Use custom, composite resource with Azure DSC extension - azure

Question

I have a VM template that deploys a DSC extension. It's been working fine but my configuration is growing so I've refactored it to use a composite resource and republished it to blob storage with Publish-AzureRmVMDscConfiguration.
I verified that the .ps1.zip file in blob storage contains my custom module and that the module is listed under dscmetadata.json. However, when I deploy, the DSC extension fails. The logs under C:\WindowsAzure\Logs\Plugins\Microsoft.Powershell.DSC\2.17.0.0 reveal the reason:
C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Powershell.DSC\2.17.0.0\bin..\DSCWork\AppServerDev.ps1.0\AppserverDev.ps1
PSDesiredStateConfiguration\node : The module 'xCustomResource' could
not be loaded. For more information, run 'Import-Module
xCustomResource'.
At C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Powershell.DSC\2.17.0.0\DSCWork\AppServerDev.ps1.0\AppserverDev.ps1:9 char:3
node "localhost"
~~~~
CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (xCustomResource\xCustomResource:String)
[PSDesiredStateConfiguration\node], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
FullyQualifiedErrorId : CouldNotAutoLoadModule,PSDesiredStateConfiguration\node
Here are the relevant bits of my configuration file:
configuration AppServerDev
{
param($environment)
Import-DscResource -ModuleName 'PSDesiredStateConfiguration'
Import-DscResource -ModuleName 'SaaSModule'
node "localhost"
{
LocalConfigurationManager
{
RebootNodeIfNeeded = $true
ConfigurationMode = "ApplyAndAutoCorrect"
ConfigurationModeFrequencyMins = 1440
}
xDCTPlatformVM VM {
OctopusParametersFile = $environment
ChocolateyPackages = #(
'googlechrome',
'notepadplusplus',
'7zip',
'microsoftwse',
'octopusdeploy.tentacle',
'sqlserver-cmdlineutils'
)
}
}
}
Running Get-Module -ListAvailable reveals that DankModule is found and I can, from powershell, run Import-Module DankModule and it works as expected. I assume the confusion is coming from it trying to import xCustomResource rather than DankModule but my .ps1 file under C:\Packages\Plugins\Microsoft.Powershell.DSC\2.17.0.0\DSCWork says
Import-Module "DankModule"
and not
Import-Module "xCustomType"
Why is it trying to import xCustomType rather than DankModule? How do I make it find DankModule which is available and contains xCustomType?
UPDATE: Get-Module -ListAvailable shows DankModule is installed but Get-DSCResource -Module DankModule doesn't return anything.

Answer 1

I'm not sure but I think this is a rookie mistake on my part because I have no experience building powershell modules. I was using this page as well as this one to construct my module and I'd gotten a valid module file by using New-ModuleManifest, I had the correct file structure mentioned in both of them e.g.
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\
DankModule
DankModule.psd1
DankModule.psm1
DSCResources
xCustomResource
xCustomResource.psd1
RootModule = ‘xCustomResource.schema.psm1'
xCustomResource.schema.psm1
Configuration, no Node block
but I didn't realize I had some tweaking left. I needed to correct the RootModule property in DankModule.psd1 to look like this:
RootModule = 'C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\DankModule\DankModule.psm1'
And also needed to add to my blank DankModule.psm1 a line referencing my xCustomResource.schema.psm1 equivalent:
. .\DSCResources\xCustomResource\xCustomResource.schema.psm1
That is the only line in my module-level .psm1 file and everything is now working. I also, at one point, removed all the \0s from both my .psd1 files but now I'm not sure if that was strictly necessary.