Simple module approach for ceating a user on a Ubuntu host with puppet * Tested with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. * Does not need libshadow1.8 and ruby-shadow. * Creates home folder and adds groups

init.pp

# moudles/user/init.pp

class user {

    exec { 'Removing existing user':
        command => "deluser $user_name",
        cwd     => "/tmp",
        path    => ["/usr/bin", "/usr/sbin", "/bin"],
        before  => Exec["Creating user"],
        onlyif  => "grep -c $user_name /etc/shadow"
    }

    exec { 'Creating user':
        command => "adduser --quiet --disabled-password $user_name && usermod -aG $user_groups $user_name",
        cwd     => "/tmp",
        path    => ["/usr/bin", "/usr/sbin", "/bin"],
    }

    exec { 'Setting password':
        command => "openssl passwd -1 $user_password > /tmp/passwd.hash && hash=`cat /tmp/passwd.hash` && usermod -p \$hash $user_name && rm /tmp/passwd.hash",
        cwd     => "/tmp",
        path    => ["/usr/bin", "/usr/sbin", "/bin"],
        subscribe  => Exec["Creating user"]
    }
}

puppet_config.pp

$user_name = "dev"
$user_password = 'qwertzu88'
$user_groups = 'adm,sudo,ssh'