DSC Diagnostics Module– Analyze DSC Logs instantly now!

PowerShell Team February 11, 2014 Feb 11, 2014 02/11/14

  Have you ever witnessed a DSC Configuration run where you had no idea about what it might have done behind the scenes? Well, then your worries end here! During any DSC Operation, the DSC engine writes into windows event logs, which are like bread crumbs that the engine leaves along the way during any execution. If you read the blog ...

Need more DSC Resources? Announcing DSC Resource Kit Wave 2

PowerShell Team February 7, 2014 Feb 7, 2014 02/7/14

Good news everyone! Starting today, you can use Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) to configure Active Directory and SQL Server (including High Availability Groups). We are pleased to release the next wave of the DSC Resource Kit – one that enables you to start using DSC to solve your real world problems and scenarios. ...

How to enable Updatable Help for your PowerShell Module

PowerShell Team February 4, 2014 Feb 4, 2014 02/4/14

PowerShell 3.0 lets the user update Help content on a per module basis. In this article, I will explain how you can enable this for your own PowerShell module. Prerequisites: Have a new (script/binary) module, help content for the cmdlets of the module, and a server where the help content is located. For this particular exercise I will be ...

Want to secure credentials in Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration?

PowerShell Team January 31, 2014 Jan 31, 2014 01/31/14

As you start using Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC), you might need to specify credentials for resources. In a previous post we showed you how to define a resource that has a credential property.  In this post, I’ll discuss how to properly encrypt credentials when used in a DSC configuration. Prerequisites First...

Separating “What” from “Where” in PowerShell DSC

PowerShell Team January 9, 2014 Jan 9, 2014 01/9/14

As you already know we introduced PowerShell Desired State Configuration to the world at our TechEd NA 2013 Session. The session also introduced the notion of structural configuration (what) and environmental configuration (where) (at the 25:50 min mark). Structural configuration defines what is needed and does not change based on the ...

Using Event Logs to Diagnose Errors in Desired State Configuration

PowerShell Team January 3, 2014 Jan 3, 2014 01/3/14

Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC), just like any other Windows software, records errors and events in logs that can be viewed from the Event Viewer. However, the trick lies in effectively parsing these logs, so we know exactly why a particular operation failed. In this blog, we explain where the DSC event logs are, and how ...