Enable user account - Ansible module user
How to enable a user without password lock and with the appropriate shell in Linux.


How to Enable a user account with Ansible?
I’m going to show you a live demo with some simple Ansible code. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.
Ansible enable user account
Today we’re talking about the Ansible module user
.
The full name is ansible.builtin.user, which means that is part of the collection of modules “builtin” with ansible and shipped with it.
It’s a module pretty stable and out for years, it manages user accounts.
It supports a huge variety of Linux distributions, SunOS and macOS, and FreeBSD.
For Windows, use the ansible.windows.win_user
module instead.
Parameters
- name string - username
- state string - present/absent
- password_lock boolean - no/yes
- shell string - “/bin/bash”
This module has many parameters to perform any task.
The only required is “name”, which is the username.
The parameter “state” allows us to create or delete a user.
The “password_lock” parameter specifies to unlock the user password if locked.
This parameter uses the passwd
tool to change a password by changing it to a value that matches no possible encrypted value (it adds a ´!´ at the beginning of the password). To enable our user obviously we need to disable this parameter.
The “shell” parameter specifies the user shell. Two very special are the nologin
and false
shell. Apply the value of “/bin/bash” is going to restore user access.
The Best Resources For Ansible
Video Course
Printed Book
eBooks
- Ansible by Examples: 200+ Automation Examples For Linux and Windows System Administrator and DevOps
- Ansible For Windows By Examples: 50+ Automation Examples For Windows System Administrator And DevOps
- Ansible For Linux by Examples: 100+ Automation Examples For Linux System Administrator and DevOps
- Ansible Linux Filesystem By Examples: 40+ Automation Examples on Linux File and Directory Operation for Modern IT Infrastructure
- Ansible For Containers and Kubernetes By Examples: 20+ Automation Examples To Automate Containers, Kubernetes and OpenShift
- Ansible For Security by Examples: 100+ Automation Examples to Automate Security and Verify Compliance for IT Modern Infrastructure
- Ansible Tips and Tricks: 10+ Ansible Examples to Save Time and Automate More Tasks
- Ansible Linux Users & Groups By Examples: 20+ Automation Examples on Linux Users and Groups Operation for Modern IT Infrastructure
- Ansible For PostgreSQL by Examples: 10+ Examples To Automate Your PostgreSQL database
- Ansible For Amazon Web Services AWS By Examples: 10+ Examples To Automate Your AWS Modern Infrastructure
demo
Let’s jump into a real-life Ansible Playbook to enable a user without password lock and with the appropriate shell.
code
- enable.yml
---
- name: user module demo
hosts: all
become: true
vars:
myuser: "example"
tasks:
- name: enable user
ansible.builtin.user:
name: "{{ myuser }}"
state: present
password_lock: false
shell: "/bin/bash"
output
$ ansible-playbook -i demo/inventory enable\ user\ account/user.yml
PLAY [user module demo] ***************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [enable user] ********************************************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
verification
# getent passwd | grep example
example:x:1002:1002:Ansible example:/home/example:/bin/bash
# passwd -S example
example PS 2021-10-04 0 99999 7 -1 (Password set, SHA512 crypt.)
# grep example /etc/shadow
example:$6$mysecretsalt$MIJffjeQyfrKKrGkprGrDL/g2mCJa53koLmYQuuLmY9y37pDvGKPXU1Ov3RbMi.tpQ9cWvxAzUVtBLe7KrZoU.:18904:0:99999:7:::
Recap
Now you know how to enable a user without a password lock and with the appropriate shell. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, Website, Twitter, and Substack to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.
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