Salt master/minion versus Salt client/server

[ghost]

In the push to get rid of master/slave terminology, we should probably check whether we can do something about "Salt master"/"Salt minion". The default terminology already sidesteps the "slave" issue to some degree, but it's a bit halfhearted.

• The SUMA team currently use "SUSE Manager server" (which is where the Salt master runs) and "Salt client" (In analogy to regular SUMA clients). If necessary to specify, they however still refer to the "Salt master". However, I am not entirely clear to me that the SUMA team's use of "Salt client" is entirely synonymous with the meaning of "Salt minion" (i.e., we'd have to check scoping of the terms [whole machine v/ software component] and whether there is anything special about SUMA's Salt client).
• The SES team use "Salt master"/"Salt minion" just like upstream.

If we move to own terms, I think "Salt server" and "Salt client" would probably make most sense. The term "client" is most likely also easier to understand to non-native speakers than "minion" is (despite the movies). However, it's a bit of an issue to diverge from such basic upstream terminology, also in terms of SEO.

We should probably carry this upstream, and see if they'd be open to changing to something else.

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Toms would additionally like to know whether to capitalize "master" and "minion" (or whatever terms take their place) -> The equivocal feedback seems to be to not capitalize those, except in headlines.

@tomschr / @asettle / @tbazant / @Loquacity

[tomschr]

Thanks Stefan! Much appreciated. 👍

What about proposing this change to the Salt community? I'm not familiar with them, but maybe we should try to suggest such a change to that community first, before we create our own terms. For example, we could suggest something like Salt primary/secondary, Salt client/server (or whatever they like).

[asettle]

Definitely carry this upstream, but I'm in support of it - thanks for filing the bug. Speaking from a SES perspective, it is best that we align entirely with upstream seeing as we are working so hard to align ourselves almost entirely - a language differentiation would cause some confusion. Hopefully we can help drive this change.

[cjschroder]

👍 for server/client. This is from https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/tutorials/walkthrough.html:
"A master server acts as a central control bus for the clients, which are called minions"

[Loquacity]

There is no functional difference between a Salt minion and a Salt client in the SUMA context. We added a note to our Salt Guide about the terminology difference primarily because we point to the official Salt docs in several places throughout that guide, and we wanted to make sure that readers understood they meant the same thing:

As for using Salt master, we sort of sidestep it, because the Salt master always runs on the SUMA Server. Other than one or two places in the Salt Guide where we're explicit about the Salt master, we can use SUMA Server to mean "the system where the Salt master is running". For example:

From the intro to the Salt Guide:

From the Client Cfg Guide:

I support proposing the change upstream 👍

[dariavladykina]

SUMA documentation still contains the unwanted terminology. What do we do about it?

[dariavladykina]

So SUMA docs are going to reflect the change when it happens upstream. Leaving this question until then.