Book excerpt: Get started with the fundamentals of PowerShell DSC and utilize its power to automate deployment and configuration of your servers About This Book Create flexible and maintainable deployments using DSC configuration scripts that stand the test of time Explore the in depth details of the core architecture, concepts, and practices used by PowerShell DSC A step-by-step guide that shows you how to start using and taking advantage of PowerShell DSC Who This Book Is For This book is intended for system administrators, developers, or engineers who are responsible for configuration management and automation and wish to learn PowerShell Desired State Configuration for efficient management, configuration and deployment of systems and applications. What You Will Learn Understand configuration management and why you need it Craft flexible, reusable, and maintainable configuration scripts for thousands of servers Create custom DSC resources to manage any application or server setting Apply configuration data to deploy applications to different environments Utilize DSC push deployments to test your configuration scripts and custom DSC resources Install, configure and use DSC pull servers Run a Windows MSI package Deploy a website In Detail Windows PowerShell is a task-based command-line shell and scripting language designed especially for system administration. PowerShell DSC is a new management platform that enables you to deploy and manage configuration data for software services and manage the environment in which these services run. This book begins with an overview of the basics of PowerShell DSC by covering the architecture and components of the Desired Sate Configuration. It will then familiarize you with the set of PowerShell language extensions and new PowerShell commands. It will help you understand and create DSC configurations with the help of practical examples, and to create DSC custom resources for your custom applications. Finally, you will learn to deploy a real world application using PowerShell DSC. By the end of the book, you will have better knowledge about the powerful Desired State Configuration platform, which helps you to achieve continuous delivery, and efficient management and easy deployment of data for systems. Style and approach This book is an in-depth guide to using PowerShell DSC, full of real-world experiences and best practices using PowerShell DSC. The topics are explained and build on one another other to provide a holistic learning experience. At the end, all the features learned will be used to create a real world application deployment using DSC.