Supported operating systems#
Together with the Salt version support lifecycle guidelines, this document is intended to clearly define how long a particular version of Salt will receive official packages, testing, and technical support from the Salt Project.
Salt runs on and manages many versions of Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and UNIX. However, Salt’s ability to run on a specific operating system depends on whether that operating system will run the salt-master service or the salt-minion service.
Salt uses the master-client model in which a master node issues commands to a client node and the client runs the command. In the Salt ecosystem, the Salt master is a node that is running the salt-master service. It issues commands to one or more Salt minions, which are nodes that are running the salt-minion service and that are registered with that particular Salt master.
Some operating systems might be able to run both the salt-master service and the salt-minion service, which means nodes running that system can both manage and be managed by Salt.
Other operating systems may only be able to run the salt-minion package and can only be managed by a Salt master running a different operating system.
If you are setting up your environment for the first time, you should install a Salt master on a dedicated management server or VM, and then install a Salt minion on each system that you want to manage using Salt.
Overview of supported operating systems#
| Master supported | Minion supported | Full support | Reasonable-effort support | Testing support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIX 7.1 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| AIX 7.2 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| Amazon Linux 2 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| Arch (latest) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated only | |
| Arista 4.18 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| Arista 4.23 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| CentOS 7 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated, manual | |
| CentOS 8 Streaming | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| CentOS 9 Streaming | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| Debian 10 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated, manual | |
| Debian 11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated, manual | |
| Fedora 35 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated, manual | |
| Fedora 36 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated, manual | |
| Fedora 37 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated, manual | |
| FreeBSD 11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| FreeBSD 12.2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| FreeBSD 13 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| Juniper (JunOS) | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| macOS 10.15 | Yes | Yes | |||
| macOS 11 | Yes | Yes | |||
| macOS 12 | Yes | Yes | |||
| openSUSE Leap 42.3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated only | |
| openSUSE 15 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Oracle Linux 7, 8 | Yes | Yes | Yes | NONE [1] | |
| Photon OS 3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| Raspberry Pi OS 9 (Stretch) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| Raspberry Pi OS 10 (Buster) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| Raspberry Pi OS 11 (Bullseye) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| RedHat 7 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated, manual | |
| RedHat 8 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| RedHat 9 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| SLES 12 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| SLES 12 SP4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| SLES 15 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| SmartOS (latest) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Package only | |
| Solaris 10 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| Solaris 11.4 and greater | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| Ubuntu 18.04 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ubuntu 20.04 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated, manual | |
| Ubuntu 22.04 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Automated, manual | |
| Windows Desktop 8.1 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| Windows Desktop 10 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| Windows Desktop 11 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| Windows 2012 | Yes | Yes | |||
| Windows 2012 R2 | Yes | Yes | |||
| Windows 2016 | Yes | Yes | Package only | ||
| Windows 2019 | Yes | Yes | |||
| Windows 2022 | Yes | Yes |
| [1] | Use RedHat or CentOS packages instead. |
Master supported#
Master supported is defined as:
- The salt-master service can run on this operating system.
- A node running this operating system can act as the Salt master, which means it can send commands and communicate with connected Salt minions.
Minion supported#
Minion supported is defined as:
- The salt-minion service can run on this operating system.
- A node running this operating system can act a Salt minion, which means this system or device can be managed by a Salt master.
Full support#
Full support is defined as:
- Packages and all required dependencies created by Salt Project or official upstream packager.
- Packages hosted by the Salt Project.
- Tested by the Salt Project.
- The Salt Project provides full technical support for VMware customers.
- The Salt Project will fix bugs for VMware customers.
Reasonable-effort support#
Reasonable-effort support is defined as:
- Packages created and hosted by the Salt Project community.
- Some testing done by the Salt Project.
- The Salt Project provides best-effort technical support for VMware customers.
- The Salt Project may fix bugs for VMware customers.
Full support policy by operating system#
This section outlines the general support and package creation policy for each operating system that is listed as having full support by the Salt Project. These guidelines are intended to help you understand how long a particular operating system will receive official packages, testing, and technical support.
AIX#
The Salt Project supports:
- AIX version 7.1 as of May 2017.
- AIX version 7.2 as of November 2021.
Note
The Salt Project had to drop support for AIX 7.3 for the 3005 release due to build failures caused by a bug in AIX.
The following systems are supported:
| Device | Supported Firmware | Supported Salt versions |
|---|---|---|
| AIX 7.1 and greater | Power 7 and greater | Salt v3002.1 and greater (Python 2) |
| AIX 7.1 and greater | Power 8 and greater | Salt v3003.1 and greater |
| AIX 7.2 and greater | Power 8 and greater | Salt v3004 and greater |
Warning
Be aware that AIX utilities may not be the same as a standard Linux
environment. For example, the version of tar does not support -z in
AIX.
Salt 3003.1 releases, and newer, will only work on Power 8 or greater
processors.
Amazon Linux#
Amazon Linux 2 is supported.
Arch#
Latest version of Arch.
Arista#
The following Arista systems are supported:
| Device | Supported Firmware |
|---|---|
| Arista 32-bit EOS | Versions 4.18 and greater |
| Arista 64-bit EOS | Versions 4.23 and greater |
The Arista native minion already contains Arista’s pyeapi software, as well as Napalm and all of its dependencies.
CentOS#
CentOS versions through Production Phase 3 Support. Versions in ELS are not supported by the Salt Project.
Fedora#
Fedora version support mirrors that of the upstream maintainer.
RedHat#
RedHat versions through Production Phase 3 Support. Versions in ELS are not supported by the Salt Project.
Juniper#
The following systems are supported:
| Device | Supported Firmware |
|---|---|
| QFX Series Switches | 17.3R2-S6 and greater |
| MX Series Routers | 17.4R2-S6 and greater |
Note
During development of the native minion for Juniper, an issue was found on Juniper software which required a fix: Juniper PR 1515432 : REST-API PUT POST RPC call failing, which has been fixed in 17.4R2-S12 and 17.3R3-S9. Use these versions or higher for use with the native minion.
macOS#
The latest three versions of macOS.
Oracle Linux#
Oracle Linux versions 7 and 8 as of July 2016.
https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/linux/overview/index.html
Photon OS#
Photon OS 3.0 as of the 3005 (Phosphorus) release.
Raspberry Pi OS#
Raspberry Pi OS stable, oldstable, and oldoldstable versions.
SLES#
SLES versions through General Support. Versions in LTSS are not supported.
Solaris#
Solaris version 10 as of August 2021. Solaris version 11 as of September 2021.
Note
Python 3 support only. Python 2 unsupported may be found on archive.repo.saltproject.io.
The following systems are supported:
| Device | Supported Firmware |
|---|---|
| Solaris 10 update 8 and greater | Intel and SPARC processors |
| Solaris 11.2 and greater | Intel and SPARC processors |
Ubuntu#
Ubuntu LTS versions through end-of-life. Ubuntu optional Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) is not supported.
Windows#
Windows versions through Extended Support.
Reasonable-effort support policy by operating system#
This section outlines the general support policy for each operating system that is listed as having reasonable-effort support by the Salt Project. These guidelines are intended to help you understand how long a particular operating system might receive reasonable-effort support.
Since the Salt Project does not create or maintain the packages for these operating systems, no guarantee is made as to availability of packages. These guidelines are for reasonable-effort support only.
openSUSE#
openSUSE version support mirrors that of the upstream maintainer.
SmartOS#
Latest version of SmartOS.