Creating and deleting users in batches#
The Creating users and user groups on the host section details how to create the initial list of users.
However in some cases it is useful to have a more automated way to create (and delete) users in batches. For example when preparing and cleaning up a group of students at the beginning and end of a semester.
This section details how to create and delete users defined in a CSV file using Ansible Playbooks.
Creating the CSV File#
Create the student.csv file which should contain the username, password and group columns.
Here is an example of such file:
username,password,group
stu-megm1-01,bn3r7RjtOyg15X,megm1
stu-megm1-02,2shgP3xK7aTuMN,megm1
stu-megm1-03,Kh5jn4GuEIFIzY,megm1
stu-megm1-04,g9gBHQjJ4VqQG1,megm1
stu-megm1-05,73O88oFb6B1TB0,megm1
stu-megm1-06,laZubrmgKBNg1x,megm1
stu-megm1-07,gAONEMsgdz28si,megm1
stu-megm1-08,tjlGadyELWj59M,megm1
stu-megm1-09,soIb4txJDPjo1d,megm1
stu-megm1-10,QjhalcW9Uq5wxo,megm1
Warning
Since the fields in the CSV file are delimited by commas, passwords should not contain any , character.
Running the playbook to create users#
To create the users, go to the ansible/ folder and run the student-create.yml playbook with:
ansible-playbook student-create.yml -u ubuntu -e "studentdef=students.csv"
Note
It is possible to pass additional parameters when creating users in batches.
For example if you have a file students-config.yml defining disk quotas for a group of students:
# default quotas for students
quota:
soft: 200G
hard: 250G
You can run the playbook and reference that extra file:
ansible-playbook student-create.yml -u ubuntu -e "studentdef=students.csv" -e @students-config.yml
Running the playbook to delete users#
To delete users, go to the ansible/ folder and run the student-remove.yml playbook with:
ansible-playbook student-remove.yml -u ubuntu -e "studentdef=students.csv"
Warning
You need to provide the exact same CSV file you used to create users in the first place.
Warning
Please note that user home directories are deleted.