AnsibleByExample

Remove a local user on Windows-like systems — Ansible module win_user

Beginneransibleusermoduleuser management
2024-01-012By Luca Berton

Lesson 1 of 15 in Foundations

Ansible Foundations to Production — full curriculum
  1. 1. Introduction to Ansible and Automation
  2. 2. Installing and Configuring Ansible
  3. 3. Running Ad-Hoc Commands
  4. 4. Writing Your First Playbook
  5. 5. Understanding and Using Modules
  6. 6. Variables and Facts
  7. 7. Conditionals and Loops
  8. 8. Handlers and Idempotency
  9. 9. Structuring Projects with Roles
  10. 10. Inventory Management
  11. 11. Using Ansible Vault for Secrets
  12. 12. Debugging and Troubleshooting
  13. 13. Real-World Automation Examples
  14. 14. Final Project: Deploy a Web Server
  15. 15. Bonus - What's Next with Ansible?
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How to Remove a local user on Windows-like systems with Ansible?

Ansible remove local 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

The only required is "name", which is the user name. The "state" parameter allows us to create or delete a user. For our use case, we need to use the "absent" option.

Playbook

How to Remove a local user on Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook. I'm going to show you how to automate the deletion of the "example" user on my Playbook Windows machine.

code

---
- name: windows user remove
  hosts: all
  vars:
    usr_name: 'example'
  tasks:
    - name: delete local user
      ansible.windows.win_user:
        name: "{{ usr_name }}"
        state: absent

execution

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

before execution

win_user before execution

after execution

win_user after execution

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Conclusion

Now you know how to Remove a local user on Windows-like systems with Ansible.

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