Book Image

Windows Server 2016 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook - Second Edition

By : Thomas Lee, Ed Goad
Book Image

Windows Server 2016 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook - Second Edition

By: Thomas Lee, Ed Goad

Overview of this book

This book showcases several ways that Windows administrators can use to automate and streamline their job. You'll start with the PowerShell and Windows Server fundamentals, where you'll become well versed with PowerShell and Windows Server features. In the next module, Core Windows Server 2016, you'll implement Nano Server, manage Windows updates, and implement troubleshooting and server inventories. You'll then move on to the Networking module, where you'll manage Windows network services and network shares. The last module covers Azure and DSC, where you will use Azure on PowerShell and DSC to easily maintain Windows servers.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgment
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Introduction


Desired State Configuration (DSC) is management platform within Windows Server and is implemented with Windows PowerShell. DSC enables you to define a computer's desired state declaratively and have PowerShell ensure the computer is configured accordingly and remains so. This is simpler than writing complex scripts to configure a given computer. Microsoft added DSC with PowerShell and delivered improvements V5 and V/5.1 and Server 2016.

With DSC, you define a configuration that describes the details of how a given node (computer) is to be configured. The configuration defines a series of resources to be invoked on the node and how these resources should be configured. A DSC resource is PowerShell code and executable that knows to configure a given object residing on a node. Resources primarily exist as PowerShell modules and you need them both on the computer on which you author DSC configurations and on the target node.

For example, you could define a node and specify that the...