Composite Resources Explained

Composite configurations come in handy in a lot of scenarios and provide a layer of abstraction on resources. This blog explains composite resources in PowerShell DSC.

Any configuration in DSC can be exposed as a resource for other configurations to consume. This configuration is called a composite resource. The parameters of the configuration becomes the properties of the resource. Packaging the configuration in a specific way exposes the configuration as a resource.

Composite resources are identified as such when resources are discovered

Get-DscResource -Name WindowsFeatureSet

ImplementedAs   Name                      ModuleName                     Version    Properties                                        
-------------   ----                      ----------                     -------    ----------                                        
Composite       WindowsFeatureSet         PSDesiredStateConfiguration    1.1        {DependsOn, Name, Ensure, Source...

They can be used in a configuration like any other resource


configuration test
{
    Import-DscResource -ModuleName PSDesiredStateConfiguration

    WindowsFeatureSet x
    {
        Name   = 'FS-FileServer', 'Hyper-V'
        Ensure = 'Present'
    }
}

Though composite resources can be used in configuration, on compilation, the composite resource - which is a configuration in itself - gets compiled to its resources. If we compile the above configuration, this is how the contents of the configuration file looks like

/*
@TargetNode='localhost'
@GeneratedBy=nanalakshmanan
@GenerationDate=05/11/2016 11:35:42
@GenerationHost=NANA-TOUCH
*/

instance of MSFT_RoleResource as $MSFT_RoleResource1ref
{
 ResourceID = "[WindowsFeature]Resource0::[WindowsFeatureSet]x";
 Ensure = "Present";
 SourceInfo = "::2::1::WindowsFeature";
 Name = "FS-FileServer";
 ModuleName = "PSDesiredStateConfiguration";
 ModuleVersion = "1.0";
 ConfigurationName = "test";
};

instance of MSFT_RoleResource as $MSFT_RoleResource2ref
{
 ResourceID = "[WindowsFeature]Resource1::[WindowsFeatureSet]x";
 Ensure = "Present";
 SourceInfo = "::8::1::WindowsFeature";
 Name = "Hyper-V";
 ModuleName = "PSDesiredStateConfiguration";
 ModuleVersion = "1.0";
 ConfigurationName = "test";
};

instance of OMI_ConfigurationDocument
{
 Version="2.0.0";
 MinimumCompatibleVersion = "1.0.0";
 CompatibleVersionAdditionalProperties= {"Omi_BaseResource:ConfigurationName"};
 Author="nanalakshmanan";
 GenerationDate="05/11/2016 11:35:42";
 GenerationHost="NANA-TOUCH";
 Name="test";
}

As you can see, the composite configuration WindowsFeatureSet got compiled and you can find the underlying resource WindowsFeature.

Since a composite resource is a configuration, it never gets loaded by the LCM. (A configuration needs to be compiled and the resources it calls are the ones that the LCM needs to load). This is why an Invoke-DscResource on a composite resource will not work and you should call it on the underlying resource.

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