microsoft.ad.object module – Manage Active Directory objects

Note

This module is part of the microsoft.ad collection (version 1.7.1).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install microsoft.ad. You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: microsoft.ad.object.

Synopsis

  • Manages Active Directory objects and their attributes.

Requirements

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

  • ActiveDirectory PowerShell module

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

attributes

dictionary

The attributes to either add, remove, or set on the AD object.

The value of each attribute option should be a dictionary where the key is the LDAP attribute, e.g. firstName, comment and the value is the value, or list of values, to set for that attribute.

The attribute value(s) can either be the raw string, integer, or bool value to add, remove, or set on the attribute in question.

The value can also be a dictionary with the type key set to bytes, date_time, security_descriptor, or raw and the value for this entry under the value key.

The bytes type has a value that is a base64 encoded string of the raw bytes to set.

The date_time type has a value that is the ISO 8601 DateTime string of the DateTime to set. The DateTime will be set as the Microsoft FILETIME integer value which is the number of 100 nanoseconds since 1601-01-01 in UTC.

The security_descriptor type has a value that is the Security Descriptor SDDL string used for the nTSecurityDescriptor attribute.

The raw type is the int, string, or boolean value to set.

String attribute values are compared using a case sensitive match on the AD object being managed.

See LDAP attributes help for more information.

Default: {}

add

dictionary

A dictionary of all the attributes and their value(s) to add to the AD object being managed if they are not already present.

This is used for attributes that can contain multiple values, if the attribute only allows a single value, use set instead.

Default: {}

remove

dictionary

A dictionary of all the attributes and their value(s) to remove from the AD object being managed if they are present.

This is used for attributes that can contain multiple values, if the attribute only allows a single value, use set instead.

Default: {}

set

dictionary

A dictionary of all attributes and their value(s) to set on the AD object being managed.

This will replace any existing values if they do not match the ones being requested.

The order of attribute values are not checked only, only that the values requested are the only values on the object attribute.

Set this to null or an empty list to clear any values for the attribute.

Default: {}

description

string

The description of the AD object to set.

This is the value set on the description LDAP attribute.

display_name

string

The display name of the AD object to set.

This is the value of the displayName LDAP attribute.

domain_credentials

list / elements=dictionary

Specifies the credentials that should be used when using the server specified by name.

To specify credentials for the default domain server, use an entry without the name key or use the domain_username and domain_password option.

This can be set under the play’s module defaults under the group/microsoft.ad.domain group.

See AD authentication in modules for more information.

Default: []

name

string

The name of the server these credentials are for.

This value should correspond to the value used in other options that specify a custom server to use, for example an option that references an AD identity located on a different AD server.

This key can be omitted in one entry to specify the default credentials to use when a server is not specified instead of using domain_username and domain_password.

password

string / required

The password to use when connecting to the server specified by name.

username

string / required

The username to use when connecting to the server specified by name.

domain_password

string

The password for domain_username.

The domain_credentials sub entry without a name key can also be used to specify the credentials for the default domain authentication.

This can be set under the play’s module defaults under the group/microsoft.ad.domain group.

domain_server

string

Specified the Active Directory Domain Services instance to connect to.

Can be in the form of an FQDN or NetBIOS name.

If not specified then the value is based on the default domain of the computer running PowerShell.

Custom credentials can be specified under a domain_credentials entry without a name key or through domain_username and domain_password.

This can be set under the play’s module defaults under the group/microsoft.ad.domain group.

domain_username

string

The username to use when interacting with AD.

If this is not set then the user that is used for authentication will be the connection user.

Ansible will be unable to use the connection user unless auth is Kerberos with credential delegation or CredSSP, or become is used on the task.

The domain_credentials sub entry without a name key can also be used to specify the credentials for the default domain authentication.

This can be set under the play’s module defaults under the group/microsoft.ad.domain group.

identity

string

The identity of the AD object used to find the AD object to manage.

This must be specified if; name is not set, when trying to rename the object with a new name, or when trying to move the object into a different path.

The identity can be in the form of a GUID representing the objectGUID value, the userPrincipalName, sAMAccountName, objectSid, or distinguishedName.

If omitted, the AD object to manage is selected by the distinguishedName using the format CN={{ name }},{{ path }}. If path is not defined, the defaultNamingContext is used instead.

When using the microsoft.ad.computer module, the identity will automatically append $ to the end of the sAMAccountName if the provided value did not result in a match and did not already have a $ at the end.

name

string

The name of the AD object to manage, this is not the sAMAccountName of the object but the LDAP cn or name entry of the object in the path specified. Use identity to select an object to manage by its sAMAccountName.

If identity is specified, and the name of the object found by that identity does not match this value, the object will be renamed.

This must be specified if identity is not set.

path

string

The path of the OU or the container where the new object should exist in.

If creating a new object, the new object will be created at the path specified. If no path is specified then the defaultNamingContext of the domain will be used as the path for most object types.

If managing an existing object found by identity, the path of the found object will be moved to the one specified by this option. If no path is specified, the object will not be moved.

