Managing packages using the default package manager

After learning about package repositories, it is now time that you move on to learn about how to use Salt to manage packages. There are various types of operating system platforms being used, and Salt does an excellent job of providing a common interface to all of them. In this recipe, you will learn about how to manage packages with Salt.

How to do it...

We will use the same minions as the previous recipe. Create a new state directory called base in the staging environment and create a directory called rpm in the base directory. We downloaded the collectd-5.4.0-1.el6.x86_64.rpm file and stored it in the rpm directory:

1. Create and edit the /opt/salt-cookbook/staging/base/ssh_packages.sls file to have the following entries:

   {% if grains['lsb_distrib_id'] == 'CentOS' %}
   openssh-clients:
   {% elif grains['lsb_distrib_id'] == 'Ubuntu' %}
   openssh-client:
   {% endif %}
     pkg.installed

2. Create and edit the /opt/salt-cookbook/staging/base/ruby_packages.sls...