Bootstrapping Salt

Before Salt can be used for provisioning on the desired machine, the binaries need to be installed. Since Salt supports many different distributions and versions of operating systems, the Salt installation process is handled by this shell script bootstrap-salt.sh. This script runs through a series of checks to determine operating system type and version to then install the Salt binaries using the appropriate methods.

In case you found a bug, please read I found a bug first before submitting a new issue.

Bootstrap

If you're looking for the one-liner to install salt, please scroll to the bottom and use the instructions for Installing via an Insecure One-Liner.

Examples

Using curl to install latest git:

curl -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com -o install_salt.sh
sudo sh install_salt.sh git develop

Using wget to install your distribution's stable packages:

wget -O install_salt.sh https://bootstrap.saltstack.com
sudo sh install_salt.sh

Install a specific version from git using wget:

wget -O install_salt.sh https://bootstrap.saltstack.com
sudo sh install_salt.sh -P git v0.16.4

On the above example we added -P which will allow PIP packages to be installed if required but it's no a necessary flag for git based bootstraps.

If you already have python installed, python 2.6, then it's as easy as:

python -m urllib "https://bootstrap.saltstack.com" > install_salt.sh
sudo sh install_salt.sh git develop

All python versions should support the following one liner:

python -c 'import urllib; print urllib.urlopen("https://bootstrap.saltstack.com").read()' > install_salt.sh
sudo sh install_salt.sh git develop

On a FreeBSD base system you usually don't have either of the above binaries available. You do have fetch available though:

fetch -o install_salt.sh https://bootstrap.saltstack.com
sudo sh install_salt.sh

If you have any SSL issues install ca_root_nssp:

pkg install ca_root_nssp

And either copy the certificates to the place where fetch can find them:

cp /usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt /etc/ssl/cert.pem

Or link them to the right place:

ln -s /usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt /etc/ssl/cert.pem

If all you want is to install a salt-master using latest git:

curl -o install_salt.sh -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com
sudo sh install_salt.sh -M -N git develop

If you want to install a specific release version (based on the git tags):

curl -o install_salt.sh -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com
sudo sh install_salt.sh git v0.16.4

To install a specific branch from a git fork:

curl -o install_salt.sh -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com
sudo sh install_salt.sh -g https://github.com/myuser/salt.git git mybranch

Any of the example above which use two-lines can be made to run in a single-line configuration with minor modifications, see Installing via an Insecure One-Liner.

Installing via an Insecure One-Liner

The following examples illustrate how to install Salt via a one-liner.

Examples

Installing the latest stable release of Salt (default):

curl -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com | sudo sh -s -- stable

or

curl -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com | sudo sh -s

Installing the latest develop branch of Salt:

curl -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com | sudo sh -s -- git develop

Adding support for other operating systems

In order to install salt for a distribution you need to define:

1. To Install Dependencies, which is required, one of:

install_<distro>_<major_version>_<install_type>_deps
install_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_<install_type>_deps
install_<distro>_<major_version>_deps
install_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_deps
install_<distro>_<install_type>_deps
install_<distro>_deps

2. Optionally, define a minion configuration function, which will be called if the -c|config-dir option is passed. One of:

config_<distro>_<major_version>_<install_type>_salt
config_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_<install_type>_salt
config_<distro>_<major_version>_salt
config_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_salt
config_<distro>_<install_type>_salt
config_<distro>_salt
config_salt [THIS ONE IS ALREADY DEFINED AS THE DEFAULT]

3. Optionally, define a salt master pre-seed function, which will be called if the -k (pre-seed master keys) option is passed. One of:

preseed_<distro>_<major_version>_<install_type>_master
preseed_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_<install_type>_master
preseed_<distro>_<major_version>_master
preseed_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_master
preseed_<distro>_<install_type>_master
preseed_<distro>_master
preseed_master [THIS ONE IS ALREADY DEFINED AS THE DEFAULT]

4. To install salt, which, of course, is required, one of:

install_<distro>_<major_version>_<install_type>
install_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_<install_type>
install_<distro>_<install_type>

5. Optionally, define a post install function, one of:

install_<distro>_<major_version>_<install_type>_post
install_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_<install_type>_post
install_<distro>_<major_version>_post
install_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_post
install_<distro>_<install_type>_post
install_<distro>_post

