PSDesiredStateConfiguration v1.1

DSC is a management platform in PowerShell that enables you to manage your IT and development infrastructure with configuration as code.

PSDesiredStateConfiguration v1.1 is the version of the module that ships with Windows PowerShell 5.1.

For an overview of the business benefits of using DSC, see Desired State Configuration Overview for Decision Makers.
For an overview of the engineering benefits of using DSC, see Desired State Configuration Overview for Engineers.
To start using DSC quickly, see DSC quick start.

Key Concepts

DSC is a declarative platform used for configuration, deployment, and management of systems. It consists of three primary components:

Configurations are declarative PowerShell scripts which define and configure instances of resources. Upon running the configuration, DSC (and the resources being called by the configuration) will simply "make it so", ensuring that the system exists in the state laid out by the configuration. DSC configurations are also idempotent: the Local Configuration Manager (LCM) will continue to ensure that machines are configured in whatever state the configuration declares.
Resources are the "make it so" part of DSC. They contain the code that put and keep the target of a configuration in the specified state. Resources reside in PowerShell modules and can be written to model something as generic as a file or a Windows process, or as specific as an IIS server or a VM running in Azure.
The Local Configuration Manager (LCM) is the engine by which DSC facilitates the interaction between resources and configurations. The LCM regularly polls the system using the control flow implemented by resources to ensure that the state defined by a configuration is maintained. If the system is out of state, the LCM makes calls to the code in resources to "make it so" according to the configuration.