The PowerShell team released a new set of Desired Configuration State (DSC) resources, building blocks that allow the configuration of computer items. This resource kit was published to encourage the PowerShell community to author more DSC resources.
The DSC Resource Kit Wave 1, as it is named, contains eight new resources in total, which are packaged in five modules: xWebAdministration; xComputerManagement; xPSDesiredStateConfiguration; xNetworking and xHyperV. It becomes possible to configure a web server from the ground up with DSC when these resources are combined with the built-in ones.
The xWebAdministration module contains the xWebsite resource, which allows the configuration of a Website. The xComputerManagement module offers the possibility to rename a computer and change its workgroup or domain, through the xComputer resource. The xDscWebService resource, contained in the xPSDesiredStateConfiguration module, sets up a DSC Service, also known as pull server. The xNetworking module provides two resources, the xIPAddress and xDnsServerAddress. They allow the configuration of the IP and DNS Server addresses of a node, or computer. Finally, the xHyperV module gives the capability to configure virtual machines, virtual hard disk files (VHD) and Virtual Switches in Hyper-V, Windows' virtualized server computing environment. These capabilities are configured through the xVMHyperV, xVhd and xVMSwitch resources, respectively.
This DSC Resource Kit was released AS IS, without support of any kind from any Microsoft support program or service. To underline this fact, all the modules and resources are prefixed with an "x", which stands for experimental. The team says that it will accept feedback and may provide fixes on a "fix forward" basis, that is to mean the DSC Resource Kit may be republished with some fixes included.
All the resources included in the DSC Resource Kit can be copied and modified, but may only be used on the Windows platform. When modifying a resource it is recommended that the resources, modules and other related artifacts be renamed. "MSFT" should be replaced with your own organization name and the "x" removed. For instance, MSFT_xWebsite could become Contoso_Website.
The DSC Resource Kit was only verified on Windows Server 2012, but it should work on any operating system with PowerShell 4.0 installed.