Managing Exchange 2013 With DSC

Part 1 - Introducing xExchange

Part 2 - The QuickStart Template

Introducing the xExchange Module for Powershell Desired State Configuration

Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts which will be covering the xExchange module for Powershell Desired State Configuration. The xExchange module is a DSC module designed for configuring Exchange 2013 servers, and can be downloaded here. With help from Jason Walker, creating Exchange DSC resources (as well as Bitlocker resources) has been one of my main projects for the past few months.

It is my goal in this blog series to gradually introduce the various components that are required to utilize xExchange resources within a DSC configuration script. I realize the module is large, and is probably pretty daunting for someone that hasn’t worked with DSC before (and maybe even for those that have). That being the case, I plan on introducing concepts in separate posts in a way that each post builds on the ones before them.

Why DSC?

The main driver for wanting to create DSC resources for Exchange was to help improve the configuration management story for one of the customers who I work with. My customer runs a very complex Exchange environment, which is extensively customized to meet business requirements. A number of the configuration changes they make, especially ones which are stored in IIS, are prone to being reverted when Service Packs and Cumulative Updates are applied. With previous versions of Exchange, they had to maintain multiple sets of configuration scripts. One set of scripts would actually apply the configuration. The other set of scripts would verify all the settings that were set by the configuration scripts. If any updates were applied, or if they were troubleshooting issues, they could run the verification scripts to see if anything changed, and then re-run the configuration scripts to fix any issues.

While the set of configuration and verification scripts worked, it required a lot of work to keep the two in sync, and also required a lot of work running the scripts semi periodically in a large scale environment. Once DSC was released, I realized that it would be a great opportunity to consolidate the handful of scripts that my customer had, and group the configuration and verification for each Exchange resource type into more logical units. It also was a good opportunity to better automate their configuration story. Once the DSC configuration is applied in pull mode, they can leave the configuration alone, and any divergences in configuration will be automatically corrected.

Requirements

The xExchange module has the following requirements for the machines that will be managed:

• Exchange Server 2013 (only tested on Exchange 2013 CU5 and CU6 as of 10/10/2014)

• Windows Management Framework 4.0

• Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2 (earlier versions are not blocked, but they are untested)

Resources

The xExchange module contains 24 DSC resources (as of 10/6/2014). A majority of the resources (21) correspond to existing Exchange Powershell cmdlets, and are as follows:

The first resource that does not correspond to any existing Exchange cmdlet is the xExchAutoMountPoint resource. This will be covered in detail in a separate blog post:

The last two resources that are available are used for synchronization purposes. The first is used while creating Database Availability Groups, and the second is used when creating Mailbox Database copies. Both of these will be covered in a separate blog post as well:

Exploring the xExchange Module

After downloading the xExchange module, copy the extracted xExchange folder to ‘%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules’. The folder structure should look like:

PS C:\> Get-ChildItem 'C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\xExchange'

    Directory: C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\xExchange

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            DSCResources
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            Examples
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            Misc
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            Test
-a---        10/10/2014  11:38 AM       5652 xExchange.psd1
-a---        10/10/2014   7:55 AM      59652 xExchange_Documentation.html

To confirm that the xExchange module has been correctly detected, run Get-DscResource. You should see all 24 resources listed:

