Using Saltstack to manage linux users

Saltstack makes it very easy to manage users. You can use pillars to predefine all of the users and add them later, or you can define them within a single sls state file.

By example here is an sls file that will add or remove any number of users to a system. If you want the user dropped from the system, change "present" to "absent" and run it again.

Thanks Will for fixes and pointing out that if you're not on a debian system you'll want to use something else for the "adm" group.

{% set users = {
  'someuser': {
    'state': 'present',
    'fullname': 'User One',
    'pub_key': 'ssh-rsa .... '
  },
  'someuser2': {
    'state': 'present',
    'fullname': 'User two',
    'pub_key': 'ssh-rsa .... '
  }
} %}
 
{% for name, user in users.items() %}
{{ name }}:
  {% set shell = user.shell | default('/bin/bash') %}
  {% set groups = user.groups | default(['sudo', 'adm']) %}
  user.{{ user.state }}:
    - fullname: {{ user.fullname }}
    - home: /home/{{ name }}
    - shell: {{ shell }}
    - groups:
    {% for group in groups %}
      - {{ group }}
    {% endfor %}
  {% if user.state == 'present' %}
ssh_key_{{ name }}:
  ssh_auth:
    - present
    - user: {{ name }}
    - names:
      - {{ user.pub_key }}
    - require:
      - {{ name }}
  {% endif %}
{% endfor %}