# group module not idempotent

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/group-module-not-idempotent/24466>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [May 11, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/group-module-not-idempotent/24466 "2017-05-11T21:07:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dwolfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@dwolfe](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dwolfe)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/group-module-not-idempotent/24466/1 "2017-05-11T21:07:24Z")

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Greetings Ansible Users,

I’m new to Ansible so sorry if this is a dumb question, but I did look and found no answer.

I am trying to add user groups to systems with the group module, but when it runs a second time, it errors because the group is already there. Aren’t (at least these built in) modules supposed to be idempotent? I can use “ignore\_errors: yes”, but would like it to fail if there are real errors (like gid already in use by other group).

Am I missing something? How is this usually handled?

Thank you and best regards,

Don

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**Author:** ![dwolfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@dwolfe](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dwolfe)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 9:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/group-module-not-idempotent/24466/2 "2017-05-11T21:52:25Z")

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Please disregard this post. The error was erroneous – user error yet again! The module works as expected. Me not so much… LOL.
