Tooling

DSC supports applying DSC configurations locally and remotely using the Start-DscConfiguration Cmdlet. This Cmdlet handles both copying the MOF file to the target node and telling DSC to execute the MOF on the target node.

Start-DscConfiguration can be invoked interactively as well as run in the background. Interactive executions are run as we are watching and are able to show us verbose output as each step in the DSC configuration happens. Background executions are PowerShell jobs that do not block your shell, so that you can do other things while the job runs. This means you can use this Cmdlet to push a DSC configuration and then walk away or continue to use your current PowerShell console session to do other things as it executes on the target node.

All output from the DSC configuration execution is logged by DSC, and the Start-DscConfiguration Cmdlet can show this information, if configured. By default, it only displays error and completion information, but it can be configured...