openssh_keypair – Generate OpenSSH private and public keys

New in version 2.8.

Synopsis

  • This module allows one to (re)generate OpenSSH private and public keys. It uses ssh-keygen to generate keys. One can generate rsa, dsa, rsa1, ed25519 or ecdsa private keys.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • ssh-keygen

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
attributes
string
added in 2.3
The attributes the resulting file or directory should have.
To get supported flags look at the man page for chattr on the target system.
This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by lsattr.
The = operator is assumed as default, otherwise + or - operators need to be included in the string.

aliases: attr
comment
string
Provides a new comment to the public key. When checking if the key is in the correct state this will be ignored.
force
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Should the key be regenerated even if it already exists
group
string
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
mode
string
The permissions the resulting file or directory should have.
For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must either add a leading zero so that Ansible's YAML parser knows it is an octal number (like 0644 or 01777) or quote it (like '644' or '1777') so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number.
Giving Ansible a number without following one of these rules will end up with a decimal number which will have unexpected results.
As of Ansible 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).
owner
string
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
path
path / required
Name of the files containing the public and private key. The file containing the public key will have the extension .pub.
selevel
string
Default:
"s0"
The level part of the SELinux file context.
This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range.
When set to _default, it will use the level portion of the policy if available.
serole
string
The role part of the SELinux file context.
When set to _default, it will use the role portion of the policy if available.
setype
string
The type part of the SELinux file context.
When set to _default, it will use the type portion of the policy if available.
seuser
string
The user part of the SELinux file context.
By default it uses the system policy, where applicable.
When set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.
size
integer
Specifies the number of bits in the private key to create. For RSA keys, the minimum size is 1024 bits and the default is 4096 bits. Generally, 2048 bits is considered sufficient. DSA keys must be exactly 1024 bits as specified by FIPS 186-2. For ECDSA keys, size determines the key length by selecting from one of three elliptic curve sizes: 256, 384 or 521 bits. Attempting to use bit lengths other than these three values for ECDSA keys will cause this module to fail. Ed25519 keys have a fixed length and the size will be ignored.
state
string
    Choices:
  • present ←
  • absent
Whether the private and public keys should exist or not, taking action if the state is different from what is stated.
type
string
    Choices:
  • rsa ←
  • dsa
  • rsa1
  • ecdsa
  • ed25519
The algorithm used to generate the SSH private key. rsa1 is for protocol version 1. rsa1 is deprecated and may not be supported by every version of ssh-keygen.
unsafe_writes
boolean
added in 2.2
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target file.
By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target files, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted files, which cannot be updated atomically from inside the container and can only be written in an unsafe manner.
This option allows Ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating files when atomic operations fail (however, it doesn't force Ansible to perform unsafe writes).
IMPORTANT! Unsafe writes are subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption.

Examples

# Generate an OpenSSH keypair with the default values (4096 bits, rsa)
- openssh_keypair:
    path: /tmp/id_ssh_rsa

# Generate an OpenSSH rsa keypair with a different size (2048 bits)
- openssh_keypair:
    path: /tmp/id_ssh_rsa
    size: 2048

# Force regenerate an OpenSSH keypair if it already exists
- openssh_keypair:
    path: /tmp/id_ssh_rsa
    force: True

# Generate an OpenSSH keypair with a different algorithm (dsa)
- openssh_keypair:
    path: /tmp/id_ssh_dsa
    type: dsa

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key Returned Description
filename
string
 changed or success
Path to the generated SSH private key file

Sample:
/tmp/id_ssh_rsa
fingerprint
string
 changed or success
The fingerprint of the key.

Sample:
SHA256:r4YCZxihVjedH2OlfjVGI6Y5xAYtdCwk8VxKyzVyYfM
public_key
string
 changed or success
The public key of the generated SSH private key

Sample:
ssh-rsa AAAAB3Nza(...omitted...)veL4E3Xcw== test_key
size
integer
 changed or success
Size (in bits) of the SSH private key

Sample:
4096
type
string
 changed or success
Algorithm used to generate the SSH private key

Sample:
rsa


Status

Authors

  • David Kainz (@lolcube)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.