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Desired State Configuration (DSC) Known Issues and Limitations

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Breaking Change: Certificates used to encrypt/decrypt passwords in DSC configurations may not work after installing WMF 5.0 RTM

In WMF 4.0 and WMF 5.0 Preview releases, DSC would not allow passwords in the configuration to be of length more than 121 characters. DSC was forcing to use short passwords even if lengthy and strong password was desired. This breaking change allows passwords to be of arbitrary length in the DSC configuration.

Resolution: Re-create the certificate with Data Encipherment or Key Encipherment Key usage, and Document Encryption Enhanced Key usage (1.3.6.1.4.1.311.80.1). For more information, see Protect-CmsMessage.

DSC cmdlets may fail after installing WMF 5.0 RTM

Start-DscConfiguration and other DSC cmdlets may fail after installing WMF 5.0 RTM with the following error:

LCM failed to retrieve the property PendingJobStep from the object of class dscInternalCache .
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (root/Microsoft/...gurationManager:String) [], CimException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MI RESULT 6
+ PSComputerName : localhost

Resolution: Delete DSCEngineCache.mof by running the following command in an elevated PowerShell session (Run as Administrator):

Remove-Item -Path $env:SystemRoot\system32\Configuration\DSCEngineCache.mof

DSC cmdlets may not work if WMF 5.0 RTM is installed on top of WMF 5.0 Production Preview

Resolution: Run the following command in an elevated PowerShell session (run as administrator):

mofcomp $env:windir\system32\wbem\DscCoreConfProv.mof

LCM can go into an unstable state while using Get-DscConfiguration in DebugMode

If LCM is in DebugMode, pressing CTRL+C to stop the processing of Get-DscConfiguration can cause LCM to go into an unstable state such that majority of DSC cmdlets won't work.

Resolution: Don't press CTRL+C while debugging Get-DscConfiguration cmdlet.

Stop-DscConfiguration may not respond in DebugMode

If LCM is in DebugMode, Stop-DscConfiguration may not respond while trying to stop an operation started by Get-DscConfiguration

Resolution: Finish the debugging of the operation started by Get-DscConfiguration as outlined in Debugging DSC resources.

No Verbose Error Messages are shown in DebugMode

If LCM is in DebugMode, no verbose error messages are displayed from DSC Resources.

Resolution: Disable DebugMode to see verbose messages from the resource

Invoke-DscResource operations cannot be retrieved by Get-DscConfigurationStatus cmdlet

After using Invoke-DscResource cmdlet to directly invoke any resource's methods, the records of such operation cannot be retrieved through Get-DscConfigurationStatus.

Resolution: None.

Get-DscConfigurationStatus returns pull cycle operations as type Consistency

When a node is set to PULL refresh mode, for each pull operation performed, Get-DscConfigurationStatus cmdlet reports the operation type as Consistency instead of Initial

Resolution: None.

Invoke-DscResource cmdlet does not return message in the order they were produced

The Invoke-DscResource cmdlet does not return verbose, warning, and error messages in the order they were produced by LCM or the DSC resource.

Resolution: None.

DSC Resources cannot be debugged easily when used with Invoke-DscResource

When LCM is running in debug mode, Invoke-DscResource cmdlet does not give information about runspace to connect to for debugging. For more information, see Debugging DSC resources.

Resolution: Discover and attach to the runspace using cmdlets Get-PSHostProcessInfo, Enter-PSHostProcess , Get-Runspace and Debug-Runspace to debug the DSC resource.

# Find all the processes hosting PowerShell
Get-PSHostProcessInfo

ProcessName    ProcessId AppDomainName
-----------    --------- -------------
powershell          3932 DefaultAppDomain
powershell_ise      2304 DefaultAppDomain
WmiPrvSE            3396 DscPsPluginWkr_AppDomain

# Enter the process that is hosting DSC engine (WMI process with DscPsPluginWkr_Appdomain)
Enter-PSHostProcess -Id 3396 -AppDomainName DscPsPluginWkr_AppDomain

# Find all the available rusnspaces in that process
Get-Runspace

Id Name       ComputerName Type  State  Availability
-- ----       ------------ ----  -----  ------------
 2 Runspace2  localhost    Local Opened InBreakpoint
 5 RemoteHost localhost    Local Opened Busy

# Debug the runspace that is in **InBreakpoint** availability state
Debug-Runspace -Id 2

Various Partial Configuration documents for same node cannot have identical resource names

For several partial configurations that are deployed onto a single node, identical names of resources cause run time error.

