Salt is an infrastructure configuration management tool and orchestration framework designed for large-scale system administration. It functions as a remote execution engine that enables administrators to manage, provision, and enforce declarative states across distributed fleets of servers from a central control point. By utilizing a high-performance message bus, the platform allows for the simultaneous execution of administrative tasks and the maintenance of consistent software configurations across thousands of nodes.
The system distinguishes itself through a flexible architecture that supports both agent-based management and agentless administration. It employs a secure, cryptographic key-based authentication model to verify communication between the controller and managed nodes, while its event-driven orchestration capabilities allow for automated responses to real-time infrastructure changes. Furthermore, the platform provides proxy-based management for resource-constrained devices and hardware that cannot host native agents, ensuring broad compatibility across diverse environments.
Beyond core configuration and remote execution, the platform covers a wide capability surface including cloud infrastructure provisioning, lifecycle management, and support for air-gapped deployments. It offers extensive extensibility through modular plugins and allows for precise targeting of nodes based on system metadata or unique identifiers. The software is designed to be installed via standard package managers and includes features for bundling dependencies to simplify deployment across varied operating systems.
