Desired state configuration

Question

I have two web servers and one service server and a database server and all these servers are domain joined. And I have set my private build agent from VSTS from where I can build my artifacts and based on build configuration. And all my DEV,QA and STAGING environments are setup on those servers.

My problem is i am looking for a way using PowerShell Desired state configuration such a way that based on the environment artifacts (DEV,QA and STAGING) the scripts has to copy the artifacts to specific location on those "TWO web-servers" and ensure the website is configured correctly with all the required permissions where these artifacts are used to host IIS website and perform the delete and creation action of particular windows service on "SERVICE service" and should also perform the migration activities on "DATABASE server" for particular database. since I have separated database for each individual environment.

Any kind of help or suggestion would be appreciated. thank you.

Answer 1

My suggestions are:

• Don't use DSC for deployment (ie deploy applications or databases)
• Use DSC for configuration (eg install IIS)
• Install the VSTS Agent on each server in Deployment Groups mode, running as a service with local administrator privileges
• Use the IIS Deploy Tasks designed for Deployment Groups
• Use the Powershell Task to manage the Windows Services (tip. help *-Service )