Learning PowerShell DSC

Key Features

• Create flexible and maintainable deployments using DSC configuration scripts that stand the test of time.
• Explore the core architecture, concepts, and practices in depth.
• Learning PowerShell DSC is a step-by-step guide that shows you how to start using and taking advantage of PowerShell DSC along with configuring and deploying applications.

Book Description

The main goal of this book is to teach you to configure, deploy, and manage your system using the new features of PowerShell v5/v6 DSC.

This book begins with the basics of PowerShell Desired State Configuration, covering its architecture and components. It familiarizes you with the set of Windows PowerShell language extensions and new Windows PowerShell commands that make up DSC. Then it helps you create DSC custom resources and work with DSC configurations with the help of practical examples. Finally, it describes how to deploy configuration data using PowerShell DSC. Throughout this book, we will be focusing on concepts such as building configurations with parameters, the local configuration manager, and testing and restoring configurations using PowerShell DSC.

By the end of the book, you will be able to deploy a real-world application end-to-end and will be familiar enough with the powerful Desired State Configuration platform to achieve continuous delivery and efficiently and easily manage and deploy data for systems.

What you will learn

• Explore PowerShell Desired State Configuration and activities around it, including the need for configuration management and abstraction.
• Create reusable DSC configurations and debug/ troubleshoot configuration files.
• Learn about the PowerShell DSC architecture with the help of push-and-pull management and workflows.
• Define DSC configuration scripts and data files and push DSC configuration files remotely and locally.
• Validate DSC Pull Server install and register target nodes with a DSC Pull Server.
• Learn about DSC Cross Platform and install PowerShell on Linux and macOS along with real-life DSC uses and different types of deployment.

About the Author

James Pogran has been working with computers in one way or another for over 15 years. His first job involved systems administration for a large military installation. He then moved on to develop monitoring software and automating large-scale Windows environments for a major managed services provider. He is currently a senior software engineer at Puppet, Inc, where he helps make Windows automation even better with Puppet.

Table of Contents

1. Learning PowerShell DSC
2. DSC Architecture
3. DSC Configuration Files
4. DSC Resources
5. Pushing DSC Configurations
6. Pulling DSC Configurations
7. DSC Cross Platform Support
8. Example Scenarios

James Pogran has been working with computers in one way or another for over 15 years. His first job involved systems administration for a large military installation. He then moved on to develop monitoring software and automating large-scale Windows environments for a major managed services provider. He is currently a senior software engineer at Puppet, Inc, where he helps make Windows automation even better with Puppet.