2022-05-04 Notes

Recording

Agenda

Quick update on activity

• PowerShell DevOps Global Summit 2022

Special Guests & Announcement

The PowerShell Desired State Configuration module is now open sourced!!!:

• Jodi Boone, Program Manager for Guest Configuration
• Jason Helmick, Program Manager for PowerShell (including PowerShell DSC)
• Michael Greene, Principal Program Manager for PowerShell and Guest Configuration

Code contributions are not considered at this time, except for tests. Issues and discussions are welcome.

Also presenting the Microsoft technical writers:

• Sean Wheeler
• Mikey Lombardi
• Mike F. Robbins

Key points, copied from @PowerShellMich1’s notes (thank you Sir!):

• Follow a big push for DSC to be Open Source

• PSDesiredStateConfigurationModule

• Current work for the PowerShell Team on PSDSC V3 is support of Azure Guest Configuration.

• No Roadmap yet except some bug fixes with a planned PSDSC v2.0.6 version. Updates to the DSC Documentation, reviewing/considering work items to be planned.

• PSDSC is used by Azure Guest Configuration:

  • PSDSC does not mean agent/pull server bits, just the Compilation, DSC Resource ecosystem, Composite (TBD) and invocation of resources.
  • Announcements about Guest Configuration. Audit is GA, Set (~DSC remediation) is preview and should become GA soon.
  • No more dependency of Resources modules, the Guest Configuration package embed the MOF AND required modules.

• Azure Guest Configuration Started as a cloud governance product. However it now extends to enact custom DSC Configuration.

  • Remediating non-compliance.
  • Soon go GA to use SET scenarios.

• The different versions of PSDSC Module:

  • DSC v1 is the existing version of DSC.
  • DSC 2.0 will decouple with a LCM. You bring your own LCM.
  • DSC 3.0 is the xplat version supporting only class based to deprecate CIM/MOF/MI. Here, Microsoft’s new LCM equivalent will be Azure Guest Configuration.

• Guest Config Considerations:

  • Reviewing means of existing Script Based Resources to miagrate to Class Based Resources.
  • Azure Guest Configuration Agent functions as a LCM and could be run side-by-side with windows LCM.
  • Azure Guest Configuration functions by being able to run simultaneous configurations.
  • Different ways of managing modules and supporting modules.
  • Logging is better.
  • Azure Guest Policy Management uses a singlular source artifact zip file.
  • Use a build script to create and deploy the artifact zip file to azure.
  • Tags are the best way of grouping and deploying configuration within Guest Config.

• From a docs point of view, we still need to:

  • Update to the DSC Terminalology.
  • Updates to the DSC Documentation. Re-writing documentation, that’s why Mikey joined the MSFT doc team.

• While the Guest Config scenarios is focussing on Azure, and the PowerShell team is focused on this first customer for the PowerShell DSC platform (the PSDSC Module), the goal is to make the platform open and reusable.

Tooling modules that have been released recently

• Releases
  • Sampler v0.112.3 (templates install GitVersion using dotnet tool install)

Updated on 04 May 2022