Create Local User Accounts on Windows with Ansible Playbooks

How to Create a local user on Windows-like systems with Ansible?

I’m going to show you a live Playbook with some simple Ansible code. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot

Ansible creates the user account

ansible.windows.win_user Manages local Windows user accounts

Today we’re talking about Ansible module win_user. The full name is ansible.windows.win_user, which means that is part of the collection of modules specialized to interact with Windows target host. It’s a module pretty stable and out for years. It works in Windows and Windows Server operating systems. It manages local Windows user accounts. For Linux target use the user module instead.

Parameters

• name string - user name
• state string - present/absent
• password string - cleartext password
• description string - description of the group
• groups list - list of groups to adds or removes
• update_password string - always / on_create
• password_never_expires boolean - no / yes
• password_expired string - yes - change at next login / no
• account_locked / account_disabled - no /yes

The only required is “name”, which is the user name. The “state” parameter allows us to create or delete a user, in our use case the default it’s already set to “present” to create a user. The “password” set the password in cleartext. So easily specify what password assign to the user, no hash function are needed. The “description” parameter allows you to specify a description of the user, it’s not mandatory but sometimes is useful. The “groups” parameter allows you to add or remove the user from this list of groups. The “update_password” parameter specifies when the module will update the user password. “always” option will update passwords if they differ, “on_create” will only set the password for newly created users. Let me highlight also some parameters about password expiration “password_never_expires” to sets the password to never expire, or “password_expired” force the user to change the password at the next login. You could also lock or disable the account using “account_locked” and “account_disabled” parameters.

Links

• ansible.windows.win_user

Playbook

How to create a local user on Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook. I’m going to show you how to automate the creation of the “example” user member of the Users group on my Playbook Windows machine.

code

---
- name: windows user add
  hosts: all
  vars:
    usr_name: 'example'
    usr_password: 'EfY#Qs9*BWy9?'
    usr_groups: "Users"
  tasks:
    - name: create local user
      ansible.windows.win_user:
        name: "{{ usr_name }}"
        password: "{{ usr_password }}"
        groups: "{{ usr_groups }}"
        update_password: on_create
        password_expired: true

execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory windows/user_add.yml
PLAY [windows user add] ***************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [create local user] **************************************************************************
changed: [WindowsServer]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer              : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

idempotency

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory windows/user_add.yml
PLAY [windows user add] ***************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [create local user] **************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer              : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
ansible-pilot $

before execution

after execution

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Conclusion

Now you know how to create a local user on Windows-like systems with Ansible. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, and Website, X (formerly Twitter) to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.

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