PS C:\> Get-DscResource | where {$_.Module -like "xExchange"} | ft Name, Module

Name                                                        Module
----                                                        ------
xExchActiveSyncVirtualDirectory                             xExchange
xExchAutodiscoverVirtualDirectory                           xExchange
xExchAutoMountPoint                                         xExchange
xExchClientAccessServer                                     xExchange
xExchDatabaseAvailabilityGroup                              xExchange
xExchDatabaseAvailabilityGroupMember                        xExchange
xExchDatabaseAvailabilityGroupNetwork                       xExchange
xExchEcpVirtualDirectory                                    xExchange
xExchExchangeCertificate                                    xExchange
xExchExchangeServer                                         xExchange
xExchImapSettings                                           xExchange
xExchMailboxDatabase                                        xExchange
xExchMailboxDatabaseCopy                                    xExchange
xExchMapiVirtualDirectory                                   xExchange
xExchOabVirtualDirectory                                    xExchange
xExchOutlookAnywhere                                        xExchange
xExchOwaVirtualDirectory                                    xExchange
xExchPopSettings                                            xExchange
xExchPowerShellVirtualDirectory                             xExchange
xExchReceiveConnector                                       xExchange
xExchUMService                                              xExchange
xExchWaitForDAG                                             xExchange
xExchWaitForMailboxDatabase                                 xExchange
xExchWebServicesVirtualDirectory                            xExchange

If you look in the DSCResources folder, you will see all the same xExchange resources that were listed in the Get-DscResource output:

PS C:\> Get-ChildItem 'C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\xExchange\DSCResources'

    Directory: C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\xExchange\DSCResources

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchActiveSyncVirtualDirectory
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchAutodiscoverVirtualDirectory
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchAutoMountPoint
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchClientAccessServer
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchDatabaseAvailabilityGroup
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchDatabaseAvailabilityGroupMember
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchDatabaseAvailabilityGroupNetwork
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchEcpVirtualDirectory
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchExchangeCertificate
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchExchangeServer
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchImapSettings
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchMailboxDatabase
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchMailboxDatabaseCopy
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchMapiVirtualDirectory
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchOabVirtualDirectory
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchOutlookAnywhere
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchOwaVirtualDirectory
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchPopSettings
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchPowershellVirtualDirectory
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchReceiveConnector
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchUMService
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchWaitForDAG
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchWaitForMailboxDatabase
d----         10/3/2014  10:18 AM            MSFT_xExchWebServicesVirtualDirectory

The Examples folder contains a handful of sample configuration scripts that show how to use various xExchange resources:

PS C:\> Get-ChildItem 'C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\xExchange\Examples'

    Directory: C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\xExchange\Examples

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            ConfigureAutoMountPoint-FromCalculator
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            ConfigureAutoMountPoints-Manual
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            ConfigureDatabases-FromCalculator
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            ConfigureDatabases-Manual
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            ConfigureVirtualDirectories
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            CreateAndConfigureDAG
d----        10/10/2014  12:04 PM            EndToEndExample
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            HelperScripts
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            QuickStartTemplate
d----        10/10/2014  12:02 PM            SimpleOneResourceExample

The Test folder contains the tests that were used to verify resource functionality during development of the module. There should be no need to use this if just writing configuration scripts, but this may be useful to others who are trying to write their own DSC modules or resources:

PS C:\> Get-ChildItem 'C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\xExchange\Test'

    Directory: C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\xExchange\Test

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---        10/10/2014  10:12 AM      31091 Test-xExchange.ps1

Learning More about xExchange

In the next post in this series, I will talk about the included QuickStartTemplate. This consists of two files that contain common elements used in most xExchange configuraton scripts. In subsequent posts, I plan to cover at least the following topics:

• Creating and configuring one or more Database Availability Groups

• Configuring CAS settings for multiple Active Directory Sites

• Using the CSVs that are generated by the Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator to automatically build out mount points, databases and copies

• Using xExchange with a DSC Pull Server

Resources

First, here's the link to download the xExchange module:

xExchange - PowerShell Desired State Configuration Resource Kit
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/xExchange-PowerShell-1dd18388/

Here’s a handful of resources that I found helpful when learning about DSC:

Get Started with Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn249918.aspx

Separating Configuration and Environment Data
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn249925.aspx

Desired State Configuration Blog Series – Part 1, Information about DSC
http://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2014/04/25/desired-state-configuration-blog-series-part-1-learning-about-dsc.aspx

Want to secure credentials in Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2014/01/31/want-to-secure-credentials-in-windows-powershell-desired-state-configuration.aspx

DSC Resource Kit (All Modules)
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/DSC-Resource-Kit-All-c449312d