Rendering SLS '...' failed. Please see master log for details. without any actual data in master log

[Yaroslav Molochko]

Hello guys,

I've discovered strange behavior I can't fix for almost a week, when I do any of actions except test.ping to the node I got response:

[DEBUG   ] Sending event - data = {'fun_args': ['master-files'], 'jid': '20150718212000456503', 'return': ['Pillar failed to render with the following messages:', "Rendering SLS 'PSC01SERV008' failed. Please see master log for details."], 'retcode': 5, 'success': True, 'cmd': '_return', '_stamp': '2015-07-18T20:20:03.219076', 'fun': 'state.sls', 'id': 'PSC01SERV008', 'out': 'highstate'}

I've enabled debug log on master, without much success in dscovering where is the problem. I've even completely removed minion pillar for this node, keeping only info come common for all the hosts without such issue and still getting the error.
How can I debug it?

[tim.h...@gmail.com]

Are you running the master in the foreground

salt-master -l debug

? That should produce lots of debug.

Alternatively you can set

pillar_safe_render_error = False

to get that error sent to the minions

Cheers, Tim

[Shane Gibson]

Sounds like a syntax error in one of your Pillar files.  If you can - temporarily move aside your pillar then re-try ... 

I've found it excruciatingly frustrating to troubleshoot basic syntax errors in pillar or state files - still haven't found the magic knobs and switches to twiddle to regurgitate useful errors.  :-( 

~~shane

[Viet Hung Nguyen]

you can run ``salt minionID pillar.items`` to get a shorter output.
The error often appears at the top of that result and it ONLY there.
There is no log for it in master log AFAIK.

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[Yaroslav Molochko]

I'm surprised, cleaning cache on all machines helped... don't know what was that

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[Vitaly Isaev]

This one worked for me:

1.

$ sudo salt 'wks-ololo' pillar.items
wks-ololo:
    ----------
    _errors:
        - Rendering SLS 'elliptics' failed. Please see master log for details.

2.

---
[...]
  image: elliptics
  ports:
    - 1025: 1025
    - 20000: 20000
  groups: {{ elliptics_groups }}
{% if grains.orchestration == "consul" }    <======================
  service:
    name: elliptics-{{ grains.node_type }}
    tag: {{ prefix }}
{% endif %}
  remotes: {{ remotes }}
---
2015-09-28 14:39:16,241 [salt.pillar      ][CRITICAL][6877] Pillar render error: Rendering SLS 'elliptics' failed. Please see master log for details.