DSC Resource Kit Release

We just released the DSC Resource Kit!

This release includes updates to 9 DSC resource modules. In the past 6 weeks, 91 pull requests have been merged and 41 issues have been closed, all thanks to our amazing community!

Special thanks to everyone who contributed to the Hacktoberfest effort to update xWebAdministration!!! This accounted for 26 of the pull requests closed this month.

The modules updated in this release are:

ActiveDirectoryDsc 4.2.0.0

ComputerManagementDsc 7.1.0.0

SharePointDsc 3.7.0.0

StorageDsc 4.9.0.0

xDnsServer .16.0.0

xDscResourceDesigner .13.0.0

xExchange .30.0.0

xHyper-V .17.0.0

xWebAdministration 3.0.0.0

For a detailed list of the resource modules and fixes in this release, see the Included in this Release section below.

Our latest community call for the DSC Resource Kit was last Wednesday, October 23. A recording of the call is posted on the PowerShell YouTube channel. You can join us for the next call at 12PM (Pacific time) on August 28th to ask questions and give feedback about your experience with the DSC Resource Kit.

Following this resource kit release, maintainers will begin publishing as soon as they are ready rather than holding 6 weeks to do a group release. In the next community call we will discuss progress and whether we need to do a November release or not. Be sure to follow the DSC Community on Twitter for live updates as modules release.

You can find more information about our progress as a community on the DSC Community page.

We strongly encourage you to update to the newest version of all modules using the PowerShell Gallery, and don’t forget to give us your feedback in the comments below, on GitHub, or on Twitter (@PowerShell_Team)!

Please see our documentation here for information on the support of these resource modules.

Included in this Release

You can see a detailed summary of all changes included in this release in the table below. For past release notes, go to the README.md or CHANGELOG.md file on the GitHub repository page for a specific module (see the How to Find DSC Resource Modules on GitHub section below for details on finding the GitHub page for a specific module).

How to Find Released DSC Resource Modules

To see a list of all released DSC Resource Kit modules, go to the PowerShell Gallery and display all modules tagged as DSCResourceKit. You can also enter a module’s name in the search box in the upper right corner of the PowerShell Gallery to find a specific module.

Of course, you can also always use PowerShellGet (available starting in WMF 5.0) to find modules with DSC Resources:

# To list all modules that tagged as DSCResourceKit Find-Module - Tag DSCResourceKit # To list all DSC resources from all sources Find-DscResource

Please note only those modules released by the PowerShell Team are currently considered part of the ‘DSC Resource Kit’ regardless of the presence of the ‘DSC Resource Kit’ tag in the PowerShell Gallery.

To find a specific module, go directly to its URL on the PowerShell Gallery: http://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/< module name > For example: http://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/xWebAdministration

How to Install DSC Resource Modules From the PowerShell Gallery

We recommend that you use PowerShellGet to install DSC resource modules:

Install-Module - Name < module name >

For example:

Install-Module - Name xWebAdministration

To update all previously installed modules at once, open an elevated PowerShell prompt and use this command:

Update-Module

After installing modules, you can discover all DSC resources available to your local system with this command:

Get-DscResource

How to Find DSC Resource Modules on GitHub

All resource modules in the DSC Resource Kit are available open-source on GitHub. You can see the most recent state of a resource module by visiting its GitHub page at: https://github.com/PowerShell/< module name > For example, for the CertificateDsc module, go to: https://github.com/PowerShell/CertificateDsc.

All DSC modules are also listed as submodules of the DscResources repository in the DscResources folder and the xDscResources folder.

How to Contribute

You are more than welcome to contribute to the development of the DSC Resource Kit! There are several different ways you can help. You can create new DSC resources or modules, add test automation, improve documentation, fix existing issues, or open new ones. See our contributing guide for more info on how to become a DSC Resource Kit contributor.

If you would like to help, please take a look at the list of open issues for the DscResources repository. You can also check issues for specific resource modules by going to: https://github.com/PowerShell/< module name >/issues For example: https://github.com/PowerShell/xPSDesiredStateConfiguration/issues

Your help in developing the DSC Resource Kit is invaluable to us!

Questions, comments?

If you’re looking into using PowerShell DSC, have questions or issues with a current resource, or would like a new resource, let us know in the comments below, on Twitter (@PowerShell_Team), or by creating an issue on GitHub.

Michael Greene Principal Program Manager PowerShell DSC Team @migreene (Twitter) @mgreenegit (GitHub)