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130 lines
4.6 KiB
ReStructuredText
130 lines
4.6 KiB
ReStructuredText
========================
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Salt 0.8.0 release notes
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========================
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Salt 0.8.0 is ready for general consumption!
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The source tarball is available on GitHub for download:
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A lot of work has gone into salt since the last release just 2 weeks ago, and
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salt has improved a great deal. A swath of new features are here along with
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performance and threading improvements!
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The main new features of salt 0.8.0 are:
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Salt-cp
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Cython minion modules
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Dynamic returners
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Faster return handling
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Lowered required Python version to 2.6
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Advanced minion threading
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Configurable minion modules
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Salt-cp
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=======
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The salt-cp command introduces the ability to copy simple files via salt to
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targeted servers. Using salt-cp is very simple, just call salt-cp with a target
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specification, the source file(s) and where to copy the files on the minions.
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For instance:
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# salt-cp ‘*’ /etc/hosts /etc/hosts
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Will copy the local /etc/hosts file to all of the minions.
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Salt-cp is very young, in the future more advanced features will be added, and
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the functionality will much more closely resemble the cp command.
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Cython minion modules
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=====================
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Cython is an amazing tool used to compile Python modules down to c. This is
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arguably the fastest way to run Python code, and since pyzmq requires cython,
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adding support to salt for cython adds no new dependencies.
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Cython minion modules allow minion modules to be written in cython and
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therefore executed in compiled c. Simply write the salt module in cython and
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use the file extension “.pyx” and the minion module will be compiled when
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the minion is started. An example cython module is included in the main
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distribution called cytest.pyx:
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:blob:`salt/modules/cytest.pyx`
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Dynamic Returners
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=================
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By default salt returns command data back to the salt master, but now salt can
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return command data to any system. This is enabled via the new returners
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modules feature for salt. The returners modules take the return data and sends
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it to a specific module. The returner modules work like minion modules, so any
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returner can be added to the minions.
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This means that a custom data returner can be added to communicate the return
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data so anything from MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, and more!
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There are 2 simple stock returners in the returners directory:
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:blob:`salt/returners`
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The documentation on writing returners will be added to the wiki shortly, and
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returners can be written in pure Python, or in cython.
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Configurable Minion Modules
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===========================
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Minion modules may need to be configured, now the options passed to the minion
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configuration file can be accessed inside of the minion modules via the __opt__
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dict.
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Information on how to use this simple addition has been added to the wiki:
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:ref:`Writing modules <state-modules>`
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The test module has an example of using the __opts__ dict, and how to set
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default options:
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:blob:`salt/modules/test.py`
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Advanced Minion Threading
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=========================
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In 0.7.0 the minion would block after receiving a command from the master, now
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the minion will spawn a thread or multiprocess. By default Python threads are
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used because for general use they have proved to be faster, but the minion can
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now be configured to use the Python multiprocessing module instead. Using
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multiprocessing will cause executions that are CPU bound or would otherwise
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exploit the negative aspects of the Python GIL to run faster and more reliably,
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but simple calls will still be faster with Python threading.
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The configuration option can be found in the minion configuration file:
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:blob:`conf/minion`
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Lowered Supported Python to 2.6
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===============================
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The requirement for Python 2.7 has been removed to support Python 2.6. I have
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received requests to take the minimum Python version back to 2.4, but
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unfortunately this will not be possible, since the ZeroMQ Python bindings do
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not support Python 2.4.
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Salt 0.8.0 is a very major update, it also changes the network protocol slightly
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which makes communication with older salt daemons impossible, your master and
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minions need to be upgraded together!
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I could use some help bringing salt to the people! Right now I only have
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packages for Arch Linux, Fedora 14 and Gentoo. We need packages for Debian and
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people willing to help test on more platforms. We also need help writing more
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minion modules and returner modules. If you want to contribute to salt please
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hop on the mailing list and send in patches, make a fork on GitHub and send in
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pull requests! If you want to help but are not sure where you can, please email
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me directly or post tot he mailing list!
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I hope you enjoy salt, while it is not yet 1.0 salt is completely viable and
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usable!
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-Thomas S. Hatch
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