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Ryan
Asked: 2013-07-29 09:06:32 +0800 CST

Create user if not exist in Ansible

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I want to make sure a given user always exist in a system, so only create when it is not exist

my current tasks is:

- name: Create default user
action: user name={{ user }} groups={{ group }}  state=present

However, it raise the error when a user already exists, so how to avoid the error when the user account already exist?

ansible

2 Answers

  1. Modules, and therefore, playbooks like the one you show, have to be idempotent to be of any use.

    Repeating the same action several times both with a playbook and a onliner does not result in any errors, as expected:

    $ ansible 10.0.0.2 -u dawud -m user -a "name=sysadm group=1000 state=present"
10.0.0.2 | success >> {
    "append": false,
    "changed": false,
    "comment": "System Administrator,,,",
    "group": 1000,
    "home": "/home/sysadm",
    "name": "sysadm",
    "shell": "/bin/bash-static",
    "state": "present",
    "uid": 1000
}


$ ansible-playbook ansible/sample.yml -u dawud -K
sudo password:

PLAY [10.0.0.2] *********************

GATHERING FACTS *********************
ok: [10.0.0.2]

TASK: [create admin user] *********************
ok: [10.0.0.2]

PLAY RECAP *********************
10.0.0.2                       : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0

    The playbook I have used:

    $ cat ansible/sample.yml
- hosts: 10.0.0.2
  sudo: yes

  tasks:

    - name: create admin user
      action: user name=sysadm group=1000 state=present
    • 11

  2. Or you can just cheat and add 

    ignore_errors: yes

    below the action: user line

    • 1