Mastering SaltStack - Second Edition

Using states for configuration management

The files inside the /srv/salt/ directory define the Salt states. This is a configuration management format that enforces the state that a minion will be in: package X needs to be installed, file Y needs to look a certain way, service Z needs to be enabled and running, and so on. For example:

apache2: 
  pkg: 
    - installed 
  service: 
    - running 
  file: 
    - name: /etc/apache2/apache2.conf 

States may be saved in a single SLS file, but it is far better to separate them into multiple files, in a way that makes sense to you and your organization. SLS files can use include blocks that pull in other SLS files.

Using include blocks

In a large SLS tree, it often becomes reasonable to have SLS files include other SLS files. This ...