6. Optionally, define a start daemons function, one of:

install_<distro>_<major_version>_<install_type>_restart_daemons
install_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_<install_type>_restart_daemons
install_<distro>_<major_version>_restart_daemons
install_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_restart_daemons
install_<distro>_<install_type>_restart_daemons
install_<distro>_restart_daemons

7. Optionally, define a daemons running function, one of:

daemons_running_<distro>_<major_version>_<install_type>
daemons_running_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_<install_type>
daemons_running_<distro>_<major_version>
daemons_running_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>
daemons_running_<distro>_<install_type>
daemons_running_<distro>
daemons_running  [THIS ONE IS ALREADY DEFINED AS THE DEFAULT]

8. Optionally, check enabled Services:

install_<distro>_<major_version>_<install_type>_check_services
install_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_<install_type>_check_services
install_<distro>_<major_version>_check_services
install_<distro>_<major_version>_<minor_version>_check_services
install_<distro>_<install_type>_check_services
install_<distro>_check_services

Below is an example for Ubuntu Oneiric(the example may not be up to date with the script):

install_ubuntu_11_10_deps() {
    apt-get update
    apt-get -y install python-software-properties
    add-apt-repository -y 'deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric universe'
    add-apt-repository -y ppa:saltstack/salt
}

install_ubuntu_11_10_post() {
    add-apt-repository -y --remove 'deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric universe'
}

install_ubuntu_stable() {
    apt-get -y install salt-minion
}

install_ubuntu_restart_daemons() {
    for fname in minion master syndic; do

        # Skip if not meant to be installed
        [ $fname = "minion" ] && [ $INSTALL_MINION -eq $BS_FALSE ] && continue
        [ $fname = "master" ] && [ $INSTALL_MASTER -eq $BS_FALSE ] && continue
        [ $fname = "syndic" ] && [ $INSTALL_SYNDIC -eq $BS_FALSE ] && continue

        if [ -f /sbin/initctl ]; then
            # We have upstart support
            /sbin/initctl status salt-$fname > /dev/null 2>&1
            if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
                # upstart knows about this service, let's stop and start it.
                # We could restart but earlier versions of the upstart script
                # did not support restart, so, it's safer this way
                /sbin/initctl stop salt-$fname > /dev/null 2>&1
                /sbin/initctl start salt-$fname > /dev/null 2>&1
                [ $? -eq 0 ] && continue
                # We failed to start the service, let's test the SysV code bellow
            fi
        fi
        /etc/init.d/salt-$fname stop > /dev/null 2>&1
        /etc/init.d/salt-$fname start
    done
}

Since there is no install_ubuntu_11_10_stable() it defaults to the unspecified version script.

The bootstrapping script must be plain POSIX sh only, not bash or another shell script. By design the targeting for each operating system and version is very specific. Assumptions of supported versions or variants should not be made, to avoid failed or broken installations.

Supported Operating Systems

• Amazon Linux 2012.09
• Arch
• CentOS 5/6/7
• Debian 6/7/8
• Fedora 17/18/20/21/22
• FreeBSD 9.1/9.2/10/11
• Gentoo
• Linaro
• Linux Mint 13/14
• OpenSUSE 12/13
• Oracle Linux 5/5
• Red Hat 5/6
• Red Hat Enterprise 5/6
• Scientific Linux 5/6
• SmartOS
• SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP1/11 SP2/11 SP3
• Ubuntu 10.x/11.x/12.x/13.x/14.x/15.04
• Elementary OS 0.2

I found a bug

If you found a possible problem, or bug, please try to bootstrap using the develop version. The issue you are having might have already been fixed and it's just not yet included in the stable version.

curl -o install_salt.sh -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com/develop
sudo sh install_salt.sh git develop

Or the insecure one liner:

curl -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com/develop | sudo sh -s -- git develop

If after trying this, you still see the same problems, then, please file an issue.

Unsupported Distro

You found a Linux distribution which we still do not support or we do not correctly identify? Please run the following commands and report their output when creating a ticket:

sudo find /etc/ -name '*-release' -print -exec cat {} \;
command lsb_release -a

Testing in Vagrant

You can use Vagrant to easily test changes on a clean machine. The Vagrantfile defaults to an Ubuntu box. First, install Vagrant, then:

$ vagrant up
$ vagrant ssh