Ansible Create Windows Local User: win_user Module (Complete Guide) — Video Tutorial

How to create local user accounts on Windows with Ansible win_user module. Set passwords, groups, permissions, and manage user lifecycle with playbook examples.

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What you'll learn

How to Create a local user on Windows-like systems with Ansible?
Ansible creates the user account
Parameters
Links
code
execution
idempotency
before execution
after execution
Conclusion

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](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/windows/win_user_module.html) ## 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 ```yaml --- - 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 ```bash ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory wi

About this tutorial

Author: Luca Berton
Difficulty: Beginner
Read time: 5 min
Category: troubleshooting

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