Next steps with SaltStack

JaredBusch

So, I have a Salt master running.
I have Minions connected.

So, before it gets complicated, what is a good way to handle things?

Do I need to make groups for assigning things?

I need some systems, not domain joined to have the admin accounts configured.

I need domain joined systems to be left alone.

I need to install printers by group or maybe by device.

Etc.

What would be a good way to get that going?

I know there is no one way to do everything. But I want some opinions.

black3dynamite

Nodegroups is what I would use.
https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/targeting/nodegroups.html

There's also some good best practices points like

Structuring States and Formulas
Structuring Pillar Files
Storing Secure Data

https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/best_practices.html

wrx7m

I have had the same questions. Will check out Nodegroups, as @black3dynamite suggested.

JaredBusch

So looking at scheduling chocolatey updates with salt..

This makes it clear that it is pretty straightforward to schedule a task.
https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/states/all/salt.states.schedule.html

Has anyone used salt to run choco update all -y on a schedule like this?

marcinozga

@JaredBusch said in Next steps with SaltStack:

So looking at scheduling chocolatey updates with salt..

This makes it clear that it is pretty straightforward to schedule a task.
https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/states/all/salt.states.schedule.html

Has anyone used salt to run choco update all -y on a schedule like this?

Not salt, but I used https://chocolatey.org/packages/choco-upgrade-all-at which creates the same task, that runs choco upgrade all -y. If salt is using windows task scheduler, then it should just work.

Emad R

@JaredBusch

Hi

Play with this :

https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/states/all/salt.states.win_lgpo.html

If you have windows minions and set it to run every 30/60/90 mins, and BAM you have AD without MS BS

While you can use salt grains to target OSes, I like to diffrentiate them with good naming system:

WIN.001
LIN.001
SRV.001

You might ask how to differentiate between windows SRV and Linux SRV, well frankly my dear i dont give damn, and i dont run Windows servers.