Continuing with the tradition of holiday gifts to the PowerShell community, the PowerShell team has just released DSC Resource Kit Wave-1 – a set of PowerShell modules that contain DSC resources and example configurations. The various modules that are part of DSC Resource Kit Wave 1 can be found here.

When DSC was introduced in PowerShell v4, we shipped a set of built-in resources. However one of the important features of DSC is the ability to create custom resources in PowerShell. Our previous blog posts detail how to author resources and how to deploy resources. In order to encourage the community to create more DSC resources and help boot strap the authoring process, we are releasing this first wave.

We have introduced a new naming convention for these modules and resources – they contain an “x” in them like xWebAdministration, MSFT_xWebsite, etc. The “x” 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 these, take feedback and may provide fixes on a “fix forward” basis – that is to say we may simply republish with fixes in future. I am deliberately using the word “may” to indicate no guarantees of any sort. However, you are free to adapt these to your environment and make changes as necessary.

Description of Resources

To discover all the resources available as part of the resource kit, use the Get-DSCResource cmdlet:

PS D:\> Get-DscResource -Name x* | Format-Table Name, Module, ImplementedAs -AutoSize

 

Name              Module                       ImplementedAs

—-              ——                       ————-

xComputer         xComputerManagement             PowerShell

xVHD              xHyper-V                        PowerShell

xVMHyperV         xHyper-V                        PowerShell

xVMSwitch         xHyper-V                        PowerShell

xDNSServerAddress xNetworking                     PowerShell

xIPAddress        xNetworking                     PowerShell

xDSCWebService    xPSDesiredStateConfiguration    PowerShell

xWebsite          xWebAdministration              PowerShell

 

Here is a brief description about each of the resource

Resource	Description
xComputer	Name a computer and add it to a domain/workgroup
xVHD	Create and managed VHDs
xVMHyperV	Create and manage a Hyper-V Virtual Machine
xVMSwitch	Create and manage a Hyper-V Virtual Switch
xDNSServerAddress	Bind a DNS Server address to one or more NIC
xIPAddress	Configure IPAddress (v4 and v6)
xDSCWebService	Configure DSC Service (aka Pull Server)
xWebsite	Deploy and configure a website on IIS

 

 

 

Making Changes to Resources

 

When making changes to these resources, we suggest 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)

a.     Folder name (ex: MSFT_xWebsite becomes Contoso_cWebsite)

b.     Resource Name (ex: MSFT_xWebsite becomes Contoso_cWebsite)

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

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

e.     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”) for future 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

The DSC Resource Kit requires 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             

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

NANA-TOUCH    Update           KB2883200     NANA-TOUCH\Admini… 9/30/2013 12:00:00 AM   

 

On supported down level operating systems, they require WMF 4.0. Refer to these previous blog posts for more information on WMF 4.0 and issues with partial installation.

 

Configurations using Resources from DSC Resource Kit

Once the resources are deployed, they can be used in configurations. An example configuration is given below (this example together with the sample website files are available as part of the examples of xWebAdministration module):

Configuration FourthCoffeeWebsite

{

    param

    (

        # Target nodes to apply the configuration

        [Parameter(Mandatory)]

        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]

        [String[]]$NodeName,

 

        # Name of the website to create

        [Parameter(Mandatory)]

        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]

        [String]$WebSiteName,

 

        # Source Path for Website content

        [Parameter(Mandatory)]

        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]

        [String]$SourcePath,

 

        # Destination path for Website content

        [Parameter(Mandatory)]

        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]

        [String]$DestinationPath

    )

 

    # Import custom resources from the module that defines it

    Import-DscResource -Module xWebAdministration

 

    Node $NodeName

    {

        # Install the IIS role

        WindowsFeature IIS

        {

            Ensure          = “Present”

            Name            = “Web-Server”

        }

 

        # Install the ASP .NET 4.5 role

        WindowsFeature AspNet45

        {

            Ensure          = “Present”

            Name            = “Web-Asp-Net45”

        }

 

        # Stop the default website

        xWebsite DefaultSite

        {

            Ensure          = “Present”

            Name            = “Default Web Site”

            State           = “Stopped”

            PhysicalPath    = “C:\inetpub\wwwroot”

            DependsOn       = “[WindowsFeature]IIS”

        }

 

        # Copy the website content

        File WebContent

        {

            Ensure          = “Present”

            SourcePath      = $SourcePath

            DestinationPath = $DestinationPath

            Recurse         = $true

            Type            = “Directory”

            DependsOn       = “[WindowsFeature]AspNet45”

        }      

 

        # Create the new Website

        xWebsite BakeryWebSite

        {

            Ensure          = “Present”

            Name            = $WebSiteName

            State           = “Started”

            PhysicalPath    = $DestinationPath

            DependsOn       = “[File]WebContent”

        }

    }

}

 

# Create the MOF file using configuration parameters

FourthCoffeeWebSite -NodeName “TestVM” `

                    -WebSiteName “FourthCoffee” -SourcePath “C:\BakeryWebsite\” -DestinationPath “C:\inetpub\FourthCoffee”

 

# Make it happen – Copy the MOF files to appropriate nodes and invoke the configuration

Start-DscConfiguration -Path  “$PSScriptRoot\FourthCoffeeWebsite” -Wait -Verbose -Force

 

# Delete the MOF files

del -Path “$PSScriptRoot\FourthCoffeeWebsite” -Recurse -Verbose

 

Note: Any resource that is not shipped as part of Windows, needs to be available in a module in PSModulePath and must be imported (using Import-DSCResource keyword) before it can be used in a configuration.

Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments section as well as use the Q&A section in the TechNet pages. You can also provide feedback here in the connect page