Spicing up Linux infrastructure management
May 23, 2017

Spicing up Linux infrastructure management

Valentin Höbel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

SaltStack (legacy)

Overall Satisfaction with VMware vRealize Automation, with SaltStack Config

I can not provide many details. However, let's say that SaltStack was used for the whole Linux infrastructure.

SaltStack is able to provide many benefits within one set of tools: Configuration Management, Orchestration, massive parallel sys administration and remote execution and cloud management.

With SaltStack, one is able to manage complex IT infrastructures, consisting of internal and external provides (such as Azure, for example).
  • Configuration Management
  • Parallel system administration
  • Remote Execution
  • Cloud connectors
  • Orchestration
  • Update and patch management
  • Automation
  • Managing network hardware should be more native and easy
  • SaltStack should buffer jobs and, when a client returns, make sure it is executed proberly
  • SaltStack should provide basic pillar and states structures to help get newbies started
  • It is hard to measure since SaltStack is free and open-source software
  • SaltStack makes it possible to manage a large server farm with only few staff members
SaltStack beats all of the tools above since it is a "6-in-one" solution: Config Management, Orchestration, Automation, parallel sys administration, remote execution and cloud management.

The other solutions only solve one or two problems.
SaltStack can be used to manage large server farms and for configuration management. SaltStack does very well with Linux and Unix systems and is also able to manage Windows servers and clients; however, managing Windows is not its biggest strength. SaltStack should not be introduced if the amount of servers to be managed is very small (e.g. less than 3-4).