Word of the Day: SaltStack

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Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms | June 2, 2020 SaltStack SaltStack, often referred to as simply "Salt," is an open source configuration management and orchestration tool for automating repeated system administrative and code deployment tasks. Salt is used in DevOps and SecOps organizations to maintain desired states in distributed IT environments.   Salt users can write their own scripts and programs or they can download prebuilt configurations that other users have contributed to a public repository, such as GitHub. SaltStack scripts are typically written directly in Python, but Salt can also render scripts written in other languages, such as YAML or JSON.   Salt's competitors include Ansible, Chef and Puppet. Salt differentiates itself from other configuration management and automation tools by its speed and ability to execute hundreds -- or even thousands -- of simultaneous tasks.   Salt's configuration management architecture is event-driven and self-healing, which means that the system can both push out updates and respond to problems at the same time. Salt can also operate in agent-based or agentless mode. Playing off the name Salt, the software's components are called salt reactors, minions, grains and pillars. Continue reading about SaltStack... Today's Takeaway "SaltStack Enterprise is also focused on security. It offers users the ability to run firmware checks against known vulnerable versions, as well as scour command-line network configurations to identify network configurations that have gone out of compliance." - Andrew Froehlich Related Terms You Should Know DevOps DevSecOps Python configuration management firmware GitHub event-driven architecture self-healing Chef Puppet Ansible Buzzword Alert data breach Two SaltStack vulnerabilities discovered this spring allowed unauthorized individuals to circumvent access controls.   minions Salt Orchestrate Runner controls the activities of minions -- the individual IT systems that Salt manages.   infrastructure as code SaltStack must reinvent itself as cloud-native automation approaches such as containers and serverless computing gain ground. Do You Speak App Architecture? Do you understand the role of both stateful and stateless components in an application architecture? Test yourself and find out. Take the quiz! Stay in Touch Thank you for reading! For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition (or learning resource) please contact us at: editor@whatIs.com FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter The Word of the Day is published by TechTarget, Inc., 275 Grove Street, Newton, Massachusetts, 02466 US. Click to: Unsubscribe. You are receiving this email because you are a member of TechTarget. When you access content from this email, your information may be shared with the sponsors or future sponsors of that content and with our Partners, see up-to-date Partners List, as described in our Privacy Policy. For additional information, please contact: webmaster@techtarget.com. © 2020 TechTarget, Inc. all rights reserved. Designated trademarks, brands, logos, and service marks are the property of their respective owners. Privacy Policy | Partners List