Salt Dash

Read-only web interface to read from Salt's external job cache using the pgjsonb returner.

Development

Pre-requisites

• Node.js for building the front-end.
• Pipenv for the back-end.
• A Postgresql database

Installation

git clone git@github.com:lincolnloop/saltdash.git
cd saltdash
make all              # download dependencies and build the world
$EDITOR saltdash.yml  # change settings as needed
pipenv shell          # activate the Python virtual environment
saltdash migrate      # setup the database
saltdash runserver    # run a development server

Client-side

Uses parcel. To start a development environment with live reloading, run:

cd client
yarn run watch

Running in Production

pip install saltdash

saltdash runserver is not suitable for production. A production-level webserver is included and can be started with saltdash serve. If Docker is more your speed, there's a Dockerfile as well.

⚠️ The built-in webserver does not handle HTTPS. The default settings assume the app is deployed behind a proxy which is terminating HTTPS connections and properly handling headers. If this is not the case, you should read this and take appropriate actions.

Configuration

Configuration can be done via environment variables, a file, or a combination of both thanks to Goodconf. By default it will look for a YAML file named saltdash.yml in /etc/saltdash/ or the current directory. You can also specify a configuration file with the -C or --config flags. saltdash-generate-config can be used to generate a sample config file containing the following variables:

• DEBUG
  Enable debugging.
  type: bool
• SECRET_KEY REQUIRED
  a long random string you keep secret https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.2/ref/settings/#secret-key
  type: str
• DATABASE_URL
  type: str
  default: postgres://localhost:5432/salt
• ALLOWED_HOSTS
  Hosts allowed to serve the site https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.2/ref/settings/#allowed-hosts
  type: list
  default: ['*']
• HIDE_OUTPUT
  List of modules to hide the output from in the web interface.
  type: list
  default: ['pillar.*']
• GITHUB_TEAM_ID
  type: str
• GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
  type: str
• GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET
  type: str
• SENTRY_DSN
  type: str
• LISTEN
  Socket for webserver to listen on.
  type: str
  default: 127.0.0.1:8077

GitHub Team authentication is included by setting the relevant GITHUB_* variables.

You'll need to setup an OAuth App at https://github.com/organizations/<org>/settings/applications with a callback URL in the form: https://your-site.example.com/auth/complete/github-team/

To retrieve your team IDs:

1. Create a token at GitHub
2. curl -H "Authorization: token <token>" https://api.github.com/orgs/<org>/teams

Setting up Salt

Once you've setup a Postgresql database using saltdash migrate, connect Salt's external job cache to the database by adding the following lines to /etc/salt/master.d/job_cache.conf:

# Replace items in brackets with actual values
master_job_cache: pgjsonb
returner.pgjsonb.host: [db-host]
returner.pgjsonb.pass: [db-password]
returner.pgjsonb.db: [db-database-name]
returner.pgjsonb.port: [db-port]
returner.pgjsonb.user: [db-user]

Restart your salt-master and all future jobs should get stored in the database.

If you have lots of jobs, you'll probably want to purge the cache periodically. A helper command is provided to do just that, run:

saltdash purge_job_cache [days_older_than_to_purge]

If you want to automate this, use the --no-input flag to bypass the confirmation prompt.

Protecting Secrets

It is very easy to accidentally expose secrets in Salt via the logs and/or console output. The same applies for Saltdash. Since secrets are often stored in encrypted pillar data, by default the output from any pillar.* calls is hidden via the HIDE_OUTPUT setting. If you have additional modules you know expose secret data, they should be added to the list.

There are many other ways secrets can leak, however. A few general tips (which are good practice whether you use Saltdash or not).

• Set show_changes: false on any file.* actions which deal with sensitive data.
• Set hide_output: true on any cmd.* state which may output sensitive data.
• When working with files, use templates or pillar_contents when appropriate.
• Avoid passing secrets as arguments to modules or states. Typically Salt can read them from a pillar or config instead.

Attributions

Icon by BornSymbols used under CCBY license.