DSC for Linux nxUser Resource

The nxUser resource in PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) provides a mechanism to manage local users on a Linux node.

Syntax

nxUser <string> #ResourceName
{
    UserName = <string>
    [ FullName = <string> ]
    [ Description = <string> ]
    [ Password = <string> ]
    [ Disabled = <bool> ]
    [ PasswordChangeRequired = <bool> ]
    [ HomeDirectory = <string> ]
    [ GroupID = <string> ]
    [ DependsOn = <string[]> ]
    [ Ensure = <string> { Absent | Present }  ]
}

Properties

Property	Indicates the account name for which you want to ensure a specific state.
UserName	Specifies the location where you want to ensure the state for a file or directory.
FullName	A string that contains the full name to use for the user account.
Description	The description for the user account.
Password	The hash of the users password in the appropriate form for the Linux computer. Typically, this is a salted SHA-256, or SHA-512 hash. On Debian and Ubuntu Linux, this value can be generated with the mkpasswd command. For other Linux distros, the crypt method of Python's Crypt library can be used to generate the hash.
Disabled	Indicates whether the account is enabled. Set this property to $true to ensure that this account is disabled, and set it to $false to ensure that it is enabled.
PasswordChangeRequired	Indicates whether the user can change the password. Set this property to $true to ensure that the user cannot change the password, and set it to $false to allow the user to change the password. The default value is $false. This property is only evaluated if the user account did not exist previously and is being created.
HomeDirectory	The home directory for the user.
GroupID	The primary group ID for the user.

Common properties

Property	Description
DependsOn	Indicates that the configuration of another resource must run before this resource is configured. For example, if the ID of the resource configuration script block that you want to run first is ResourceName and its type is ResourceType, the syntax for using this property is DependsOn = "[ResourceType]ResourceName".
Ensure	Specifies whether the account exists. Set this property to Present to ensure that the account exists, and set it to Absent to ensure that the account does not exist.

Example

The following example ensures that the user "monuser" exists and is a member of the group "DBusers".

Import-DSCResource -ModuleName nx

Node $node
{
   nxUser UserExample{
      UserName = "monuser"
      Description = "Monitoring user"
      Password  =    '$6$fZAne/Qc$MZejMrOxDK0ogv9SLiBP5J5qZFBvXLnDu8HY1Oy7ycX.Y3C7mGPUfeQy3A82ev3zIabhDQnj2ayeuGn02CqE/0'
      Ensure = "Present"
      HomeDirectory = "/home/monuser"
   }

   nxGroup GroupExample{
      GroupName = "DBusers"
      Ensure = "Present"
      MembersToInclude = "monuser"
      DependsOn = "[nxUser]UserExample"
   }
}