DSC Reboot Loop

DSC
1

I have created a DSC to prepare a server to host Active Director Group Policy Management. As we’re moving to using DSC to maintain configurations of servers this seemed an easy one. There are a handful of features that are required for the service as well as a handful that we want on the system. Additionally I need to make sure there is an archive folder, and that the windows\temp directory is available.

I have set ensure=present to all features I need and ensure=absent to all features I don’t need. What I see is that my machine want’s to reboot all the time. The output below shows that the server state is pending reboot, and when I reboot the server, it goes back and re-applies the configuration and then needs to reboot again.

I’m not sure what the issue is considering that all features required are in fact installed and the directories I need are present. I’m very open to any suggestions that anyone has.

I have the following DSC The AGPM application requires specific features to be available and folders to be present, this DSC accomodates that. It is based off the default set of features that are present in a stock Windows Server 2012 build, some additional features are enabled by ITES and they are all lumped together at the top. Below the set of default features are the set of required features for AGPM. In addition AGPM requires a folder for Archives and that the Windows\TEMP folder be available, those are listed in the two FILE resources below the set of required features. AGPMArchive is a variable that is passed in when the configuration is executed for the first time. · GitHub

This the LCM
PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-DscLocalConfigurationManager

ActionAfterReboot : ContinueConfiguration
AllowModuleOverwrite : False
CertificateID :
ConfigurationID :
ConfigurationMode : ApplyAndMonitor
ConfigurationModeFrequencyMins : 15
Credential :
DebugMode : {NONE}
DownloadManagerCustomData :
DownloadManagerName :
LCMCompatibleVersions : {1.0}
LCMState : PendingReboot
LCMVersion : 1.0
RebootNodeIfNeeded : False
RefreshFrequencyMins : 30
RefreshMode : PUSH
PSComputerName :

On this system RebootNodeIfNeeded is set to false, so it doesn’t bounce, on my test system this is set to true and that server reboots every few minutes or so.

2

You should check your DSC Operational event log to be sure, but one possibility based on just seeing the configuration is that one of your “Present” WindowsFeature resources is installing some sub-feature, which you then later have marked as “Absent”. This could result in the system just constantly installing and uninstalling the same feature, and the uninstall may require a reboot to complete.

3

Good point Dave, I’ll double-check that. Originally I thought perhaps it was unhappy with the windows\temp folder. this should be easy enough to check

4

That was it, the following features were ensure=absent on mine, flipped to ensure=present and rebooted and it appears much happier now :slight_smile:

note to self, don’t just assume the doc tells you all the features (+ dependencies) required…check em.

    WindowsFeature NETFrameworkFeatures
    {
        Name = "NET-Framework-Features"
        Ensure = "Present"
        }
    WindowsFeature NETFrameworkCore
    {
        Name = "NET-Framework-Core"
        Ensure = "Present"
        }
    WindowsFeature NETFramework45ASPNET
    {
        Name = "NET-Framework-45-ASPNET"
        Ensure = "Present"
        }
    WindowsFeature PowerShellV2
    {
        Name = "PowerShell-V2"
        Ensure = "Present"
        }