Salt

Salt, also known as SaltStack, is an open-source infrastructure automation and configuration management platform. It is designed to automate the management and configuration of IT infrastructure, including servers, cloud resources, and network devices.

This competency area includes an understanding of the concepts of salt configuration, salt states, grains, salt pillars, remote execution, orchestration, custom modules and states, event-driven automation, targeting and salt CLI, salt mine, high availability, troubleshooting, integration with other tools, security, scaling, and performance optimization.

Key Competencies:

1. Salt Configuration - Understand the basics of configuring Salt, including setting up the Salt master and minions. Learn how to define configuration files, and become familiar with the default directory structure.
2. Salt States - Gain proficiency in writing Salt states using YAML or Jinja templates. Learn how to create states to manage packages, services, files, and users.
3. Grains - Knowledge of using grains to target specific minions based on their characteristics, such as OS type, hardware, or custom attributes.
4. Salt Pillars - Understanding the usage of Salt pillars to securely store and manage sensitive data, including secrets, API keys, and configuration data. Learn how to distribute pillar data to specific minions based on their roles.
5. Remote Execution - Ability to execute commands, scripts, and custom modules on multiple minions simultaneously. 
6. Orchestration - Explore Salt's orchestration features to create complex workflows that involve multiple systems. Learn how to define orchestration files and use Salt's orchestration runners to coordinate tasks.
7. Custom Modules and States - Discover how to create custom execution modules and state modules to extend Salt's functionality.
8. Event-driven Automation - Ability to set up event-driven automation using Salt's event bus. Understand the use of reactors to trigger actions in response to specific events or conditions.
9. Targeting and Salt CLI - Knowledge of Salt command-line interface (CLI) and its options for targeting minions.
10. Salt Mine - Knowledge of using Salt Mine to collect and cache data from minions. Learn how to query this data for reporting and monitoring purposes.
11. High Availability (HA) - Explore the setup and configuration of Salt in a high-availability environment to ensure fault tolerance and reliability.
12. Troubleshooting - Ability to use Salt's debugging tools and logs effectively.
13. Integration with Other Tools - Ability to integrate Salt with other tools commonly used in DevOps, such as version control systems (e.g., Git), continuous integration servers (e.g., Jenkins), and monitoring solutions (e.g., Prometheus).
14. Security - Implement proper access controls and encryption for communication.
15. Scaling and Performance Optimization - Knowledge of scaling techniques to manage large numbers of minions efficiently. Optimize Salt configurations and processes for improved performance.