Answers: <p><strong>PowerShell Desired State Configuration:</strong></p>
  
  <p><em>Pro's</em></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Great support for Microsoft Technologies (IIS, Exchange, SharePoint, etc.)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><em>Con's</em></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>OS and PowerShell Version requirements can become prohibitive.</li>
  <li>WinRM and the LCM can be flakey requiring fiddling around restarting services to get it working.</li>
  <li>Opensource Ecosystem isn't as strong.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Ansible:</strong></p>
  
  <p><em>Pro's</em></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Huge Open-source ecosystem around Ansible, with many ways of doing one task.</li>
  <li>Support for a wide range of technologies, enabling you to use Ansible YAML for vSphere, Azure, AWS, etc.</li>
  <li>Easy to hire people with Ansible experience.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><em>Con's</em></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Poor support for the nitty-gritty of Microsoft Products, however, you can use the <a href="https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/windows_dsc.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">win_dsc</a> module to call DSC from Ansible.</li>
  <li>Ansible is becoming less important with the advent of Cloud, Kubernetes and Terraform.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Personally, I use DSC for my workstation and that's it now.  Previously I used it to bootstrap MongoDB and Redis clusters but eventually switched to Ansible because it meant throwing away the hard to maintain DSC and using open-source Ansible modules from Galaxy.</p>
  
Answers: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers: 2020-02-12T06:32:36.173Z
Answers: Generally agree but the point about Ansible being less important with the advent of Cloud is really debatable - Ansible is used a great deal on cloud in my experience and judging from ads for contract roles (I only do cloud-based Ansible projects and there's strong demand.)  Valid points on Kubernetes, there is less for Ansible to do but still useful (see the new [Ansible for Kubernetes](https://www.ansibleforkubernetes.com/) book), and Terraform (better choice to manage IaaS resources).
Answers: RichVel
Answers: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers: 2020-01-22T17:07:36.247Z
Answers: 2020-01-22T17:07:36.247Z
Answers: Richard Slater
Body: <p>I wanted to find out what are you using for Desired State Configuration on your end. I am thinking to start introducing Azure Powershell DSC or Ansible for DSC of our on-prem environment and cloud environment. Would you have any recommendations? I am turning more towards Ansible but it would be nice to get to know other people opinion.</p>
  
Tags: <ansible><azure><powershell><vmware>
Title: Azure Powershell DSC or Ansible
UserDisplayName: bluehatgeek
ThreadText: # Azure Powershell DSC or Ansible
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-01-22)
  
  I wanted to find out what are you using for Desired State Configuration on your end. I am thinking to start introducing Azure Powershell DSC or Ansible for DSC of our on-prem environment and cloud environment. Would you have any recommendations? I am turning more towards Ansible but it would be nice to get to know other people opinion.
  
  **Tags:** ansible, azure, powershell, vmware
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2020-01-22. Score: 4
  
  **PowerShell Desired State Configuration:**
  
  *Pro's*
  
  * Great support for Microsoft Technologies (IIS, Exchange, SharePoint, etc.)
  
  *Con's*
  
  * OS and PowerShell Version requirements can become prohibitive.
  * WinRM and the LCM can be flakey requiring fiddling around restarting services to get it working.
  * Opensource Ecosystem isn't as strong.
  
  **Ansible:**
  
  *Pro's*
  
  * Huge Open-source ecosystem around Ansible, with many ways of doing one task.
  * Support for a wide range of technologies, enabling you to use Ansible YAML for vSphere, Azure, AWS, etc.
  * Easy to hire people with Ansible experience.
  
  *Con's*
  
  * Poor support for the nitty-gritty of Microsoft Products, however, you can use the [win\_dsc](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/windows_dsc.html) module to call DSC from Ansible.
  * Ansible is becoming less important with the advent of Cloud, Kubernetes and Terraform.
  
  Personally, I use DSC for my workstation and that's it now. Previously I used it to bootstrap MongoDB and Redis clusters but eventually switched to Ansible because it meant throwing away the hard to maintain DSC and using open-source Ansible modules from Galaxy.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: Generally agree but the point about Ansible being less important with the advent of Cloud is really debatable - Ansible is used a great deal on cloud in my experience and judging from ads for contract roles (I only do cloud-based Ansible projects and there's strong demand.)  Valid points on Kubernetes, there is less for Ansible to do but still useful (see the new [Ansible for Kubernetes](https://www.ansibleforkubernetes.com/) book), and Terraform (better choice to manage IaaS resources).  
  
  ---
  
  