Register Clients on the Command Line

1. Manual Client Registration

In most cases, Salt clients are registered accurately with the default bootstrap methods. However, you can use Salt to register the client to the SUSE Manager Server manually by editing the Salt minion file on the client, and providing the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server. This method uses ports 4505 and 4506 inbound to the server. This method requires no configuration on the SUSE Manager Server aside from ensuring that these ports are open.

This procedure requires that you have installed the venv-salt-minion (Salt bundle) or the salt-minion package on the Salt client before registration. Both use configuration files in different locations and filenames remain the same. The systemd service filename is different.

Bootstrapping this way will only work if you use the salt-minion being part of the client tools channels or of an official SUSE distributions.

2. Salt Bundle Configuration

Salt Bundle (venv-salt-minion)
  • /etc/venv-salt-minion/

  • /etc/venv-salt-minion/minion

  • /etc/venv-salt-minion/minion.d/NAME.conf

  • systemd service file: venv-salt-minion.service

For more information about the Salt bundle, see Salt Bundle.

Procedure: Registering Clients with Salt Bundle Configuration File
  1. On the Salt client, open the minion configuration file. The configuration file is either located at:

    /etc/venv-salt-minion/minion

    or:

    /etc/venv-salt-minion/minion.d/NAME.conf
  2. In the file add or edit the FQDN of the SUSE Manager Server or Proxy, and the activation key if any. Also add the other configuration parameters listed below.

    master: SERVER.EXAMPLE.COM
    
    grains:
      susemanager:
        activation_key: "<Activation_Key_Name>"
    
    server_id_use_crc: adler32
    enable_legacy_startup_events: False
    enable_fqdns_grains: False
  3. Restart the venv-salt-minion service:

    systemctl restart venv-salt-minion
  4. On the SUSE Manager Server, accept the new client key; replace <client> with the name of your client:

    salt-key -a '<client>'

3. Client Configuration

Client (salt-minion)
  • /etc/salt/

  • /etc/salt/minion

  • /etc/salt/minion.d/NAME.conf

  • systemd service file: salt-minion.service

Procedure: Registering Clients with Salt Minion Configuration File
  1. On the Salt client, open the minion configuration file. The configuration file is either located at:

    /etc/salt/minion

    or:

    /etc/salt/minion.d/NAME.conf
  2. In the file add or edit the FQDN of the SUSE Manager Server or Proxy, and the activation key if any. Also add the other configuration parameters listed below.

    master: SERVER.EXAMPLE.COM
    
    grains:
      susemanager:
        activation_key: "<Activation_Key_Name>"
    
    server_id_use_crc: adler32
    enable_legacy_startup_events: False
    enable_fqdns_grains: False
  3. Restart the salt-minion service:

    systemctl restart salt-minion
  4. On the SUSE Manager Server, accept the new client key; replace <client> with the name of your client:

    salt-key -a '<client>'

For more information about the Salt minion configuration file, see https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/configuration/minion.html.