Push and pull modes

First and foremost, you must understand how DSC gets the information needed to configure a target node from the place it's currently stored to the target node. This may sound counterintuitive; you may be thinking that we should be covering syntax or the different file formats in use first. Before we get to where we're going, we have to know how we are getting there.

The more established CM products available on the market have coalesced into two approaches: push and pull. Push and pull refer to the directions and methods used to move information from the place where it is stored to the target nodes. It also describes the direction commands being sent to, or received by, the target nodes.

Most CM products primarily use the pull method, which means that they rely on agents to schedule, distribute, and rectify configurations on target nodes, but have a central server that holds configuration information and data. The server maintains the current state of all the...