SaltStack is license-free software from the Apache Software Foundation that can be used across a range of platforms. It enables administrators to conduct remote maintenance, bring about predefined target states and start checks – both in their own server center as well as in an external cloud (independent of the provider). Among the main advantages of SaltStack are its easy installation, quick control of communication and the possibility to manage a range of servers in parallel.
When compared with similar systems like Terraform or Puppet, SaltStack excels with its versatile application options and speed. But the principle is the same: using a central server, the administrator defines the configuration of other computers. The configuration management software then implements these settings on the individual clients. To communicate between servers and clients, SaltStack uses the messaging libraryZeroMQ. This allows large and small volumes of data to be distributed quickly. Communication is protected via data encryption with the symmetrical encryption technology AES. Reliable Asynchronous Event Transport (RAET), implemented in 2014, provides additional security for data transmission.
The actual configurations with SaltStack are made via a text file in YAML format. The simple markup language enables the representation of structured data in a sequential format. Using the programming language Python, you are able to combine many configuration commands ready for execution with SaltStack.