I think I’ve gotten my DSC classroom and demo setup ready. Understand that this isn’t meant to be production-friendly - it doesn’t automate some stuff because I want to cover that stuff in class by walking through it. But, I thought I’d share. I’ve basically made an ISO that I can carry into class, attach to a Win2012R2 VM and a Win81 VM, and run students through. The server VM is a DC in “company.
Now that we’ve suitably rested, let’s get back to working with Desired State Configuration. Now, there are some basic features to work with that ship by default and the PowerShell team has been blogging some additional resources, but in order to do some really interesting thing with DSC, we’ll need to create our own resources. The High Points Overview Configuring the Pull Server (REST version) Creating Configurations (one of two, two of two) Configuring Clients Building Custom Resources (this post) Packaging Custom Resources Advanced Client Targeting The DSC Resource Structure DSC resources are (at their most basic) a PowerShell module.
Some lovely conversation on DSC over on Reddit… with some I wanted to perhaps offer an opinion on. From what I’ve seen, these are very common sentiments, and they definitely deserve… not argument or disagreement, but perhaps an alternate viewpoint. I’m not suggesting the commenters are wrong - but that maybe they’re not considering the entire picture. Certainly if you work with a superset of MS OSs (i.e. you do Linux also), then Puppet or something like it seems like a no brainer.
Desired State Configuration offers a number of immediate opportunities for independent software vendors (ISVs) who are smart enough to jump on board _now. _DSC currently suffers from a marked lack of tooling. That’s partially deliberate; MS obviously needs to deliver the functionality, and they may well rely on third parties or the System Center team to build tools on top of that functionality. But let’s explore some of the immediate opportunities.
On a recent PowerScripting Podcast episode, I went off on a bit of a career-oriented rant, and amongst other things mentioned something to the effect of, “if you’re not learning DSC now, you’re screwed.” It hopefully goes without saying that my comment applies to folks working in environments that use Microsoft server products; obviously, in an all-Linux shop you’re pretty safe not knowing Microsoft’s technologies :). Some discussion on Twitter ensued, a place I hate for discussions because 140 characters leaves you enough room to be misunderstood and paraphrased, but not enough room to articulate your perspective.
This Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 join us with guest, Nick Howell, (@that1guynick) from NetApp as the discussion will be software defined datacenter. See you at 9:30PM EST
Ed Wilson, Microsoft’s Scripting Guy, has created a free ebook, _Windows PowerShell Networking Guide. _It’s designed to provide a super-quick PowerShell crash course, and then show you how to manage various networking scenarios by using the shell. And it’s free! Just click the link to get your copy - and please, tell a friend! PoshNetworking.pdf
A Podcast about Windows PowerShell. Listen: **** In This Episode Tonight on the PowerScripting Podcast, we talk to Steve Roberts from Amazon on Amazon Web Services and PowerShell. News - [The Scripting Games](https://powershell.org/category/announcements/scripting-games/) are going on now! - [PowerShell Saturday #007](http://powershellsaturday.com/007/) is on February 8th - [PowerShell Saturday #008](http://powershellsaturday.com/008/) is on February 15th Interview Guest - Steve Roberts Links - [Amazon Web Services](http://aws.amazon.com/) - [AWS Tools for PowerShell](http://aws.amazon.com/powershell/) - AWS .
Join us this Thursday, Jan 16, 2014 at 9:30 PM EST as we talk with Steve Roberts from Amazon about the AWS Tools. Read more about it here: http://aws.amazon.com/powershell/
DSC Setup and Demo Scripts I recently set up a virtual machine to use for Desired State Configuration (DSC) demos. I wanted to make the demo-ing fairly brainless, as DSC requires a number of setup steps to get a pull server running. So I took some demo scripts Microsoft offered from TechEd 2013, updated them to work with Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM, and thought I’d offer them to you.
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