{"id":903,"date":"2014-07-22T08:44:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-22T08:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/visualstudioalm\/2014\/07\/22\/deploying-using-powershell-desired-state-configuration-in-release-management\/"},"modified":"2022-07-13T06:31:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T14:31:56","slug":"deploying-using-powershell-desired-state-configuration-in-release-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/deploying-using-powershell-desired-state-configuration-in-release-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Deploying using PowerShell Desired State Configuration in Release Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Microsoft Release Management 2013 Update 3 RC, you can now use Windows PowerShell or Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) for deploying and managing configuration data<\/span>. <\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

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\n> Windows PowerShell (PS)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\n> <\/p>\n

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Refer to <\/span>Scripting with Windows PowerShell<\/span><\/a> (PS) for more details. These scripts can be same as what you might have been already using to deploy using Microsoft Deployment Agent.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\n> <\/p>\n

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RM 2013 Update 3 \u201cDeploy using PowerShell\u201d requires PS version on the target servers to be of version 4.0 or higher.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\n> <\/p>\n

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Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC)
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DSC is a PowerShell extension and ships with Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. DSC is also part of <\/span>Windows Management Framework 4.0<\/span><\/a> which ships as an optional update and can be installed to Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008R2, Windows 7 and Windows 8. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The PowerShell v4 DSC extension adds a new keyword called \u201cConfiguration\u201d. With this keyword, which is actually a \u201cfunction\u201d, you define a DSC configuration block. RM leverages <\/span>Windows DSC Local Configuration Management Engine<\/span><\/a> to apply the configuration when a PowerShell script has \u201cDSC Configuration\u201d block in it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


Deployments using PS\/DSC in Release Management<\/span><\/span>\n<\/h3>\n

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\u201cPSScriptPath\u201d action parameter<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

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Specify the relative path to the PS\/DSC script file with respect to the package path (Component). <\/span> <\/p>\n

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\u201cPSConfigurationPath\u201d action parameter<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

Specify the relative path to the PS\/DSC script initialization file with respect to the package path (Component). This is an optional parameter, when set, RM will run this PS script prior invoking the main-script<\/span> file.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

In RM, you can define configuration data separately from the logic of your configuration in a PS script file and use it to initialize the main script (Here main-script is the actual PS\/DSC script referred by \u2018PSScriptPath\u2019<\/em>).<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

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Variables initialized here will be visible to the main script file. <\/span>By using initialization script, you can potentially – <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n