Deploying Salt minions fails with FileNotFound error after upgrading to VMware Aria Automation Config (RaaS) 8.18.3

Products

• VCF Automation
• SaltStack entitlement to VMware
• VMware Salt
• VMware Tanzu Platform Services - SALT
• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

After upgrading to VMware Salt (RaaS) 8.18.3, vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) workflows or Aria Automation blueprints for deploying minions fail. Errors in the logs indicate that the deployment process cannot locate the required minion installation bundles or that the expected file names have changed.

Environment

VMware Salt 8.18.3+

SaltProject 3006+

 

Cause

VMware Salt 8.18.3 introduced changes to how minion bundles are handled following the SaltProject repository migration. The deployment logic has been updated to seek streamlined, "distribution family-based" naming (e.g., RPM or Windows) rather than distribution-specific ones (e.g., RHEL8 vs RHEL9). Additionally, the internal structure of the bundle archive now requires installer files to be nested within a version-specific folder (e.g., 3006.21/).

Resolution

Recreate the minion deployment bundles according to the following specifications for RaaS 8.18.3 and place them in the /etc/salt/cloud.deploy.d directory on the Salt Master:

For Linux (RPM-based)

1. Create a subfolder named after the target Salt version (e.g., 3006.21/).
2. Place the repodata/ directory, SALT-PROJECT-GPG-PUBKEY.pub key, and the Salt .rpm packages inside this folder.
3. Create a tarball of this folder named salt-[VERSION]-rpm.tar.gz (e.g., salt-3006.21-rpm.tar.gz).

For Windows

1. Create a subfolder named after the target Salt version (e.g., 3006.21/).
2. Place the Salt Minion .exe setup file inside this folder.
3. Create a tarball of this folder named salt-[VERSION]-win.tar.gz (e.g., salt-3006.21-win.tar.gz).

Note: This consolidated approach allows the deployment workflow to automate installations across different OS versions using a single bundle per family.