title: How to seamlessly rename a minion?
body: <p>I am considering to move to <code>salt</code> (currently using <code>ansible</code>) to manage a set of standalone IoT devices (Raspberry Pi in practical terms).</p>
  
  <p>The devices would be installed with a generic image, to which I would add on top the installation of <code>salt</code> (client side) as well as a configuration file pointing to <code>salt-master</code>, which is going to serve state files to be consumed by the minions.</p>
  
  <p>The state files include an HTTP query for a name, which is then applied to the device (as its hostname). The obvious problem is that at that stage the minion has already registered with <code>salt-master</code> under the previous (generic) name.</p>
  
  <p>How to handle such a situation? Specifically: how to propagate the new hostname to <code>salt-master</code>? (just changing the hostname and rebooting did not help, I assume the hostname is bundled, on the server, with the ID of the minion).</p>
  
  <p>The more general question would be whether <code>salt</code> is the right product for such a situatiuon (where setting the state of the minion changes its name, among others)</p>