files. The order in which this is done is:

1. The master config file itself

2. The files matching the glob in default_include

3. The files matching the glob in include (if defined)

Each successive step overrides any values defined in the previous steps. Therefore, any config options defined in one of the default_include files would override the same value in the master config file, and any options defined in include would override both.

default_include

Default: master.d/*.conf

The master can include configuration from other files. Per default the master will automatically include all config files from master.d/*.conf where master.d is relative to the directory of the master configuration file.

Note

Salt creates files in the master.d directory for its own use. These files are prefixed with an underscore. A common example of this is the _schedule.conf file.

include

Default: not defined

The master can include configuration from other files. To enable this, pass a list of paths to this option. The paths can be either relative or absolute; if relative, they are considered to be relative to the directory the main minion configuration file lives in. Paths can make use of shell-style globbing. If no files are matched by a path passed to this option then the master will log a warning message.

# Include files from a master.d directory in the same
# directory as the master config file
include: master.d/*

# Include a single extra file into the configuration
include: /etc/roles/webserver

# Include several files and the master.d directory
include:
  - extra_config
  - master.d/*
  - /etc/roles/webserver

Keepalive Settings

tcp_keepalive

Default: True

The tcp keepalive interval to set on TCP ports. This setting can be used to tune Salt connectivity issues in messy network environments with misbehaving firewalls.

tcp_keepalive: True

tcp_keepalive_cnt

Default: -1

Sets the ZeroMQ TCP keepalive count. May be used to tune issues with minion disconnects.

tcp_keepalive_cnt: -1

tcp_keepalive_idle

Default: 300

Sets ZeroMQ TCP keepalive idle. May be used to tune issues with minion disconnects.

tcp_keepalive_idle: 300

tcp_keepalive_intvl

Default: -1

Sets ZeroMQ TCP keepalive interval. May be used to tune issues with minion disconnects.

tcp_keepalive_intvl': -1

Windows Software Repo Settings

winrepo_provider

New in version 2015.8.0.

Specify the provider to be used for winrepo. Must be either pygit2 or gitpython. If unset, then both will be tried in that same order, and the first one with a compatible version installed will be the provider that is used.

winrepo_provider: gitpython

winrepo_dir

Changed in version 2015.8.0: Renamed from win_repo to winrepo_dir.

Default: /srv/salt/win/repo

Location on the master where the winrepo_remotes are checked out for pre-2015.8.0 minions. 2015.8.0 and later minions use winrepo_remotes_ng instead.

winrepo_dir: /srv/salt/win/repo

winrepo_dir_ng

New in version 2015.8.0: A new ng repo was added.

Default: /srv/salt/win/repo-ng

Location on the master where the winrepo_remotes_ng are checked out for 2015.8.0 and later minions.

winrepo_dir_ng: /srv/salt/win/repo-ng

winrepo_cachefile

Changed in version 2015.8.0: Renamed from win_repo_mastercachefile to winrepo_cachefile

Note

2015.8.0 and later minions do not use this setting since the cachefile is now generated by the minion.

Default: winrepo.p

Path relative to winrepo_dir where the winrepo cache should be created.

winrepo_cachefile: winrepo.p

winrepo_remotes

Changed in version 2015.8.0: Renamed from win_gitrepos to winrepo_remotes.

Default: ['https://github.com/saltstack/salt-winrepo.git']

List of git repositories to checkout and include in the winrepo for pre-2015.8.0 minions. 2015.8.0 and later minions use winrepo_remotes_ng instead.

winrepo_remotes:
  - https://github.com/saltstack/salt-winrepo.git

To specify a specific revision of the repository, prepend a commit ID to the URL of the repository:

winrepo_remotes:
  - '<commit_id> https://github.com/saltstack/salt-winrepo.git'

Replace <commit_id> with the SHA1 hash of a commit ID. Specifying a commit ID is useful in that it allows one to revert back to a previous version in the event that an error is introduced in the latest revision of the repo.

winrepo_remotes_ng

New in version 2015.8.0: A new ng repo was added.

Default: ['https://github.com/saltstack/salt-winrepo-ng.git']

List of git repositories to checkout and include in the winrepo for 2015.8.0 and later minions.

winrepo_remotes_ng:
  - https://github.com/saltstack/salt-winrepo-ng.git

To specify a specific revision of the repository, prepend a commit ID to the URL of the repository:

winrepo_remotes_ng:
  - '<commit_id> https://github.com/saltstack/salt-winrepo-ng.git'

Replace <commit_id> with the SHA1 hash of a commit ID. Specifying a commit ID is useful in that it allows one to revert back to a previous version in the event that an error is introduced in the latest revision of the repo.

winrepo_branch

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: master

If the branch is omitted from a winrepo remote, then this branch will be used instead. For example, in the configuration below, the first two remotes would use the winrepo branch/tag, while the third would use the foo branch/tag.

winrepo_branch: winrepo

winrepo_remotes:
  - https://mygitserver/winrepo1.git
  - https://mygitserver/winrepo2.git:
  - foo https://mygitserver/winrepo3.git

winrepo_ssl_verify

New in version 2015.8.0.

