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Publish to a Pull Server using Configuration IDs (v4/v5)

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The sections below assume that you have already set up a Pull Server. If you haven't set up your Pull Server, you can use the following guides:

Each target node can be configured to download configurations, resources, and even report its status. This article shows you how to upload resources so they're available to be downloaded, and configure clients to automatically download resources. When the node receives an assigned Configuration, through Pull or Push (v5), it automatically downloads any resources required by the Configuration from the location specified in the Local Configuration Manager (LCM).

Compile configurations

The first step to storing Configurations on a Pull Server, is to compile them into .mof files. To make a configuration generic, and applicable to more clients, use localhost in your Node block. The example below shows a Configuration shell that uses localhost instead of a specific client name.

Configuration GenericConfig
{
    Node localhost
    {

    }
}
GenericConfig

Once you've compiled your generic configuration, you should have a localhost.mof file.

Renaming the MOF file

You can store Configuration .mof files on a Pull Server by ConfigurationName or ConfigurationID. Depending on how you plan to set up your pull clients, you can choose a section below to properly rename your compiled .mof files.

Configuration IDs (GUID)

You'll need to rename your localhost.mof file to <GUID>.mof file. You can create a random Guid using the example below, or by using the New-Guid cmdlet.

[System.Guid]::NewGuid()

Sample Output

Guid
----
64856475-939e-41fb-aba5-4469f4006059

You can then rename your .mof file using any acceptable method. The example below, uses the Rename-Item cmdlet.

Rename-Item -Path .\localhost.mof -NewName '64856475-939e-41fb-aba5-4469f4006059.mof'

For more information about using Guids in your environment, see Plan for Guids.

Configuration names

You'll need to rename your localhost.mof file to <Configuration Name>.mof file. In the following example, the configuration name from the previous section is used. You can then rename your .mof file using any acceptable method. The example below, uses the Rename-Item cmdlet.

Rename-Item -Path .\localhost.mof -NewName 'GenericConfig.mof'

Create the checkSum

Each .mof file stored on a Pull Server, or SMB share needs to have an associated .checksum file. This file lets clients know when the associated .mof file has changed and should be downloaded again.

You can create a CheckSum with the New-DSCCheckSum cmdlet. You can also run New-DSCCheckSum against a directory of files using the -Path parameter. If a checksum already exists, you can force it to be re-created with the -Force parameter. The following example specified a directory containing the .mof file from the previous section, and uses the -Force parameter.

New-DscChecksum -Path '.\' -Force

No output will be shown, but you should now see a <GUID or Configuration Name>.mof.checksum file.

Where to store MOF files and checkSums

On a DSC HTTP Pull Server

When you set up your HTTP Pull Server, as explained in Set up a DSC HTTP Pull Server, you specify directories for the ModulePath and ConfigurationPath keys. The ModulePath key indicates where a module's packaged .zip files should be stored. The ConfigurationPath indicates where any .mof files and .checksum files should be stored.

    xDscWebService PSDSCPullServer
    {
    ...
        ModulePath              = "$env:PROGRAMFILES\WindowsPowerShell\DscService\Modules"
        ConfigurationPath       = "$env:PROGRAMFILES\WindowsPowerShell\DscService\Configuration"
    ...
    }

On an SMB share

When you set up a Pull Client to use an SMB share, you specify a ConfigurationRepositoryShare. All .mof files and .checksum files should be stored in the SourcePath directory from the ConfigurationRepositoryShare block.

ConfigurationRepositoryShare SMBPullServer
{
    SourcePath = '\\SMBPullServer\Pull'
}

Next steps

Next, you'll want to configure Pull Clients to pull the specified configuration. For more information, see one of the following guides:

See also