When you set up a DSC pull server on Windows Server 2012 R2, you can simply run the command (Add-WindowsFeature DSC-Service) to install all of the necessary dependencies: IIS, ASP.NET, OData, and so on.
It appears to be possible to use older operating systems as DSC pull servers as well (so long as WMF 4.0 is supported on that platform), but you have to set up all of these prerequisites yourself. Here’s the process I used to build a Windows Server 2008 R2 DSC pull server:
– Install Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
– Install Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.
– Install Windows Management Framework 4.0. (reboot required after this step)
– Install IIS. Select all of the default options, plus “Tracing”.
– Run dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:ManagementOdata
– Run dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:DSC-Service
– Run $env:windir\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -i
The rest of the process is common to all versions, setting up the website and application pool in IIS. This process is detailed at http://powershell.org/wp/2013/10/03/building-a-desired-state-configuration-pull-server/ , and there are several examples of scripts to perform these steps out on the internet as well (though the scripts may not have been tested on IIS7, so be careful there.)
Dave Wyatt's Blog 
Pingback: Episode 275 – PowerScripting Podcast – PowerShell MVP Steve Murawski | PowerShell.org
Pingback: Episode 275 – PowerScripting Podcast – PowerShell MVP Steve Murawski - Sravan Eatoor
Pingback: [PowerShell] Getting started with Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration – Part 1 | Daniel's Cloud Endeavour
Pingback: [PowerShell] Getting started with Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration – Part 2 – Pull Server | Daniel's Cloud Endeavour
Pretty nice post. I juist stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed
browsing your weblog posts. After all I will be subscribing iin your rss feed and I aam
hoping you write once more soon!
LikeLike
Thanks! 🙂 I’ve been extremely busy lately an haven’t blogged much as a result, though I have been chipping away at the Refactoring sample project as time allows.
LikeLike
Hi Dave,
I followed exactly the procedures you indicated, but it still does not work.
It show I have installed the service. Do you have any ideas?
Thanks.
—————————————————-
PS C:\Workspace\dsc> dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:DSC-Service
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Enabling feature(s)
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.
———————————————
I have restarted the computer, but it still does not work.
LikeLike
That DISM command is only one part of the process. What do you mean by “it still does not work”? Please elaborate. 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Dave,
Thank you for your reply.
I’m working with this tutorial on windows server 2008 R2 SP1 with the ambition to apply DSC into a real project.
http://www.systemcentercentral.com/day-1-intro-to-powershell-dsc-and-configuring-your-first-pull-server/
When I execute “Start-DscConfiguration .\NewPullServer –Wait”, I get the error below. It’s obvious that DSC-Service can not be installed even though that DISM indicated that it’s already installed.
I understand that DISM is just one part of the process. I followed the steps you listed and they are all success. However, I still got the same error.
Do you have any ideas? Thanks a lot.
———————————————
PowerShell provider MSFT_RoleResource failed to execute Test-TargetResource functionality with error message: The requested feature DSC-Service is not found on the
target machine.
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], CimException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ProviderOperationExecutionFailure
+ PSComputerName : devops-01
The SendConfigurationApply function did not succeed.
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (root/Microsoft/…gurationManager:String) [], CimException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MI RESULT 1
+ PSComputerName : devops-01
———————————————
LikeLike
Dave,
I tried dism /online /get-features and can see
Feature Name : DSC-Service
State: Enabled
I still got the same error.
I got this information from: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/da82aeb8-0a8c-4f4a-85e1-6dce7ae1276c/the-requested-feature-dscservice-is-not-found-on-the-target-machine?forum=winserverpowershell
Thanks again.
LikeLike
Ah, it sounds like you’re trying to use a DSC configuration to install the pull server, and I doubt those DSC resources were written or tested with Server 2008 R2 in mind. When I wrote this article, I was still using a manual process to get the pull server set up (and I don’t think the DSC resource kit examples existed yet.) If you follow the link in my original post here, you’ll get to a blog post by Steven Murawski detailing what you need to do to manually install and configure a pull server.
LikeLike