Changed in version 2016.11.0.

Default: False

Specifies whether or not to ignore SSL certificate errors when contacting the remote repository. The False setting is useful if you're using a git repo that uses a self-signed certificate. However, keep in mind that setting this to anything other True is a considered insecure, and using an SSH-based transport (if available) may be a better option.

In the 2016.11.0 release, the default config value changed from False to True.

winrepo_ssl_verify: True

winrepo_proxy

New in version 3008.0.

Default: ''

Specifies the URL of the proxy server that will be used to connect to the remote repository. By default, no proxy server will be used.

winrepo_proxy: http://foo.com:8080/

Winrepo Authentication Options

These parameters only currently apply to the pygit2 winrepo_provider. Authentication works the same as it does in gitfs, as outlined in the GitFS Walkthrough, though the global configuration options are named differently to reflect that they are for winrepo instead of gitfs.

winrepo_user

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

Along with winrepo_password, is used to authenticate to HTTPS remotes.

winrepo_user: git

winrepo_password

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

Along with winrepo_user, is used to authenticate to HTTPS remotes. This parameter is not required if the repository does not use authentication.

winrepo_password: mypassword

winrepo_insecure_auth

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: False

By default, Salt will not authenticate to an HTTP (non-HTTPS) remote. This parameter enables authentication over HTTP. Enable this at your own risk.

winrepo_insecure_auth: True

winrepo_pubkey

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

Along with winrepo_privkey (and optionally winrepo_passphrase), is used to authenticate to SSH remotes.

winrepo_pubkey: /path/to/key.pub

winrepo_privkey

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

Along with winrepo_pubkey (and optionally winrepo_passphrase), is used to authenticate to SSH remotes.

winrepo_privkey: /path/to/key

winrepo_passphrase

New in version 2015.8.0.

Default: ''

This parameter is optional, required only when the SSH key being used to authenticate is protected by a passphrase.

winrepo_passphrase: mypassphrase

winrepo_refspecs

New in version 2017.7.0.

Default: ['+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*', '+refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*']

When fetching from remote repositories, by default Salt will fetch branches and tags. This parameter can be used to override the default and specify alternate refspecs to be fetched. This parameter works similarly to its GitFS counterpart, in that it can be configured both globally and for individual remotes.

winrepo_refspecs:
  - '+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*'
  - '+refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*'
  - '+refs/pull/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/pr/*'
  - '+refs/pull/*/merge:refs/remotes/origin/merge/*'

Configure Master on Windows

The master on Windows requires no additional configuration. You can modify the master configuration by creating/editing the master config file located at c:\salt\conf\master. The same configuration options available on Linux are available in Windows, as long as they apply. For example, SSH options wouldn't apply in Windows. The main differences are the file paths. If you are familiar with common salt paths, the following table may be useful:

linux Paths		Windows Paths
/etc/salt	<--->	c:\salt\conf
/	<--->	c:\salt

So, for example, the master config file in Linux is /etc/salt/master. In Windows the master config file is c:\salt\conf\master. The Linux path /etc/salt becomes c:\salt\conf in Windows.

Common File Locations

Linux Paths	Windows Paths
conf_file: /etc/salt/master	conf_file: c:\salt\conf\master
log_file: /var/log/salt/master	log_file: c:\salt\var\log\salt\master
pidfile: /var/run/salt-master.pid	pidfile: c:\salt\var\run\salt-master.pid

Common Directories

Linux Paths	Windows Paths
cachedir: /var/cache/salt/master	cachedir: c:\salt\var\cache\salt\master
extension_modules: /var/cache/salt/master/extmods	c:\salt\var\cache\salt\master\extmods
pki_dir: /etc/salt/pki/master	pki_dir: c:\salt\conf\pki\master
root_dir: /	root_dir: c:\salt
sock_dir: /var/run/salt/master	sock_dir: c:\salt\var\run\salt\master

Roots

file_roots

Linux Paths	Windows Paths
/srv/salt	c:\salt\srv\salt
/srv/spm/salt	c:\salt\srv\spm\salt

pillar_roots

Linux Paths	Windows Paths
/srv/pillar	c:\salt\srv\pillar
/srv/spm/pillar	c:\salt\srv\spm\pillar

Win Repo Settings

Linux Paths	Windows Paths
winrepo_dir: /srv/salt/win/repo	winrepo_dir: c:\salt\srv\salt\win\repo
winrepo_dir_ng: /srv/salt/win/repo-ng	winrepo_dir_ng: c:\salt\srv\salt\win\repo-ng