SaltStack on SUSE Leap 15: Install and Configure Master + Minion

Quick one-liner: Install SaltStack on openSUSE Leap 15 — configure the master, connect minions, and run your first remote command across managed servers.

🤔 Why This Matters

SUSE has historically preferred SaltStack over Ansible for configuration management. Salt is fast, scales well, and uses a push/pull model that works for everything from 5 servers to 5,000.

On openSUSE Leap 15, SaltStack is available from the standard repos.

🔧 Step 1: Install Salt Master

On your central management server:

sudo zypper install salt-master
sudo systemctl enable --now salt-master

Open the firewall if needed:

sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=4505-4506/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

🔧 Step 2: Install Salt Minion

On each server you want to manage:

sudo zypper install salt-minion

Configure the minion to point to the master:

echo "master: salt-master.example.com" | sudo tee /etc/salt/minion.d/master.conf
sudo systemctl enable --now salt-minion

🔧 Step 3: Accept Minion Keys

Back on the master, list pending keys:

sudo salt-key -L

Accept all pending keys:

sudo salt-key -A

🔧 Step 4: Test Connectivity

sudo salt '*' test.ping
sudo salt '*' test.version

You should see responses from all connected minions:

minion01:
    True
minion02:
    True

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