I'm still looking for a configuration management system that doesn't assume that the first step towards managing servers is to add a new "master" server. From the thread, ansible looks promising. In the meantime I'll keep using chef-solo until opscode kills it.
Thanks, it may even be that a salt master is lightweight worth configuring. But I should note there's a difference between "can run" and "intended to run."
It's as much a semantic thing as a technical thing. Instead of thinking about an unconfigured node as a "minion" awaiting orders and provisions from central command, I prefer to think of a node like a stem cell, fully capable of differentiating itself based on signals that it receives. You need a way to update the DNA and a way to send the signals, that's it.
This may seem like a meaningless difference, since there is still value in centralized services (package repositories, security, reporting, monitoring). But it's still a subtly different focus and over time yields different results.
For my part I think the distributed, organic "stem cell" way of thinking will win out over "master/minion" in the long run.
