Command UI non responsive with windows minions until pings

[gtmacdonald]

The command UI is non responsive until I run

salt '*' test.ping

on the master.

[pass-by-value]

@gtmacdonald What version of salt-master are you running?

[gtmacdonald]

2014.1.0

Seems any interaction with the minions helps, salt '*' pkg.refresh_db did the trick as well.

[pass-by-value]

Thanks for that info @gtmacdonald

I was not able to reproduce this issue on 2014.1.0. When I type a valid Function and enter a Target the Execute button becomes active.

Would you be able to check the browser’s Network pane (after inspect element) and see the status of signature requests (as shown in the screenshot)?

[gtmacdonald]

Hi @pass-by-value,

I've figured out what's going on. I installed a linux minion on the master, created the keys, and everything works as expected. I think my problem might be that I only have windows minions and the command to create the keys doesn't work because PyOpenSSL isn't included in the windows installer.

So how do I create these keys for the windows minions? And where do I put them?

[pass-by-value]

Thanks for that info @gtmacdonald

By keys did you mean the ones shown here? If so then please be advised that salt-master does not run on Windows. Consequently, Halite can also not be run on Windows. You don't have to generate keys on the minions for Halite. As long as the minions can connect to the master that should be it.

I would like to know what you mean when you say the Command UI is not responsive. Are you not able to execute commands through Halite? If you are able to execute commands then do you see anything when you expand Job under Monitor?

[gtmacdonald]

You're welcome.

Ok so if the minions don't need the keys then this bit in the tutorial is misleading; especially for those of us without a minion on the master:

Note
You might wish to target only a specific minion. The example below targets all connected minions.

salt '*' tls.create_self_signed_cert test

I do see jobs appearing, they only look like jobs occurring after the halite ui starts up.

Linux minions immediately show up in the minion list under monitor, whereas the windows minions require a ping first. Before I thought I had to do this ping on the master but it looks like I can ping through halite as well with the ping macro. So there's a workaround, but it would be nice if they showed up immediately. After halite knows about the minion it can be targeted, but until then the execute button won't enable. So until salt '*' test.ping is run i can't execute salt specific_minion test.ping from halite.

[pass-by-value]

Good point @gtmacdonald . This is definitely misleading for someone who isn't running the minion on the master. Edit: It is also unnecessary. It should be changed to salt-call. Salt Api has a good example.

Could you please make that change?

As far as the issue at hand goes, it seems like there might be trouble executing the runner.manage.present job. As per the screenshot you should see the names of any minions returned. I have a minion named halite-demo for example.

Could you please let me know what you see for the runner.manage.present job on your setup?

[gtmacdonald]

salt-call also requires a linux minion. In order to create the keys you have to temporarily setup a minion on the master and use salt-call. Should this command should be moved to a runner?

The master is the only one showing up:

I'm on 2014.1.1. I just noticed a new march release...

[pass-by-value]

Executing that command through the minion is currently the easiest way to get started. You might wanna query about creating a runner for this functionality on Salt's mailing list.

Per the screenshot I was able to run it oob. This might be an environment issue. Try restarting your master and minions. If you still face issues it might be related to a known issue with 2014.1.0 that causes minions to sometimes respond to jobs but not show up when queried via the runner manage.present, if that is the case you should upgrade your master and minions to the latest release.

[gtmacdonald]

That works for you because you have a linux minion. If you have all windows minions, the execute button doesn't activate, even with 2013.1.3.

[pass-by-value]

Hmm, I did try on a Windows (minions) only setup before my earlier reply. And it worked.

What output do you get if you run salt-run manage.present on the CLI with Halite not open? Also if you bring up the developer console and try to login to Halite do you see any errors on the Console or the Network tab of Developer Console?

[gtmacdonald]

I upgraded and rebooted my master server and now everything works as expected. I thought that the dependencies would upgrade when I upgraded the salt master. Sorry for the confusion.