In April, at the //build/ conference, Jeffrey Snover demonstrated provisioning an Azure VM and configuring it using PowerShell DSC (Desired State Configuration) and Custom Script extension. Azure VM Agent and Extensions are part of the Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Services, if you want an overview you might want to check previous blogs here, here and here.
For those of you not familiar with PowerShell DSC, PowerShell DSC is a declarative model that leverages Cmdlets and your experience with PowerShell to enable autonomous, idempotent and transparent Deployment, Configuration, and Compliance of Windows resources. You can find more information about using DSC at this blog article. You can also read The DSC Book authored by PowerShell MVPs.
Today, we are announcing the PowerShell DSC Extension and the associated Azure PowerShell DSC cmdlets that are part of the Azure SDK. You can use the Azure PowerShell DSC cmdlets to upload and apply a PowerShell DSC configuration to an Azure VM by enabling the VM Agent and the PowerShell DSC extension. PowerShell DSC extension will update PowerShell DSC on the VM, if the required version is not already installed, and call into PowerShell DSC to enact the received DSC configuration.
For a more detailed overview of the new extension, please read the PowerShell blog about this topic.
We would love to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think on Twitter @WindowsAzure.