Deploy SSH Keys

Overview

This role deploys SSH public keys to user accounts on target systems. It verifies user existence, creates necessary .ssh directories with proper permissions, adds public keys to authorized_keys files, and ensures correct ownership and permissions for SSH authentication to work properly.

What This Role Does

1. Checks user existence using getent for each configured user
2. Filters to existing users (skips users not on system)
3. Displays found users for verification
4. Creates .ssh directories for each user with mode 0700
5. Sets directory ownership to user:user
6. Deploys public keys to authorized_keys using authorized_key module
7. Preserves existing keys (exclusive: false)
8. Adds key comments for identification
9. Verifies file permissions on authorized_keys (mode 0600)
10. Sets file ownership to user:user
11. Displays success message with hostname

Role Variables

Variable	Description
deploy_ssh_keys_users	List of user/key configurations to deploy
deploy_ssh_keys_ssh_dir_mode	Permission mode for .ssh directory
deploy_ssh_keys_authorized_keys_mode	Permission mode for authorized_keys

Default users configuration:

deploy_ssh_keys_users:
  - username: ansibleuser
    key_file: ansible_user.pub
    comment: "Ansible automation key from mint-vm"
  - username: bjoffrey
    key_file: bjoffrey_user.pub
    comment: "bjoffrey interactive SSH key (PuTTY)"

Notes

• Role does not create user accounts or modify sshd_config
• Keys are appended to authorized_keys, never removed