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Desired State Configuration - ConfigurationData

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Update 12.10.2016 - More functions added to repro some while ago

 This module has been laying dormant in my BitBucket repro. Looks like people are realizing that DSC is about to become a thing. Need some feedback if this is a way of handling your Configuration data in DSC. I will publish it to the PowershellGallery if people find it useful. Should probably do a code review as well since this was written over 2 years ago :-0.

 Update 19.04.2014 - Module (beta) added to bitbucket here

 When you start to work with DSC, you quickly realize that separating the infrastructure from the configuration is a huge benefit and somewhat of a curse. You start to read blogs and webposts explaining how you can specify the configurationdata to you configuration, however for the people that does not speak powershell (yes they are out there) and/or still don’t like it, it looks kind of “untidy”. Example:

 image

Yes, Beelzebub has joined the party, pure evil. Just to explain ConfigurationData in Desired State Configuration:

 It consists of two main elements:
  1. AllNodes (an array of all you nodes you want to configure)
  2. NonNodeData (an hashtable of properties that may or may not be related to any specific node)
So instead of the “rubbish” configdata variable above, we are going to do the same like this:

 Import-Module DSCconfigdata

Add-DSCnode -Name Server1
Add-DSCnode -Name Server2

Add-DSCproperty -Name WinFeatures
Add-DSCproperty -Name SourceRoot
Add-DSCproperty -Name WebDirectory
Add-DSCproperty -Name RecurseValue

(Get-DSCNode -Name Server1).Role = "web"
(Get-DSCNode -Name Server1).WinFeatures = "web-server"
(Get-DSCNode -Name Server1).SourceRoot = "\\Server106\source\presentation\"
(Get-DSCNode -Name Server1).WebDirectory = "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\"
(Get-DSCNode -Name Server1).RecurseValue = $false

Add-DSCproperty -NonNodeData -Name DNSIPAddress -Value "8.8.8.8"
Add-DSCproperty -NonNodeData -Name DNSName -Value "resolve.contoso.com"
Add-DSCproperty -NonNodeData -Name SubnetMask -Value "255.255.255.0"
Add-DSCproperty -NonNodeData -Name DNSIPAddress -Value "contoso.com"
Should give you something like this:

image


image

image

The module have these methods:

 image

The module also exports a variable called $configData. You may also use the function Get-DSCConfigData, the result is the same. 

 One other nice feature is to allow clear text passwords in you MOF-files. Just use the Set-AllowClearTextPassword function to enable this (for all nodes or specific nodes). 

 Of course if you just want to inspect the configuration for a node, use this:

 image

So the module is still in development, however if you are keen on trying it, hit me up on twitter or post a comment.

 Cheers
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