Pillar of Salt

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# Pillar of Salt

Pillar is an interface for Salt designed to offer global values that can be distributed to all minions. Pillar data is managed in a similar way to the Salt State Tree.

Pillar was added to Salt in version 0.9.8 as an experimental add on.

## Declaring the Master Pillar

The Salt Master server maintains a pillar_roots setup that matches the structure of the file_roots used in the Salt file server. Like the Salt file server the `pillar_roots` option in the master config is based on environments mapping to directories. The pillar data is then mapped to minions based on matchers in a top file which is laid out in the same way as the state top file. Salt pillars can use the same matcher types as the standard top file.

The configuration for the `pillar_roots` in the master config is identical in behavior and function as the `file_roots` configuration:

    pillar_roots:
      base:
        - /srv/pillar

This example configuration declares that the base environment will be located in the `/srv/pillar` directory. The top file used matches the name of the top file used for States, and has the same structure:

`/srv/pillar/top.sls`

    base:
      '*':
        - packages

This further example shows how to enable pcre matching in the salt pillar file. The flexibility enabled by pcre matching is particularly useful in salt pillar files.

`/srv/pillar/packages.sls`

    {% if grains['os'] == 'RedHat' %}
    apache: httpd
    git: git
    {% elif grains['os'] == 'Debian' %}
    apache: apache2
    git: git-core
    {% endif %}

Now this data can be used from within modules, renderers, State SLS files, and more via the shared pillar dict:

    apache:
      pkg:
        - installed
        - name: {{ pillar['apache'] }}

    git:
      pkg:
        - installed
        - name: {{ pillar['git'] }}

## Viewing Minion Pillar

Once the pillar is set up the data can be viewed on the minion via the `pillar.data` module:

    # salt '*' pillar.data

### Footnotes

[1] | Note that you cannot just list key/value-information in `top.sls`.

## Refreshing Pillar Data

When pillar data is changed on the master the minions need to refresh the data locally. This is done with the `saltutil.refresh_pillar` function.

    salt '*' saltutil.refresh_pillar

## Targeting with Pillar

Pillar data can be used when targeting minions. This allows for ultimate control and flexibility when targeting minions.

    salt -I 'somekey:specialvalue' test.ping

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