RM + DSC to node in untrusted domain - ms-release-management

Question

So I mention the untrusted domain aspect because I went through all the hoops around credential delegation and trusted hosts lists etc to allow me to successfully push a DSC configuration from my RM server to a target node (not using RM, just native DSC). I get that bit and it works, great.
Now when I use those same scripts in RM (with some minor edits for the format expected by RM), RM reports a successful deploy but all that has happened is the components bits have been copied to the target node to the default location for $applicationPathRoot (C:\Windows\DtlDownloads), there is no real evidence of an attempt to apply a mof file.
My RM server and target nodes are in different domains with no trust. Both servers are W2k8R2 (+ WMF4 of course). I'm running with Update 4 of RM server and client.
Here are the DSC scripts I'm running in RM:
CopyDSCResources.ps1
Configuration CopyDSCResource
{
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[String] $ModulePath = "$env:ProgramFiles\WindowsPowershell\Modules")
#[PSCredential] $credential = get-credential
Node VCTSCFDSMWEB01
{
File DeployWebDeployResource
{
Ensure = "Present"
SourcePath = "C:\test.txt"
DestinationPath = "D:\temp"
Force = $true
Type = "File"
}
}
}
CopyDSCResource -ConfigurationData $configData -Verbose
# test outside of RM
#CopyDSCResource -ConfigurationData CopyDSCResource.ConfigData.psd1
#Start-DscConfiguration -Path .\CopyDSCResource -Credential $credential -Verbose -Wait
CopyDSCResource.ConfigData.psd1
##{
$configData = #{
AllNodes = #(
#{
NodeName = "*"
PSDscAllowPlainTextPassword = $true
},
#{
NodeName = "VCTSCFDSWEB01.rlg.test"
Role = "WebServer"
}
)
}
I'm afraid I cant seem to upload screenshots from my current location but in terms of RM, I have a vNext environment with a single server linked, a vNext release path with a single 'Dev' stage and a vNext release template with a single 'Deploy PS/DSC' action. The configuration of the action is:
ServerName - VCTSCFDSMWEB01
ComponentName - COpyDSCResource vNext
PSScriptPath - copydscresources.ps1
PSConfigurationPath - copydscresource.configdata.psd1
UseCredSSP - true
When I run a new release, the deploy stage reports success and when I view the Deployment log files I get the following:
Upload components - Successfully uploaded to the normalized store.
Deploy Using PS/DSC - Copying recursively from \vcxxxxtfs03\Drops\CorrespondenceCI\CorrespondenceCI20150114.1\Scripts to C:\Windows\DtlDownloads\CopyDSCResource vNext succeeded.
Finally the DSC event log has the following:
Job {CD3BE350-4072-4C8B-835F-4B4D1C46D65D} :
Configuration is sent from computer NULL by user sid S-1-5-18.
This compares markedly to the same event log entry when run outside of RM:
Job {34F78498-CF18-4F2A-9874-EB54FDA2D990} :
Configuration is sent from computer VCXXXXTFS01 by user sid S-1-5-21-1034805355-1149422947-1317505720-10867.
Any pointers appreciated
It would be good if I could see evidence of a mof file being created on the RM server for example, anybody know where I can find this??

Answer 1

Turns out the crucial element was that my DSC script had to use an environment variable for naming the node. So:
Node $env:COMPUTERNAME
No idea why but it works!