1======================== 2Salt 0.6.0 release notes 3======================== 4 5The Salt remote execution manager has reached initial functionality! Salt is a 6management application which can be used to execute commands on remote sets of 7servers. 8 9The whole idea behind Salt is to create a system where a group of servers can 10be remotely controlled from a single master, not only can commands be executed 11on remote systems, but salt can also be used to gather information about your 12server environment. 13 14Unlike similar systems, like Func and MCollective, Salt is extremely simple to 15setup and use, the entire application is contained in a single package, and the 16master and minion daemons require no running dependencies in the way that Func 17requires Certmaster and MCollective requires activeMQ. 18 19Salt also manages authentication and encryption. Rather than using SSL for 20encryption, salt manages encryption on a payload level, so the data sent across 21the network is encrypted with fast AES encryption, and authentication uses RSA 22keys. This means that Salt is fast, secure, and very efficient. 23 24Messaging in Salt is executed with ZeroMQ, so the message passing interface is 25built into salt and does not require an external ZeroMQ server. This also adds 26speed to Salt since there is no additional bloat on the networking layer, and 27ZeroMQ has already proven itself as a very fast networking system. 28 29The remote execution in Salt is "Lazy Execution", in that once the command is 30sent the requesting network connection is closed. This makes it easier to 31detach the execution from the calling process on the master, it also means that 32replies are cached, so that information gathered from historic commands can be 33queried in the future. 34 35Salt also allows users to make execution modules in Python. Writers of these 36modules should also be pleased to know that they have access to the impressive 37information gathered from PuppetLabs' Facter application, making Salt module 38more flexible. In the future I hope to also allow Salt to group servers based 39on Facter information as well. 40 41All in all Salt is fast, efficient, and clean, can be used from a simple command 42line client or through an API, uses message queue technology to make network 43execution extremely fast, and encryption is handled in a very fast and 44efficient manner. Salt is also VERY easy to use and VERY easy to extend. 45 46You can find the source code for Salt on my GitHub page, I have also set up a 47few wiki pages explaining how to use and set up Salt. If you are using Arch 48Linux there is a package available in the Arch Linux AUR. 49 50GitHub page: |saltrepo| 51 52Wiki: https://github.com/saltstack/salt/wiki 53 54Arch Linux Package: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/salt-git/ 55 56I am very open to contributions, for instance I need packages for more Linux 57distributions as well as BSD packages and testers. 58 59Give Salt a try, this is the initial release and is not a 1.0 quality release, 60but it has been working well for me! I am eager to get your feedback! 61