PowerShell Desired State Configuration Essential Training
2h 11mBeginner2016-05-24
Authors

Matt Hester
IT Pro, Author, Technical Evangelist
Course details
Learn the essentials of PowerShell Desired State Configuration. DSC is a new IT management platform built on Windows PowerShell that enables administrators to define the desired state of their systems through declarative configuration documents, and manage configuration data on an ongoing basis.
Current IT pros will need to understand DSC as they move into managing Microsoft's next wave of server and cloud products that will leverage this important technology. In this course, Matt Hester shows how to write configuration documents, work with DSC resources, and apply configurations to systems via both push and pull modes. Plus, he shows how to troubleshoot DSC and use DSC in non-Windows environments like Linux.
Learning objectives
Why we need DSC
Understanding DSC architecture
Working with built-in and custom resources
Creating a DSC configuration
Staging configured data
Creating, testing, and restoring DSC configurations with the push model
Configuring pull servers
Creating and testing DSC configurations with the pull model
Using DSC in Linux environments
Troubleshooting DSC
Current IT pros will need to understand DSC as they move into managing Microsoft's next wave of server and cloud products that will leverage this important technology. In this course, Matt Hester shows how to write configuration documents, work with DSC resources, and apply configurations to systems via both push and pull modes. Plus, he shows how to troubleshoot DSC and use DSC in non-Windows environments like Linux.
Learning objectives
Why we need DSC
Understanding DSC architecture
Working with built-in and custom resources
Creating a DSC configuration
Staging configured data
Creating, testing, and restoring DSC configurations with the push model
Configuring pull servers
Creating and testing DSC configurations with the pull model
Using DSC in Linux environments
Troubleshooting DSC
Skills covered
PowerShellIT AutomationEssential TrainingNetwork and System AdministrationMicrosoft
Concepts
0. Introduction
- 01 - Welcome
- 02 - What you should know before watching this course
- 03 - Using the exercise files
1. DSC Overview
- 04 - Why we need DSC
- 05 - DSC architecture
- 06 - Configurations and resources for DSC
- 07 - DSC requirements
2. DSC Resources
- 08 - Built-in resources
- 09 - Custom resources
- 10 - Finding and using DSC resources
3. DSC Configurations
- 11 - Creating a DSC configuration
- 12 - Parameterized configurations
- 13 - Ordering with DependsOn
- 14 - Staging configuration data
- 15 - Cross-computer synchronization
4. Push Configurations
- 16 - Using Start-DscConfiguration
- 17 - Testing DSC configurations
- 18 - Restoring DSC configurations
5. Build a Pull Server
- 19 - Understanding the pull server role
- 20 - Configuring an SMB pull server
- 21 - Configuring an HTTP HTTPS pull server
6. Pull Configurations
- 22 - Understanding the Local Configuration Manager (LCM)
- 23 - Configuring the LCM for pull-based deployment
- 24 - Automatically downloading resources
7. Cross-Platform DSC
- 25 - Understanding cross-platform DSC
- 26 - Basics of DSC for Linux
- 27 - Initial setup of DSC for Linux
- 28 - Configuring Linux with DSC
8. DSC Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
- 29 - Logging errors
- 30 - Working with event logs
- 31 - Using the xDscDiagnostics module
Conclusion
- 32 - Next steps