SaltStack in Cloudera on cloud

Within Cloudera's architecture, SaltStack is the hands of Cloudbreak. While Cloudbreak handles the high-level cloud API calls (such as requesting VMs from AWS), SaltStack takes over the moment the virtual machines are powered on.

SaltStack's primary uses:

Node Provisioning and Configuration

Once Cloudbreak spins up a VM, Salt is used to configure the operating system, set up network parameters, and install the necessary system dependencies required for Cloudera Runtime components.
Software Orchestration

Salt automates the installation and lifecycle of Cloudera Manager and its agents across the cluster. It ensures that every node in a Data Hub or Data Lake is consistent and has the correct packages installed.
Executing Recipes

Cloudera users often use "Recipes"—scripts that run at specific stages of cluster creation (for example, pre-installation or post-cluster setup). Cloudbreak uses Salt to distribute and execute these recipes across hundreds of nodes simultaneously.
Operational Maintenance

Beyond the initial setup, Salt is used for ongoing tasks such as applying security patches, rotating secrets, and updating configuration files across the entire fleet of virtual machines without requiring manual SSH access to each node.