Start-DscConfiguration Hangs

PowerShell Help
1

Hey All,

I’m piloting use of DSC and am encountering a problem in my testing. Specifically, most recently I have been testing implementing Package resources in a Configuration script and applying them locally using the localhost node to a test system. What I’ve noticed is that if there is an issue with, for example, the Arguments supplied to a java installation executable (see example below); the MOF will be created without issue and the Start-DscConfiguration will run however it will never complete…it just hangs there. And if I terminate the PowerShell console, and reboot the server, any attempt to execute Start-DscConfiguration returns a message indicating that a configuration is in progress. This results in me having to rollback to a snapshot of the virtual test system (effectively a rebuild scenario in a environment without a snapshot) to get back to a state where I can continue testing. Has anyone encountered this with DSC and has an alternative solution to the awkward one I’m using?

    Package JavaJDKu51
    {
        Ensure = "Present"
        Path = "$InstallFolder\Packages\jdk-7u51-windows-x64.exe"
        Name = "Java SE Development Kit 7 Update 51 (64-bit)"
        ProductID = "64A3A4F4-B792-11D6-A78A-00B0D0170510"
        Arguments = "/S ADDLOCAL='ToolsFeature,PublicjreFeature'"
    }

As an aside question…you can see in the Arguments statement above that the package expects a quoted string, is there a better way to provide the quotes within the Arguments quoted string?

Thanks much & happy scripting.

2

Partial resolution - It looks like if I use a combination of -force and restarting the system I can get back to a condition where start-DscConfiguration does not fail with the message indicated. Note that the -force qualifier will not consistently resolve the condition.

3

I’m having the same problem on Win 2016 Datacenter. It hangs after:

Perform operation 'Invoke CimMethod' with following parameters, ''methodName' = SendConfigurationApply,'className' = MSFT_DSCLocalConfigurationManage
r,'namespaceName' = root/Microsoft/Windows/DesiredStateConfiguration'.

A restart and -force didn’t fix this. My main question is, how do I even begin to debug this? I don’t know where to look, where can I find more details about what’s going on inside? Or, how can I cause more detailed logging so as to find the cause?

Here’s my config:

Configuration WinSSHConfig 
{
 Import-DscResource –ModuleName 'PSDesiredStateConfiguration'
    Node "localhost" 
    {
        Package BitVise 
        {
            Name = "BitVise"
            Path = Join-Path $PSScriptRoot "\BvSshServer-Inst.exe"
            ProductId = "" # Might help to add this later
            Ensure = "Present"
            # "Specified logpath could nto be opened" LogPath = "C:\Users\ops\Desktop\AllWindows"

        }
    }

}
4

It’s hanging again when trying to stop the operation when I restart and use the -force flag:

VERBOSE: Perform operation 'Invoke CimMethod' with following parameters, ''methodName' =
SendConfigurationApply,'className' = MSFT_DSCLocalConfigurationManager,'namespaceName' =
root/Microsoft/Windows/DesiredStateConfiguration'.
VERBOSE: An LCM method call arrived from computer DOWNLOADSCRIPT with user sid
S-1-5-21-2625863715-1486628037-1793450039-500.
VERBOSE: The -Force option was specified with the Stop operation. The current configuration has been successfully
cancelled.
5

It only hangs with the 

-wait
flag. So this tells me that for some reason the 
“Invoke CimMethod”

with parameter 
“MethodName” = “SendConfigurationApply”
never finishes executing, and the wait flag waits forever for it to finish.

Any ideas what might cause the 

CimMethod

to never finish?