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Minion

Agent daemon that runs on the remote (managed) node.
Receives commands from the Salt Master and responds with the results, can operate autonomously as well.

Runs directly on top of the OS (Windows, Linux, Mac), requires python (2.7 or 3.5).

Identified by ID which is equal to hostname by default. Override in settings:

id: desired_id

If during the minion lifetime the hostname changes and there is no id setting in the config the minion ID is not updated

Operation

  1. upon first minion start the ID is generated using following procedure
  2. minion generates keypair
  3. sends public key to the Salt Master
  4. waits for Salt Master to accept the key (there are multiple ways to accept the key, e.g., salt-key)
  5. Salt Master generates symmetric key, encrypts it with Salt Minion public key and sends back
  6. Salt Minion has established secure connection
  7. Salt Minion sends grains via secure channel

Salt Minion is ready to accept master requests, all further state file rendering happens on minion