When Microsoft released Windows PowerShell version 4 it added a feature called Desired State Configuration (DSC). If you’re familiar with change management configuration tools like Chef or Puppet, you’ll quickly understand what DSC provides. To put it simply, DSC offers a framework for configuring various types of Microsoft Windows components. Let’s take a look at how it all works, and what the future holds.
Support for DSC within Microsoft
A senior engineer (aka a “Distinguished Engineer”) at Microsoft recently indicated that DSC would be included in Microsoft’s Common Engineering Criteria (CEC).
Microsoft’s calendar year starts on July 1, meaning that the company will make DSC part of its “CEC 2015 standard.” This also means that, moving forward, part of Microsoft’s engineering standards for all server products should provide some support for DSC. Currently, other products or technologies like System Center Operations Manager management packs and Windows PowerShell itself are part of the CEC, which is why you see management packs and snapins or modules for just about every Microsoft server product available today.
TechEd evolution example
I’ll admit that, at first, I barely paid any attention to DSC, but it received quite a lot of attention during Microsoft’s 2014 TechEd event in Houston, and was also discussed quite a bit at the recent PowerShell Summit North America.
A session at TechEd about what DSC brings to the table was highlighted in the context of creating SMB shares. The evolution of how shares are created from within Windows PowerShell has evolved from a mixture of .NET and WMI, to the New-SMBShare introduced in Windows Server 2012, and finally to DSC. This TechEd example really helps to understand how powerful and time-saving DSC can be, as it provides all kinds of built-in features like running in verbose mode, testing and error-checking – all with an easy-to-use syntax.
Linux support
Another surprise announced during TechEd was that Microsoft would release a Community Technolog Preview (CTP) of a Linux DSC client. Follow this link and it will walk you through a DSC client set up on Linux. I was able to get it working on CentOS 6.5 by following the instructions almost word for word (don’t forget to open a port in iptables, if it’s running). Someone at an intermediate or advanced level with Linux could easily take the Microsoft instructions to create a nice distributable package like an RPM to pass around to multiple machines in their organization.
What the future holds
Moving forward, I can visualize DSC support in core products like SQL or the System Center suite. Either one of these could save so much time in my life as an IT administrator, and could also save me from making errors too.
Because of how Microsoft has gone in the direction of modularizing Windows PowerShell (consider, for example, that help is updated separately), it has gone with a more Agile approach and is offering “DSC Resource Kits” online. These kits package all kinds of server-related support like Active Directory and Hyper-V. If vendors also start supporting DSC, like some have done quite extensively for Windows PowerShell, this should set a good foundation for a solid DevOps future based on Microsoft technologies.
Additionally, with the support for Linux and the extensibility of DSC to Microsoft Azure, I think that if you’re serious about your future in IT, you owe it to yourself to start learning about this new built-in Windows PowerShell feature.
