I think I’ve gotten my DSC classroom and demo setup ready. Understand that this isn’t meant to be production-friendly - it doesn’t automate some stuff because I want to cover that stuff in class by walking through it. But, I thought I’d share.
I’ve basically made an ISO that I can carry into class, attach to a Win2012R2 VM and a Win81 VM, and run students through. The server VM is a DC in “company.pri” domain, and the client VM belongs to that domain.
In the root of the ISO are these scripts: ISO_Root (unzip that). Students basically just open PowerShell, set the execution policy to RemoteSigned or Unrestricted, and then run SetupLab -DVD D:, replacing “D:” with the drive letter of the VM’s optical drive. The script isn’t super-intelligent since I demo it at the same time; it needs the colon after the drive letter.
In a folder called DSC_Modules, I add the following DSC modules (unzipped): xActiveDirectory, xComputerManagement, xDscDiagnostics, xDscResourceDesigner, xNetworking, xPSDesiredStateConfiguration_1.1, xSmbShare, xSqlPs, xWebAdministration.
In a folder called DSC_Pull_Examples, I include these scripts: DSC_Pull_Examples (unzip that).
In a folder called eBooks, I include these files: eBooks (unzip that). Those get used in a lot of the demos I do, so I have the lab setup scripts copy over some script modules.
In a folder called Help, I have a file called Help.zip. This contains everything downloaded by the Save-Help command in PowerShell. The Setup script unzips this into the VM and then runs Update-Help against it, so the VM doesn’t need to be Internet-connected.
In a folder called Hotfix, I have the Windows8.1-KB2883200-x64.msu hot fix installer. I include the 32-bit version also, just in case, but my script doesn’t use it.
In a folder called Installers, I have installers for PrimalScript, PowerShell Studio, and SQL Server Express with Advanced Services. Again, those get used a lot in my classes, but the setup script doesn’t rely on them.
Finally, in a folder called sxs, I have the contents of the Windows 8.1 installation media’s \Sources\sxs folder. Some of the things my setup script does - like adding .NET Framework 3.5 so SQL Server 2012 will work - rely on features that aren’t in a Win8.1 VM, normally. Because I don’t want to rely on the Internet, I include this source so I can install new features from it.
This is all pretty specific to the way I run classes, but if there’s any use you can make of it, feel free.