Resolution: Use different names for even same resources in different partial configurations.

Start-DscConfiguration –UseExisting does not work with -Credential

When using Start-DscConfiguration with UseExisting parameter, the Credential parameter is ignored. DSC uses default process identity to proceed the operation. This causes error when a different credential is needed to proceed on remote node.

Resolution: Use CIM session for remote DSC operations:

$session = New-CimSession -ComputerName $node -Credential $credential
Start-DscConfiguration -UseExisting -CimSession $session

IPv6 Addresses as Node Names in DSC configurations

IPv6 addresses as node names in DSC configuration scripts are not supported in this release.

Resolution: None.

Debugging of Class-Based DSC Resources

Debugging of class-based DSC Resources is not supported in this release.

Resolution: None.

Variables and functions defined in $script scope in DSC Class-Based Resource are not preserved across multiple calls to a DSC Resource

Multiple consecutive calls to Start-DSCConfiguration fails if the configuration is using any class-based resource which has variables or functions defined in $script scope.

Resolution: Define all variables and functions in DSC Resource class itself. No $script scope variables/functions.

DSC Resource Debugging when a resource is using PSDscRunAsCredential

DSC Resource debugging when a resource is using the PSDscRunAsCredential property in the configuration is not supported in this release.

Resolution: None.

PsDscRunAsCredential is not supported for DSC Composite Resources

Resolution: Use Credential property if available. Example ServiceSet and WindowsFeatureSet

Get-DscResource -Syntax does not reflect PsDscRunAsCredential correctly

The Syntax parameter does not reflect PsDscRunAsCredential correctly when resource marks it as mandatory or does not support it.

Resolution: None. However, authoring configuration in ISE reflects correct metadata about PsDscRunAsCredential property when using IntelliSense.

WindowsOptionalFeature is not available in Windows 7

The WindowsOptionalFeature DSC resource is not available in Windows 7. This resource requires the DISM module, and DISM cmdlets that are available starting in Windows 8 and newer releases of the Windows operating system.

For Class-based DSC resources, Import-DscResource -ModuleVersion may not work as expected

If the compilation node has multiple versions of a class-based DSC resource module, Import-DscResource -ModuleVersion does not pick the specified version and results in following compilation error.

ImportClassResourcesFromModule : Exception calling "ImportClassResourcesFromModule" with "3" argument(s):
 "Keyword 'MyTestResource' already defined in the configuration."
At C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\PSDesiredStateConfiguration\PSDesiredStateConfiguration.psm1:2035 char:35
+ ... rcesFound = ImportClassResourcesFromModule -Module $mod -Resources $r ...
+                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [ImportClassResourcesFromModule], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PSInvalidOperationException,ImportClassResourcesFromModule

Resolution: Import the required version by defining the ModuleSpecification object to the ModuleName parameter with RequiredVersion key specified as follows:

Import-DscResource -ModuleName @{ModuleName='MyModuleName';RequiredVersion='1.2'}

Some DSC resources like registry resource may start to take a long time to process the request.

Resolution 1: Create a schedule task that cleans up the following folder periodically.

$env:windir\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\CommandAnalysis

Resolution 2: Change the DSC configuration to clean up the CommandAnalysis folder at the end of the configuration.

Configuration $configName
{

   # User Data
    Registry SetRegisteredOwner
    {
        Ensure = 'Present'
        Force = $True
        Key = $Node.RegisteredKey
        ValueName = $Node.RegisteredOwnerValue
        ValueType = 'String'
        ValueData = $Node.RegisteredOwnerData
    }
    #
    # Script to delete the config
    #
    script DeleteCommandAnalysisCache
    {
        DependsOn = "[Registry]SetRegisteredOwner"
        getscript = "@{}"
        testscript = 'Remove-Item -Path $env:windir\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\CommandAnalysis -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -ErrorVariable ev | out-null;$true'
        setscript = '$true'
    }
}