The DSC Resource Kit Wave 7 update has been published, and is now available. You can download all of the resources from the DSC Resource Kit (All Resources) topic, and also find them by using PowerShellGet. This wave contains 4 new DSC Resources, which brings the total count of resources over 90 since last December.  

In addition to the new resources, we have also made some updates to existing resources based on feedback we have received.

Questions, Comments?

If you’re looking into using PowerShell DSC, but are blocked by a lack of resources, let us know in the comments or the TechNet QA Section.

What’s in this Wave?

This wave has added the following

• xPendingReboot examines three specific registry locations where a Windows Server might indicate that a reboot is pending and allows DSC to predictably handle the condition
• xCredSSP enables or disables the server & client CredSSP roles on a system.
• xAdcsCertificationAuthority this resource installs and configures the Certificate Authority role on a Windows Server.
• xAdcsWebEnrollment this resource configures Certificate Services Web Enrollment on a Windows Server following installation of the component using the WindowsFeature resource.

As always, we must reiterate that these resources come without any guarantees.  The “x” prefix stands for experimental – which means these resources are provided AS IS and are not supported through any Microsoft support program or service. We will monitor the TechNet pages, take feedback, and may provide fixes moving forward.  Also, don’t forget to check out the community versions of many resources on PowerShell.Org’s GitHub.

Details

After installing the modules, you can discover all of the resources available by using the Get-DSCResource cmdlet.  Here is a brief description of each resource (for more details on a resource, check out the TechNet pages). 

Renaming Guidelines

When making changes to these resources, we urge the following practice:

1.      Update the following names by replacing MSFT with your company/community name and replacing the “x” with “c” (short for “Community”) or another prefix of your choice:

a.   Module name (ex: xWebAdministration becomes cWebAdministration)

b.   Folder name (ex: MSFT_xWebsite becomes Contoso_cWebsite)

c.   Resource Name (ex: MSFT_xWebsite becomes Contoso_cWebsite)

d.   Resource Friendly Name (ex: xWebsite becomes cWebsite)

e.   MOF class name (ex: MSFT_xWebsite becomes Contoso_cWebsite)

f.    Filename for the <resource>.schema.mof (ex: MSFT_xWebsite.schema.mof becomes Contoso_cWebsite.schema.mof)

2.      Update module and metadata information in the module manifest

3.      Update any configuration that use these resources

We reserve resource and module names without prefixes (“x” or “c”) forfuture use (e.g. “MSFT_WebAdministration” or “Website”).  If the next version of Windows Server ships with a “Website” resource, we don’t want to break any configurations that use any community modifications.  Please keep a prefix such as “c” on all community modifications.

As specified in the license, you may copy or modify this resource as long as they are used on the Windows Platform.

Requirements

Note:

The DSC Resource Kit requires at least Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 with update KB2883200 (aka the GA Update Rollup). You can check whether it is installed by running the following command:

PS
C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-HotFix -Id KB2883200

Source       Description     HotFixID     InstalledBy         InstalledOn             

——       ———–     ——–     ———–         ———–             

MyMachine    Update          KB2883200    MyMachine\Admini… 9/30/2013 12:00:00AM   

For most modules, you can use them on supported down-level versions of Windows by installing WMF 4.0. Refer to these previous blog posts for more information on WMF 4.0 and issues with partial installation.

A few modules will require the use of WMF 5.0. You can confirm the requirements for each module on the individual blog topics that provide the details for the module.