Saltstack Query
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I am a Windows Network Engineer but my company has Saltmaster installed on a Linux box (Ubuntu). I am comfortable using Linux, but not as proficiently as Windows. The Saltmaster manages both Windows and Linux minions. Our Linux guy has moved on to greener pastures so I have been tasked with "querying the salt master for a list of all machines that have a specific pkg installed" Since I don't know anything about Salt, I spent hours researching installation and configuration without finding any useful information. I thought it would be stored on a SQL db where I could just build a query for what I need but the system reports no SQL installed.
How do I get Saltmaster to give me a list of computers with a specific program (pkg) installed? Anyone here proficient with Salt?
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Calling @scottalanmiller
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calling @scottalanmiller .
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Wouldn't this be
salt '*' pkg.list_pkgsTo show everything?
So to specify you'd put the name in the single quotes?
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Actually it might be
salt '*' pkg.list_pkgs pkgs='["foo"]' -
Salt does not store the data about the clients in a database. If you want something like that, you have to build a database yourself and populate it with data pulled from SaltStack. SaltStack maintains, in state files, a list of how you want machines to be configured. It does not maintain a list of how they are configured. It's a tool that is meant to be combined with other things.
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So to get this information, you would use SaltStack, as Dustin pointed out, to query each Minion and ask it if a package is installed or not. Then you'd use either your eyes to do it manually, or script something to process the resulting list. If you have twenty or even fifty machines, you might just look at the results. If you have hundreds or thousands, you likely want to process it. If you need to do this task all of the time, you might want to do something more.
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You could of course pipe the output of SaltStack into a csv and then just grab that CSV to do more filtering. But you need to get the data first.
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@DustinB3403 Damn, I was trying too hard. I can use that and filter through grep. Thanks DustinB3403!
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@roninmage said in Saltstack Query:
@DustinB3403 Damn, I was trying too hard. I can use that and filter through grep. Thanks DustinB3403!
I believe if you supply the package name in place of foo that you wouldn't need to do any additional filtering.
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@scottalanmiller That make more sense. So my saltmaster may be in control but it needs to pull specific information on configuration directly from the minions. That explains why I couldn't find the database. I appreciate the clarity.
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@roninmage said in Saltstack Query:
@scottalanmiller That make more sense. So my saltmaster may be in control but it needs to pull specific information on configuration directly from the minions. That explains why I couldn't find the database. I appreciate the clarity.
Correct. No problem.
My team at SodiumSuite (currently unavailable as it is being re-written) does exactly this, making a SaltStack management system that contains that configuration data on the back end and uses SS as just part of the tooling for a more general management and monitoring solution - specifically because SaltStack lacks that visibility and monitoring on its own.
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@DustinB3403 The problem is that this command pulls information on pkgs installed on the saltmaster. I would need to go to each of 200 machines and run it to get that machines software list unless there is a way to direct that command to a list of minions. Then I could produce a list of all minions and create a for loop to query each one and output results to a text file, or am I overthinking again?
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The
'*'should target all of your minions by default. . . -
@roninmage said in Saltstack Query:
@DustinB3403 The problem is that this command pulls information on pkgs installed on the saltmaster. I would need to go to each of 200 machines and run it to get that machines software list unless there is a way to direct that command to a list of minions. Then I could produce a list of all minions and create a for loop to query each one and output results to a text file, or am I overthinking again?
Salt command run against the Minions. The master might be one of the minions, but also may not be.
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@scottalanmiller OK, I see what is happening; I have a very complete list of installed software but only a few of the minions. The last three minion names did not respond (probably turned off). Does the command abort after a certain number of failures?
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Does the SaltMaster maintain a list of all the minions?
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@roninmage it shouldn't just abort, instead it tells every minion to report back.
How many minions do you have?
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@roninmage run this to list all minions
salt-run manage.up
