Remove a local group on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_group

How to automate the removal of a local group "accounting" on Windows-like systems using the Ansible module win_group.

March 21, 2022

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#ansible #group #module #user-management #accounting #authorization #authentication #windows

How to Remove a local group on Windows-like systems 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.

Note: Be very careful about typing the right group name because the delete operation is irreversible!

Ansible Remove a group on Windows-like systems

ansible.windows.win_group
Add or remove groups

Today we’re talking about Ansible module win_group. The full name is ansible.windows.win_group , 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 adds and removes local groups. For Linux target use the group module instead.

Parameters

name string - group name
state string - present/absent
description string - description of the group

The only required is “name”, which is the group name. The “state” parameter allows us to remove or delete a group, in our use case we need to specify “absent” to remove a group. The “description” parameter allows you to specify a description of the group, it’s not necessary in this use case.

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demo

How to remove a local group on Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook.

I’m going to show you how to automate the deletion of the “accounting” group on my demo Windows machine.

code

---
- name: windows group remove
  hosts: all
  vars:
    grp_name: 'accounting'
  tasks:
    - name: remove group
      ansible.windows.win_group:
        name: "{{ grp_name }}"
        state: absent

execution

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

before execution

win_group before execution

after execution

win_group after execution

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Recap

Now you know how to remove a local group on Windows-like systems with Ansible. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, Website, Twitter, and Substack to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.