Using existing DSC scripts

[Leo Barcenas]

Hi,

I am new to Otter and I have a couple of questions on DSC integration:

1. We have some existing DSC scripts that we used for Push configuration. Our goal is to implement partial configurations so several team members can work independently on the scripts. What is the best approach to this?

2. We need to have all scripts to be in version control. We use TFS. Is this something we can do with Otter?

3. I need to define dependencies in DSC. Example:

    WindowsFeature "Role-Web-DAV-Publishing"
    {
        Name = 'Web-DAV-Publishing'
        Ensure = 'Present'
        DependsOn = @('[WindowsFeature]Role-Web-Static-Content')
    }
   
   How can I express this in Otter's PSDsc?
   

Thanks,

Leo

Product: Otter
Version: 1.5.5

[Steve]

Hi Leo,

Configuration can be stored in a Git raft, and we may add a "nativate TFS" repository support soon, but for now you can simply just use a TFS Git Repo.

As for DSC, do keep in mind is the conceptual differences between Otter and pure DSC:

Otter work with PowerShell DSC resources (i.e. a single configurable item).

On its own, Powershell DSC defines configuration as a graph of resources (similar to how Puppet works), and "DependsOn" is one of the mechanisms to construct that graph. The graph is nice, except it's totally unpredictable which order things run in, which is why we decided against the model in design.

Otter, on the other hand, is more procedural (like Chef, Ansible), so we cannot import a concept like "DependsOn".

To define your configuration in Otter, you instead use "roles"; we will soon add a feature called "role dependencies", but this will basically just automatically add roles at configuration time when needed.

So, from a pratices standpoint, you would have different roles defined in Otter, and then have your members modify these either in the Git directly or in Otter.

[Using Existing DSC Scripts]

Thank you for your reply.

Do you know when native TFS support will be released?
We are evaluating different tools (Chef and Puppet). Otter seems to make sense for us considering that it is built for Microsoft environment.

Thanks.

Regards,

Leo

[Alana]

There hasn't been a huge demand for Native TFS Repositories, so we haven't prioritized it. We don't have a ETA, since everyone who has asked for it just ended up using Git in TFS.