Minion ID configuration/detection

Question

I am really curious about when the minion id loads?

http://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/configuration/minion.html#std:conf_minion-id

Here, it says that the minion id is the system's default hostname.

When does this value get loaded up? Everytime it starts or everytime a change to the system hostname is detected?

What happens if someone comes along and changes the hostname by hand without informing other people which have access to that minion? Does it reload automatically or what?

Answer 1

Here's what documentation has to say regarding ID generation of minion.

I have tried it my self. I was using ubuntu ec2 instance.

• The first time you run the minion it uses FQDN to set the id of the instance, so whatever result of hostname --fqdn was there when minion first started that becomes the ID.
• Subsequent restart the ID does not change even if you change the hostname.
• If you want to change the ID you need to change it manually in minion config

file.