Chapter 8. Managing user groups using Ansible playbooks This section introduces user group management using Ansible playbooks. A user group is a set of users with common privileges, password policies, and other characteristics. A user group in Identity Management (IdM) can include: IdM users other IdM user groups external users, which are users that exist outside of IdM The section includes the following topics: The different group types in IdM Direct and indirect group members Ensuring the presence of IdM groups and group members using Ansible playbooks Using Ansible to enable AD users to administer IdM Ensuring the presence of member managers in IDM user groups using Ansible playbooks Ensuring the absence of member managers in IDM user groups using Ansible playbooks 8.1. The different group types in IdM IdM supports the following types of groups: POSIX groups (the default) POSIX groups support Linux POSIX attributes for their members. Note that groups that interact with Active Directory cannot use POSIX attributes. POSIX attributes identify users as separate entities. Examples of POSIX attributes relevant to users include uidNumber , a user number (UID), and gidNumber , a group number (GID). Non-POSIX groups Non-POSIX groups do not support POSIX attributes. For example, these groups do not have a GID defined. All members of this type of group must belong to the IdM domain. External groups Use external groups to add group members that exist in an identity store outside of the IdM domain, such as: A local system An Active Directory domain A directory service External groups do not support POSIX attributes. For example, these groups do not have a GID defined. Table 8.1. User groups created by default Group name Default group members ipausers All IdM users admins Users with administrative privileges, including the default admin user editors This is a legacy group that no longer has any special privileges trust admins Users with privileges to manage the Active Directory trusts When you add a user to a user group, the user gains the privileges and policies associated with the group. For example, to grant administrative privileges to a user, add the user to the admins group. Warning Do not delete the admins group. As admins is a pre-defined group required by IdM, this operation causes problems with certain commands. In addition, IdM creates user private groups by default whenever a new user is created in IdM. For more information about private groups, see Adding users without a private group . 8.2. Direct and indirect group members User group attributes in IdM apply to both direct and indirect members: when group B is a member of group A, all users in group B are considered indirect members of group A. For example, in the following diagram: User 1 and User 2 are direct members of group A. User 3, User 4, and User 5 are indirect members of group A. Figure 8.1. Direct and Indirect Group Membership If you set a password policy for user group A, the policy also applies to all users in user group B. 8.3. Ensuring the presence of IdM groups and group members using Ansible playbooks The following procedure describes ensuring the presence of IdM groups and group members - both users and user groups - using an Ansible playbook. Prerequisites You know the IdM administrator password. You have configured your Ansible control node to meet the following requirements: You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later. You have installed the ansible-freeipa package. The example assumes that in the ~/ MyPlaybooks / directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server. The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password . The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica. The users you want to reference in your Ansible playbook exist in IdM. For details on ensuring the presence of users using Ansible, see Managing user accounts using Ansible playbooks . Procedure Create an inventory file, for example inventory.file , and define ipaserver in it: Create an Ansible playbook file with the necessary user and group information: --- - name: Playbook to handle groups hosts: ipaserver vars_files: - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml tasks: - name: Create group ops with gid 1234 ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: ops gidnumber: 1234 - name: Create group sysops ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: sysops user: - idm_user - name: Create group appops ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: appops - name: Add group members sysops and appops to group ops ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: ops group: - sysops - appops Run the playbook: Verification You can verify if the ops group contains sysops and appops as direct members and idm_user as an indirect member by using the ipa group-show command: Log into ipaserver as administrator: Display information about ops : The appops and sysops groups - the latter including the idm_user user - exist in IdM. Additional resources See the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/README-group.md Markdown file. 8.4. Using Ansible to add multiple IdM groups in a single task You can use the ansible-freeipa ipagroup module to add, modify, and delete multiple Identity Management (IdM) user groups with a single Ansible task. For that, use the groups option of the ipagroup module. Using the groups option, you can also specify multiple group variables that only apply to a particular group. Define this group by the name variable, which is the only mandatory variable for the groups option. Complete this procedure to ensure the presence of the sysops and the appops groups in IdM in a single task. Define the sysops group as a nonposix group and the appops group as an external group. Prerequisites On the control node: You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later. You have installed the ansible-freeipa package. You have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server in the ~/ MyPlaybooks / directory. You are using RHEL 9.3 and later. You have stored your ipaadmin_password in the secret.yml Ansible vault. Procedure Create your Ansible playbook file add-nonposix-and-external-groups.yml with the following content: Run the playbook: Additional resources The group module in ansible-freeipa upstream docs 8.5. Using Ansible to enable AD users to administer IdM Follow this procedure to use an Ansible playbook to ensure that a user ID override is present in an Identity Management (IdM) group. The user ID override is the override of an Active Directory (AD) user that you created in the Default Trust View after you established a trust with AD. As a result of running the playbook, an AD user, for example an AD administrator, is able to fully administer IdM without having two different accounts and passwords. Prerequisites You know the IdM admin password. You have installed a trust with AD . The user ID override of the AD user already exists in IdM. If it does not, create it with the ipa idoverrideuser-add 'default trust view' ad_user@ad.example.com command. The group to which you are adding the user ID override already exists in IdM . You are using the 4.8.7 version of IdM or later. To view the version of IdM you have installed on your server, enter ipa --version . You have configured your Ansible control node to meet the following requirements: You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later. You have installed the ansible-freeipa package. The