{"id":1821,"date":"2014-02-11T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T11:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/powershell\/2014\/02\/11\/dsc-diagnostics-module-analyze-dsc-logs-instantly-now\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T12:55:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T20:55:15","slug":"dsc-diagnostics-module-analyze-dsc-logs-instantly-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/powershell\/dsc-diagnostics-module-analyze-dsc-logs-instantly-now\/","title":{"rendered":"DSC Diagnostics Module\u2013 Analyze DSC Logs instantly now!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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 here<\/a> about DSC troubleshooting, you could learn how to use the Get-WinEvent cmdlet to debug a DSC failure using event logs. However, something that really simplifies life is the new module that has been published in Wave 2 of the DSC Resource Kit<\/a> , called xDscDiagnostics<\/strong><\/a>.<\/div>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

xDscDiagnostics <\/strong>is a PowerShell module that consists of two simple operations that can help analyze DSC failures on your machine \u2013 Get<\/strong>–xDscOperation<\/strong> and Trace-xDscOperation.<\/strong> These functions help in identifying all the events from past DSC operations run in your system, or any other computer (Note: you need a valid credential to access remote computers). Here, we use the term DSC Operation to define a single unique DSC execution from its start to its end. For instance, Test-DscConfiguration would be a separate DSC Operation. Similarly, every other cmdlet in DSC (such as Get-DscConfiguration, Start-DscConfiguration, etc.) could each be identified as a separate DSC operation.<\/p>\n

The two cmdlets are explained here<\/a> and in more detail below. Help regarding the cmdlets are available when you run get-help <cmdlet name><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Get-xDscOperation<\/h2>\n

This cmdlet lets you find the results of the DSC operations that run on one or multiple computers, and returns an object that contains the collection of events produced by each DSC operation.<\/p>\n

For instance, in the following output, we ran three commands, the first of which passed, and the others failed. These results are summarized in the output of Get-xDscOperation.<\/p>\n

\"image001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 1 : Get-xDscOperation that shows a simple output for a list of operations executed in a machine<\/p>\n

Parameters<\/strong><\/h2>\n