Book Image

Extending SaltStack

Book Image

Extending SaltStack

Overview of this book

Salt already ships with a very powerful set of tools, but that doesn't mean that they all suit your needs perfectly. By adding your own modules and enhancing existing ones, you can bring the functionality that you need to increase your productivity. Extending SaltStack follows a tutorial-based approach to explain different types of modules, from fundamentals to complete and full-functioning modules. Starting with the Loader system that drives Salt, this book will guide you through the most common types of modules. First you will learn how to write execution modules. Then you will extend the configuration using the grain, pillar, and SDB modules. Next up will be state modules and then the renderers that can be used with them. This will be followed with returner and output modules, which increase your options to manage return data. After that, there will be modules for external file servers, clouds, beacons, and finally external authentication and wheel modules to manage the master. With this guide in hand, you will be prepared to create, troubleshoot, and manage the most common types of Salt modules and take your infrastructure to new heights!
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Extending SaltStack
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Troubleshooting state modules


Even though the code is more structured, it can be a little tricky to troubleshoot state modules. This is because you need to test all four types of return results:

  • True – The resource is already correctly configured

  • None – The resource is not correctly configured, and test mode is True

  • True with changes – The resource was not correctly configured, but now it is

  • False – The resource could not be correctly configured

What makes this even trickier is that in the course of troubleshooting, you are likely to change configuration to be correct, and then incorrect, and then back again several times before the code is right. I suggest breaking it up.

Step 1: test for truth

Your first step, after setting up your defaults, is to check whether the resource is correctly configured. This is likely to require you to manually toggle settings to make sure it is properly checking both desired and undesired configuration. Add two returns: one for True and one for False:

    ret = {...