ReverseDSC is a module that allows you to extract the PowerShell Desired State Configuration out of an existing environment, in order for you to analyze it, onboard it onto DSC, or replicate it somewhere else. ReverseDSC as it stands is a technology Agnostic PowerShell Module. It only provides methods to allow you to properly convert extracted values into a DSC notation. In order to obtain these values, you need to dynamically call into the Get-TargetResource function of a given DSC Resource.
Every DSC Resource needs to include 3 core functions in order for it to be valid: Get-TargetResource, Set-TargetResource, and Test-TargetResource. For more information on the role of each of these function, you can consult the readme content on the SharePointDSC.Reverse repository. As explained in my How to use the ReverseDSC Core article, in order for you to obtain the values of a Resource instance, you need to call the Get-TargetResource for it, passing in the mandatory parameters that will allow the function to retrieve the instance (e.g. Primary Key of the instance).
An Orchestrator script, is responsible for determining these mandatory parameters and for calling the Get-TargetResource function for each instance, to obtain the complete set of key/value pairs for that instance. It then calls the ReverseDSC Core for each of these key/value pair to obtain the DSC notation, collects them all, and saves them into a resulting .ps1 file. The Orchestrator script is technology Specific, meaning that it requires the person writing the script to be familiar to some level with the technology stack it is for. As an example, when writing the Orchestrator script for SharePoint, when trying to retrieve information about all the Web Applications, you need to be able to know how to call the Get-SPWebApplication cmdlet in order to retrieve the URL (Primary key) of a Web Application instance.
ReverseDSC is all about community effort, and to help contributors get started I published a new Orchestrator Script Template to allow people to quickly get their script up and running. In the script, you will find several instances of placeholders starting with “[**“. Simply replace these with the values specified to begin with. The next thing for you to do is to start writing the set of Read- (Read-Dash) methods in the Reverse Functions section of the template. For every DSC Resource you wish to reverse, you should define a unique Read-Dash function. The template provides a very generic example on how to write that method, but you may wish to refer to existing Orchestrator scripts for more complex scenarios and see how they are done.
The last thing left for you to do once all your Read-Dash functions have been written, is to make sure that you are actually calling them from within the Orchestrator function. Try to proceed each of these calls with a Verbose output line that will help the users identify where we are at with the script’s execution. Once you script is completed, you should be able to execute it by simply executing the .ps1 file within a PowerShell session. In order to properly test your script, make sure that you don’t get any errors running it, but also try to execute the resulting output .ps1 file, which will attempt to compile the .MOF file, and make sure you don’t get errors at compilation time either.
Should you have any questions or comments regarding the Orchestrator templates or on how to get started, please use the issue section on the GitHub repository for the templates.