The modules microsoft.ad.computer, microsoft.ad.user, and microsoft.ad.group have their own default path that is configured on the Active Directory domain controller.

This can be set to the literal value microsoft.ad.default_path which will equal the default value used when creating a new object.

protect_from_deletion

boolean

Marks the object as protected from accidental deletion.

This applies a deny access right from deleting the object normally and the protection needs to be removed before the object can be deleted through the GUI or any other tool outside Ansible.

Using state=absent will still delete the AD object even if it is marked as protected from deletion.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

state

string

Set to present to ensure the AD object exists.

Set to absent to remove the AD object if it exists.

The option name must be set when state=present.

Using absent will recursively remove the AD object and any child objects if it’s a container. It will also remove the AD object even if the object is marked as protected from accidental deletion.

Choices:

  • "absent"

  • "present" ← (default)

type

string

The object type of the AD object.

This corresponds to the objectClass of the AD object.

Some examples of a type are user, computer, group, subnet, contact, container.

This is required when state=present.

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

check_mode

Support: full

Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target, if not supported the action will be skipped.

diff_mode

Support: full

Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode

platform

Platform: windows

Target OS/families that can be operated against

Notes

Note

  • This is a generic module used to create and manage any object type in Active Directory. It will not validate all the correct defaults are set for each type when it is created. If a type specific module is available to manage that AD object type it is recommend to use that.

  • This module must be run on a Windows target host with the ActiveDirectory module installed.

  • Some LDAP attributes can have only a single value set while others can have multiple. Some attributes are also read only and cannot be changed. It is recommended to look at the schema metadata for an attribute where System-Only are read only values and Is-Single-Value are attributes with only 1 value.

  • Attempting to set multiple values to a Is-Single-Value attribute results in undefined behaviour.

  • If running on a server that is not a Domain Controller, credential delegation through CredSSP or Kerberos with delegation must be used or the domain_username, domain_password must be set.

See Also

See also

microsoft.ad.domain

Ensures the existence of a Windows domain.

microsoft.ad.domain_controller

Manage domain controller/member server state for a Windows host.

microsoft.ad.object_info

Gather information an Active Directory object.

microsoft.ad.user

Manage Active Directory users.

microsoft.ad.computer

Manage Active Directory computer objects.

microsoft.ad.group

Manage Active Directory group objects.

Examples

# Use this to get all valid types in a domain environment
# (Get-ADObject -SearchBase (Get-ADRootDSE).subschemaSubentry -Filter * -Properties objectClasses).objectClasses |
#     Select-String -Pattern "Name\s+'(\w+)'" |
#     ForEach-Object { $_.Matches.Groups[1].Value } |
#     Sort-Object

- name: Create a contact object
  microsoft.ad.object:
    name: MyContact
    description: My Contact Description
    type: contact
    state: present

- name: Rename a contact object
  microsoft.ad.object:
    identity: '{{ contact_obj.object_guid }}'
    name: RenamedContact
    type: contact
    state: present

- name: Move a contact object
  microsoft.ad.object:
    identity: '{{ contact_object.object_guid }}'
    name: MyContact
    path: OU=Contacts,DC=domain,DC=test
    type: contact
    state: present

- name: Remove a contact object in default path
  microsoft.ad.object:
    name: MyContact
    state: absent

- name: Remove a contact object in custom path
  microsoft.ad.object:
    name: MyContact
    path: OU=Contacts,DC=domain,DC=test
    state: absent

- name: Remove a contact by identity
  microsoft.ad.object:
    identity: '{{ contact_obj.object_guid }}'
    state: absent

- name: Create container object with custom attributes
  microsoft.ad.object:
    name: App
    attributes:
      set:
        wWWHomePage: https://ansible.com
    type: container
    state: present

- name: Clear attribute of any value
  microsoft.ad.object:
    name: App
    attributes:
      set:
        wWWHomePage: ~
    type: container
    state: present

- name: Edit object security with Everyone Allow All access
  microsoft.ad.object:
    name: App
    attributes:
      add:
        nTSecurityDescriptor:
          type: security_descriptor
          value: O:DAG:DAD:PAI(A;CI;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;WD)
    type: container
    state: present

- name: Ensure multiple values are present in attribute
  microsoft.ad.object:
    name: App
    attributes:
      add:
        extensionName:
          - value 1
          - value 2
    type: container
    state: present

- name: Ensure multiple values are not present in attribute
  microsoft.ad.object:
    name: App
    attributes:
      remove:
        extensionName:
          - value 1
          - value 3
    type: container
    state: present

Return Values

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

Key

Description

distinguished_name

string

The distinguishedName of the AD object that was created, removed, or edited.

Returned: always

Sample: "CN=TestUser,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=test"

object_guid

string

The objectGUID of the AD object that was created, removed, or edited.

If a new object was created in check mode, a GUID of 0s will be returned.

Returned: always

Sample: "d84a141f-2b99-4f08-9da0-ed2d26864ba1"

Authors

  • Jordan Borean (@jborean93)