Common Issues¶

Common issues encountered during use and development.

Run Salt Minion with Debugging¶

systemctl stop salt-minion
salt-minion -l debug

Run Salt Master with Debugging¶

systemctl stop salt-master
salt-master -l debug

Debug jinja Templates¶

This will enable debug logging with custom messages and variables.

{%- do salt.log.debug('my_var: ' ~ my_var) %}

Minon Frequently Times Out or does Not Connect¶

There is a bug where pillar data needs to be refreshed before a minion can connect. This is solved by forcing a pillar refresh then applying state.

salt {MINION} saltutil.refresh_pillar

Minion did not return. [Not connected].¶

Expresses as salt-call working correctly locally on minion, but command issued from the Salt Master fails with this message. Generally caused by the minion not checking in with the master within the timeout period for the command, or the Salt Master being moved to another server.

Verify the Salt Minion can ping the Salt Master.¶

systemctl stop salt-minion
salt-call test.ping
nc -v -z {MASTER} 4505
nc -v -z {MASTER} 4506

Remove the minion from Salt Master (Salt Master).¶

salt-key -d {MINION}

Restart the Minion (Salt Minion).¶

systemctl restart salt-minion

Re-add to Salt Master (Salt Master).¶

salt-key -a {MINION}

Note

Ping should be successful and both ports should be open. Run Minion in debug mode for more info if re-adding does not work.

Rendering SLS ‘{PILLAR DATA}’ failed: Jinja variable …¶

Be sure to expose required pillar data for nodegroups; otherwise states will fail with the error:

Rendering SLS ‘{PILLAR DATA}’ failed: Jinja variable …

No Top file or External Nodes Data Matches Found¶

Typically caused by bad file resolution or default environment the minion is running in.

Run Minion in debug mode.¶

systemctl stop salt-minion
salt-minion -l debug

Run Master in debug mode.¶

systemctl stop salt-master
salt-master -l debug

Force highstate from master or locally if failed.¶

salt {MINION} state.highstate saltenv=prod
salt-call -l debug state.apply saltenv=prod

Show Avaliable Files to Minions¶

salt-run fileserver.file_list saltenv=dev

Clear Minion Cache¶

Stop the minion and delete cache in /var/cache/salt/minion.

salt-call saltutil.clear_cache
salt {MINION} saltutil.clear_cache

Note

Only the local or remote call needs to be made.
Must run with root perms to execute.