Yes, Salt can Salt itself!

Install a minion

Install a master.

Install a syndic.

Install salt cloud.

Install salt-ssh with roster file. Configure pillar data under salt:ssh_roster to feed the template.

Install salt api Requisite: Configure salt-master with rest_cherrypy or rest_tornado.

Install a minion and configure it in standalone mode.

Install gitfs backend dulwich dependencies. Set salt:master:gitfs_provider: dulwich in your pillar.

Install gitfs backend GitPython dependenciess. Set salt:master:gitfs_provider: gitpython in your pillar.

Install ssh keys to be used by gitfs

Install gitfs backend libgit2/pygit2 dependenciess. Set salt:master:gitfs_provider: pygit2 in your pillar. For EL distributions, pygit is installed from packages from EPEL.

Enable the official saltstack package repository in order to always benefit from the latest version. This state currently only works on Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL 6/7 and aims to implement the installation recommendations of the official documentation.

Undo the effects of salt.pkgrepo.

Clone selected Salt formulas Git repositories under /srv/formulas and makes them available in the relevant file_roots settings. Pillar data can be used to customize all paths, URLs, etc.

Here's a minimal pillar sample installing two formulas in the base environment.

salt_formulas:
  list:
    base:
      - salt-formula
      - openssh-formula

See pillar.example for an exhaustive list of settings available via pillar. Note that by default this state:

• downloads the latest formulas from the saltstack-formulas project on GitHub.
• does not update the local repositories after the initial clone. This is a safety measure since you do not control how the official repositories evolve.

If you configure the state to download the formulas from repositories that you control, then you can safely enable the salt_formulas:git_opts:default:update pillar setting to True.

Every option available in the templates can be set in pillar. Settings under 'salt' will be overridden by more specific settings under salt['master'], salt['minion'] or salt['cloud']. Options specified in salt['minion'] which are not present in the default configuration file will be added to the end of the configuration file.

salt:
  ret_port: 4506
  master:
    user: saltuser
    ...
  minion:
    user: saltuser
    ...
  cloud:
    providers: ec2
    ...

Additional templates can be added by the user under salt/files/minion.d and master.d. This might be useful if, for example, a recently-added configuration option is not yet provided by the default template.

Executing the provided Vagrantfile will create a Ubuntu 14.04 VM, add the default Saltstack Repository and install the current stable version.

The folders inside the VM will be set up in a way that enables you to simply execute 'sudo salt "*" state.highstate' to apply the salt formula to the VM, using the pillar.example config. You can check /etc/salt/ for results.

Remember, you will have to run state.highstate or state.sls salt.(master|minion|cloud) manually.