Create user if not exist in Ansible

Question

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?

Answer 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

Answer 2

Or you can just cheat and add

ignore_errors: yes  

below the action: user line