{"id":991,"date":"2021-08-09T11:04:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T10:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nine30.info\/?p=991"},"modified":"2021-08-09T11:04:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T10:04:22","slug":"vra-saltstack-config-configure-git-fileserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nine30.nxt70.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/09\/vra-saltstack-config-configure-git-fileserver\/","title":{"rendered":"vRA SaltStack Config – Configure git fileserver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Salt relies on files (e.g. State files, Reactor config files, Pillars, etc.), for this reason it comes with a simple file server<\/strong> suitable for distributing files to the Salt Minions. The file server is a stateless ZeroMQ server that comes with the Salt Master. The main goal of the Salt file server is to present files for use in the Salt state system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salt Master supports different file server backends<\/strong>. File server backends allow the Salt file server to act as a transparent bridge to external resources. A good example of this is the git<\/code> backend, which allows Salt to serve files sourced from one or more git repositories, but there are several others as well. Here<\/a> you can access the full list of Salt’s file server backends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post we will configure Salt Master to integrate with git backend, specifically I tested this procedure with GitHub, but it is applicable to any git. Before jumping into the process it is good to mention that the git file server backend is named gitfs<\/code> and it can be enabled by adding git<\/code>fs to the fileserver_backend<\/a><\/code> list and configuring one or more repositories in the gitfs_remotes<\/code><\/a> parameter in a Salt Master configuration file. Branches and tags become Salt fileserver environments. A more experienced Salt user suggested me to start with a simple repository without branches and use different repos for prod and dev Salt instances. I am transferring this piece of wisdom to you even though I not really following it in my lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Install Dependencies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here we assume you have a working instance of Salt Master and thus you have Python and Pip<\/a> on your system, so just make sure they are updated. The procedure in this post is tested for vRA SaltStack Config 8.4 (installed via vRLCM) running on PhotonOS 3.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Both pygit2<\/a> and GitPython<\/a> are supported Python interfaces to git. If compatible versions of both are installed, pygit2 is preferred. In this scenario, GitPython can be forced using the gitfs_provider<\/code><\/a> parameter in the master config file (we cover this later in the “Configure the git backend” section). A longtime Salt user suggested me to use GitPython and I am following his advice here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

GitPython requires the git CLI<\/code> utility to work. If GitPython is installed from a system package, then git should already be installed, but if installed via Pip then it may still be necessary to install git separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Install git:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

yum install git<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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Install GitPython:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
pip3 install gitpython<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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If you have any issue related to GitPython you can refer to this<\/a> walkthrough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Configure the git backend<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The very minimum configuration to start using git backend requires two parameters (fileserver_backend<\/code> and gitfs_remotes<\/code>) to be set in a master configuration file. Rather than adding these parameters in the \/etc\/salt\/master.d\/raas.conf<\/code> file that comes with the vRLCM installation, it is a good idea to create a new configuration file dedicated to the gitfs<\/code> backend, we just need to make sure the new file name comes before “raas.conf” in the alphabetical order. This ensures that git backend configurations are picked from our new configuration file and any other git backend configuration specified in other file(s) (having a name that comes after in the alphabetical order ) is ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Create a new configuration file, in my case I named it gitfs.conf<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
vi \/etc\/salt\/master.d\/gitfs.conf<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Add the following configurations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
fileserver_backend:\n  - sseapi\n  - roots\n  - gitfs\n\ngitfs_provider: gitpython\n\ngitfs_interval: 60\n\ngitfs_base: main\n\ngitfs_root: \/\n\ngitfs_mountpoint: \/\n\ngitfs_remotes:\n - <your git repo URL><\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Here<\/a> is the documentation for all the supported gitfs<\/code> parameters, in this post I’ll just focus on the two mandatory parameters and the gitfs_provider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n