diff --git a/globals.yaml b/globals.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 340827d..000000000
--- a/globals.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
----
-username: jlay  # user for 'create-user' role
-zfs_disk: /dev/vdb
-zfs_arc_size_mb: "{{ (ansible_memtotal_mb * 0.20)|int|abs }}"
-zfs_arc_size_bytes: "{{ zfs_arc_size_mb }}000000"
-pwgen: "{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters,digits,hexdigits,punctuation length=32') }}"
diff --git a/play.yml b/play.yml
index 31f61e2..740deab 100644
--- a/play.yml
+++ b/play.yml
@@ -1,14 +1,11 @@
 ---
 - hosts: all
-  vars_files:
-    - ./globals.yaml
-
   roles:
     - {role: bootstrap}
     - {role: tmp-mount-fix}
+    - {role: install-packages}
     - {role: update-packages}
     - {role: fedora-upgrade}
-    - {role: install-packages}
     - {role: create-user}
     - {role: hardening}
 #    - {role: docker} # TODO: replace me with a generic container role, podman on EL based distros - Docker on Debian/Ubuntu
diff --git a/roles/create-user/defaults/main.yml b/roles/create-user/defaults/main.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..584bf31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/roles/create-user/defaults/main.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+---
+create_username: "{{ lookup('env','USER') }}"
+create_pwgen: "{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters,digits,hexdigits,punctuation length=32') }}"
diff --git a/roles/create-user/tasks/deb.yml b/roles/create-user/tasks/deb.yml
index aed0636..ae9fe0d 100644
--- a/roles/create-user/tasks/deb.yml
+++ b/roles/create-user/tasks/deb.yml
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 ---
 
-- name: creating user {{ username }} in sudo group (Debian/Ubuntu)
+- name: creating user {{ create_username }} in sudo group (Debian/Ubuntu)
   user:
-    name: "{{ username }}"
-    password: "{{ pwgen | password_hash('sha512') }}"
+    name: "{{ create_username }}"
+    password: "{{ create_pwgen | password_hash('sha512') }}"
     state: present
     shell: /bin/bash
     groups: sudo
diff --git a/roles/create-user/tasks/el.yml b/roles/create-user/tasks/el.yml
index 95000c1..86834e8 100644
--- a/roles/create-user/tasks/el.yml
+++ b/roles/create-user/tasks/el.yml
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 ---
 
-- name: creating user {{ username }} in wheel group (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)
+- name: creating user {{ create_username }} in wheel group (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)
   user:
-    name: "{{ username }}"
-    password: "{{ pwgen | password_hash('sha512') }}"
+    name: "{{ create_username }}"
+    password: "{{ create_pwgen | password_hash('sha512') }}"
     state: present
     shell: /bin/bash
     groups: wheel
diff --git a/roles/create-user/tasks/main.yml b/roles/create-user/tasks/main.yml
index 8c2eee6..323a3ac 100644
--- a/roles/create-user/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/create-user/tasks/main.yml
@@ -6,13 +6,13 @@
 - include_tasks: el.yml
   when: ansible_distribution in ["CentOS", "Red Hat Enterprise Linux", "RedHat", "Fedora"]
 
-- name: print generated password for {{ username }} on each host
-  debug: var=pwgen
+- name: print generated password for {{ create_username }} on each host
+  debug: var=create_pwgen
   when: user_created is changed 
 
-- name: copy current pubkeys to ~{{ username }}/.ssh/authorized_keys
+- name: copy current pubkeys to ~{{ create_username }}/.ssh/authorized_keys
   authorized_key:
-    user: "{{ username }}"
+    user: "{{ create_username }}"
     state: present
     key: "{{ item }}"
   with_items:
diff --git a/roles/zfs/defaults/main.yml b/roles/zfs/defaults/main.yml
index 1ae6c73..1be7c4d 100644
--- a/roles/zfs/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/roles/zfs/defaults/main.yml
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 ---
+zfs_disk: /dev/vdb
+zfs_arc_size_mb: "{{ (ansible_memtotal_mb * 0.20)|int|abs }}"
+zfs_arc_size_bytes: "{{ zfs_arc_size_mb }}000000"
 EL_ZFS_PKGS:
   - kernel-devel
   - "@Development tools"
   - dkms
   - zfs
-
 UBUNTU_ZFS_PKGS:
   - zfsutils-linux
   - zfs-initramfs