Ever since I started using Template Deployments I have been perfecting a Dynamic Azure ARM Template for server deployments. I finally reached a point where I feel this template is complete and am excited to share it with the world. The code can be found on my GitHub page here. A brief explications of parameter values are listed below. Continue reading “Dynamic Azure ARM Template for Server Deployments”
Tag: dsc
Azure Desired State Configuration Pricing Change
Microsoft announced a change in the pricing model for Azure Desired State Configuration from a per-node to a per-transaction pricing structure. With the standard 15 minute refresh, the cost is about the same as per-node. However, it’s possible to get the monthly price to under $1 US by setting the refresh rate to once or twice a day. Microsoft’s announcement can be found here.
My other posts on Azure DSC can be found here.
Configuring Storage Spaces with Azure Desired State Configuration
As promised in my last post, here are the details on configuring Storage Spaces with Azure Desired State Configuration.
But first, some context
The goal is strait forward. I deploy multiple Windows Server 2016 VM’s and add them to the domain all with an ARM template. These VM’s inevitably have multiple data drives just waiting to be provisioned. Logging into each server to manually configure data drives is just not practical. I needed a way to pool the data drives and create a single data disk with minimal interaction. Continue reading “Configuring Storage Spaces with Azure Desired State Configuration”
PowerShell Desired State Configuration Troubles
I am excited for the potential of PowerShell Desired State Configuration. The ideal of pushing configurations with one click, making settings consistent across multiple machines is a sysadmins utopia. But getting there can be a challenge and somewhat of a steep learning curve.
This week’s obstacle was with the PowerShell DSC script resource. There is a lot of information available. This Microsoft document is a good place to start. Continue reading “PowerShell Desired State Configuration Troubles”
Azure DSC and .NET 3.5
In this post I will walk you through the process of installing .NET 3.5 with Azure DSC. A few OS versions back Microsoft decided to remove the source .cab for .NET 3.5 from Windows Server. Reasons for removing the source files or installing .NET 3.5 at all aside, you probably landed on this page because you want to deploy .NET 3.5 with Azure Desired State Configuration but running into trouble.
The source of the issue is the “Removed” install state for .NET Framework 3.5. You can see this by running the PowerShell command
Get-WindowsFeature -name NET*