example assumes that in the ~/ MyPlaybooks / directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server. The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password . The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica. Procedure Navigate to your ~/ MyPlaybooks / directory: Create an add-useridoverride-to-group.yml playbook with the following content: In the example: Secret123 is the IdM admin password. admins is the name of the IdM POSIX group to which you are adding the ad_user@ad.example.com ID override. Members of this group have full administrator privileges. ad_user@ad.example.com is the user ID override of an AD administrator. The user is stored in the AD domain with which a trust has been established. Save the file. Run the Ansible playbook. Specify the playbook file, the file storing the password protecting the secret.yml file, and the inventory file: Additional resources ID overrides for AD users /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/README-group.md /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/user Using ID views in Active Directory environments Enabling AD users to administer IdM 8.6. Ensuring the presence of member managers in IdM user groups using Ansible playbooks The following procedure describes ensuring the presence of IdM member managers - both users and user groups - using an Ansible playbook. Prerequisites On the control node: You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later. You have installed the ansible-freeipa package. The example assumes that in the ~/ MyPlaybooks / directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server. The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password . The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica. You must have the name of the user or group you are adding as member managers and the name of the group you want them to manage. Procedure Create an inventory file, for example inventory.file , and define ipaserver in it: Create an Ansible playbook file with the necessary user and group member management information: Run the playbook: Verification You can verify if the group_a group contains test as a member manager and group_admins is a member manager of group_a by using the ipa group-show command: Log into ipaserver as administrator: Display information about managergroup1 : Additional resources See ipa host-add-member-manager --help . See the ipa man page on your system. 8.7. Ensuring the absence of member managers in IdM user groups using Ansible playbooks The following procedure describes ensuring the absence of IdM member managers - both users and user groups - using an Ansible playbook. Prerequisites On the control node: You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later. You have installed the ansible-freeipa package. The example assumes that in the ~/ MyPlaybooks / directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server. The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password . The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica. You must have the name of the existing member manager user or group you are removing and the name of the group they are managing. Procedure Create an inventory file, for example inventory.file , and define ipaserver in it: Create an Ansible playbook file with the necessary user and group member management information: --- - name: Playbook to handle membership management hosts: ipaserver vars_files: - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml tasks: - name: Ensure member manager user and group members are absent for group_a ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: group_a membermanager_user: test membermanager_group: group_admins action: member state: absent Run the playbook: Verification You can verify if the group_a group does not contain test as a member manager and group_admins as a member manager of group_a by using the ipa group-show command: Log into ipaserver as administrator: Display information about group_a: Additional resources See ipa host-remove-member-manager --help . See the ipa man page on your system.

Commands:
[ipaserver] server.idm.example.com
--- - name: Playbook to handle groups hosts: ipaserver vars_files: - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml tasks: - name: Create group ops with gid 1234 ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: ops gidnumber: 1234 - name: Create group sysops ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: sysops user: - idm_user - name: Create group appops ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: appops - name: Add group members sysops and appops to group ops ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: ops group: - sysops - appops
ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i path_to_inventory_directory/inventory.file path_to_playbooks_directory/add-group-members.yml
ssh admin@server.idm.example.com Password: [admin@server /]USD
ipaserver]USD ipa group-show ops Group name: ops GID: 1234 Member groups: sysops, appops Indirect Member users: idm_user
--- - name: Playbook to add nonposix and external groups hosts: ipaserver vars_files: - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml tasks: - name: Add nonposix group sysops and external group appops ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" groups: - name: sysops nonposix: true - name: appops external: true
ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i <path_to_inventory_directory>/hosts <path_to_playbooks_directory>/add-nonposix-and-external-groups.yml
cd ~/ MyPlaybooks /
--- - name: Playbook to ensure presence of users in a group hosts: ipaserver - name: Ensure the ad_user@ad.example.com user ID override is a member of the admins group: ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: admins idoverrideuser: - ad_user@ad.example.com
ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i inventory add-useridoverride-to-group.yml
[ipaserver] server.idm.example.com
--- - name: Playbook to handle membership management hosts: ipaserver vars_files: - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml tasks: - name: Ensure user test is present for group_a ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: group_a membermanager_user: test - name: Ensure group_admins is present for group_a ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: group_a membermanager_group: group_admins
ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i path_to_inventory_directory/inventory.file path_to_playbooks_directory/add-member-managers-user-groups.yml
ssh admin@server.idm.example.com Password: [admin@server /]USD
ipaserver]USD ipa group-show group_a Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009 Membership managed by groups: group_admins Membership managed by users: test
[ipaserver] server.idm.example.com
--- - name: Playbook to handle membership management hosts: ipaserver vars_files: - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml tasks: - name: Ensure member manager user and group members are absent for group_a ipagroup: ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}" name: group_a membermanager_user: test membermanager_group: group_admins action: member state: absent
ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i path_to_inventory_directory/inventory.file path_to_playbooks_directory/ensure-member-managers-are-absent.yml
ssh admin@server.idm.example.com Password: [admin@server /]USD
ipaserver]USD ipa group-show group_a Group name: group_a GID: 1133400009