Saltpad: A saltstack Web GUI

Presentation of SaltPad, a modern web User Interface for Saltstack. Saltstack is a great configuration management tool, but not very accessible for newcomers and non "Configuration Management" experts. SaltPad aims to fill the gap by offering a clean, simple interface to manage the different aspects of Salt, making it ​easier​ to start​ with SaltStack and ​manage​ your SaltStack cluster day after day. If offers a nice reporting view for jobs, especially for highstate jobs; ​helps​ you ​launch​ jobs and define predefined jobs, that can be launched with a single button; and finally, a dashboard for a global ​view​ of your cluster. SaltPad is a great tool to help empower people to be autonomous on deployment and have visibility on the stack and deployment formulas. At first developed​ with a classical Python Stack, SaltPad has been rewritten as a Single App Page with React. Its combination with the websocket interface of salt-api, simplifies​ the implementation and adds the niceties of a reactive interface.

Transcript

1. SALTPAD: A WEB GUI FELD Boris - @cfgmgmtcamp
2. ABOUT ME • Python Dev / sqreen.io • DevOps • lothiraldan
3. WHY A WEB GUI?
4. ❤ SALTSTACK
5. SALT -V ‘*’ PKG.INSTALL OPENSSL —REFRESH=TRUE
6. SALT -V ‘*’ TEST.VERSION
7. SALT-CLOUD -M MAPFILE
8. DISLIKE SALTSTACK
9. ONE OR MORE REQUISITE ERROR ?
10. WHERE IS IT ?
11. HO IT’S HERE
12. DEV&OPS FRIENDLY • CLI is efficient, but… • Not QA / Frontend Dev / Backend dev friendly
13. OBJECTIVES • Improve the UX • Decrease the time needed
14. HIGHSTATE OUTPUT
15. DO WE NEED TO DISPLAY ALL OUTPUT?
16. SUCCESS ID: working_file Function: file.managed Name: /etc/working_file Result: True Comment: File /etc/working_file is in the correct state Started: 11:12:00.785722 Duration: 3.396 ms Changes:
17. SUCCESS ID: working_file Function: file.managed Name: /etc/working_file Result: True Comment: File /etc/working_file is in the correct state Started: 11:12:00.785722 Duration: 3.396 ms Changes: NOISE ✖
18. CHANGES ID: changing_file Function: file.managed Name: /etc/changing_file Result: True Comment: File /etc/changing_file updated Started: 11:12:00.789479 Duration: 3.244 ms Changes: ---------- diff: <show_diff=False>
19. CHANGES ID: changing_file Function: file.managed Name: /etc/changing_file Result: True Comment: File /etc/changing_file updated Started: 11:12:00.789479 Duration: 3.244 ms Changes: ---------- diff: <show_diff=False> SMALL SIGNAL ✔
20. ERRORS ID: bad_file Function: file.managed Name: /etc/badfile Result: False Comment: User inexistant is not available Started: 11:12:00.802779 Duration: 1.809 ms Changes:
21. ERRORS ID: bad_file Function: file.managed Name: /etc/badfile Result: False Comment: User inexistant is not available Started: 11:12:00.802779 Duration: 1.809 ms Changes: HUGE SIGNAL ✔
22. REQUISITE ERROR ID: dependency_file Function: file.managed Name: /etc/dependency_file Result: False Comment: One or more requisite failed: sample.bad_file Started: Duration: Changes:
23. REQUISITE ERROR ID: dependency_file Function: file.managed Name: /etc/dependency_file Result: False Comment: One or more requisite failed: sample.bad_file Started: Duration: Changes: NOISE ✖
24. SALTPAD V1
25. SALTPAD V1
26. SALTPAD V1 • Classic web interface • Python / Flask which request salt-api and render html
27. ARCHITECTURE
28. FEEDBACK • Used every day by at least one company • Small but nice feedback from community • ~60 issues
29. USAGE • ~ 60 minions • Deployment every day • ~ 10 000 jobs
30. BEYOND HIGHSTATE OUTPUT • Generic job output • Minion keys management • Job launching • Job templates
31. ISSUES
32. IT’S PYTHON ! • Compatibility asked with python 2.6 • What about python 3 • Windows compatibility • Bug with six module • Bug with werkzeug
33. IT’S WSGI! • Difficult to configure. • Requires to configure gunicorn + nginx or apache + ssl. • Not easy when it’s your job, so when it’s not your job…
34. NO DB! • Use directly the salt-api • No DB to configure • Stored templates in salt-master configuration
35. REQUEST / RESPONSE BASED • Lack of responsiveness due to the traditional request / response design. • Community asked for better UX • Launch a job and stay on the launch page • Have the jobs update their result in near real-time • Requires more JS
36. IT’S SLOW • Some (most) pages end up in timeout because of salt-api requests • Ends up with « working » pages and « not working » pages.
37. A BETTER WAY
38. SALT DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
39. IT’S EVENT BASED!
40. SALT EVENTS • Each event is shared through an event-bus • You can plug reactors (code to respond to events) • See the real-time events across the infrastructure (salt-run state.event pretty=True) • Exposed via salt-api
41. SALTPAD V2 • Use events forwarded by web socket endpoint!
42. NEW ARCHITECTURE
43. NEW ARCHITECTURE • Developed as a Single App Page with React. • Listen to the event endpoint and update the view.
44. SALTPAD V2
45. REACT FTW • React architecture make it easy to create a real- time application. • Receive an event through the event endpoint. • Parse the event and update the global state. • Re-render all the view!
46. EASIER INSTALL • Drop the archive • Create the settings file • Configure your web server
47. BETTER UX • See the status of your last jobs while checking something else • Mark jobs to retrieve them later
48. PROBLEMS • Not compatible yet with 2015.8.3 :( • People don’t read README • Still ALPHA!
49. JOB MASTER CACHE • Salt store job output on disk by default • Easy to saturate, df -h / df -i • Use alternate job master cache like Postgresql
50. FEATURES
51. DEMO
52. CULTURAL IMPACT
53. ONE CLICK DEPLOYMENT
54. CLEAN OUTPUT
55. HTTPS://SALT/JOB_RESULT/ 20160127081900219150 Job result URL
56. JOB LAUNCHING DOC
57. OTHER UI • Molten: https://github.com/martinhoefling/molten • Foreman: https://github.com/theforeman/ foreman_salt • Halite: https://github.com/saltstack/halite [Deprecated]
58. WHAT NEXT? • Permissions / Groups • Minions keys management • Better data viz of job result • Leverage group for topology viz • Need for much more
59. WHAT IS YOUR NEEDS?
60. HELP IMPROVE DX • Developer Experience is important! • Experiment and innovate! • Ideas: • Saltstack linter • Saltstack interactive tutorial in the browser • …
61. I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK!
62. THANK YOU Questions ? lothiraldan tinyclues/saltpad sqreen.io