Dynamic Resource Generator (DRG)
The Microsoft365DSC Dynamic Resource Generator (DRG) is a set of PowerShell Modules and templates that enables the automatic generation of Microsoft365DSC resources, examples and unit tests based on OpenAPI definitions. Currently it only supports generating resources from Microsoft Graph endpoints, but the team is investigating expanding its scope to also include other dependencies that are not yet on Microsoft Graph (e.g., Exchange Online, Teams, etc.). The DRG is included as part of the main Microsoft365DSC codebase and is currently in public preview, which means it is likely to change before becoming Generally Available (GA).
Why the DRG?¶
Microsoft 365 is evolving at a rapid pace, with new features being released on a regular basis and other legacy configuration items being deprecated. To this point, the Microsoft365DSC team has been manually creating the DSC resources that make up the solution based which has been very time consuming and requires constant updating as these resources change and evolve. The Dynamic Resource Generator will allow the team to "stop chasing their own tail" and open the flood gates, releasing dozens of DSC resources with minimal effort and ensuring they are always in-sync with their underlying workload dependencies (e.g., Microsoft Graph, Exchange Online Management Shell, etc.). The team is commited in investing time in building and improving the DRG in order to order to ensure the sustainability of the Microsoft project in the long run.
Getting Started¶
The DRG files are located at the root of the project under the /ResourceGenerator folder. It contains a single PowerShell module (M365DSCResourceGenerator.psm1) and several template files that define the structure of the various files to generate. The main function for the module is the New-M365DSCResource cmdlet which will initiate the creation of a new DSC resource alongside its associated schema, readme file, example and unit tests. The cmdlet accepts the following parameters:
| Parameter Name | Required | Accepted Values | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ResourceName | True | String | The name of the resource to be generated. E.g., AADDomain, IntuneResourcex, etc. |
| Workload | True | String. Any of: "ExchangeOnline", "Intune", "MicrosoftGraph", "MicrosoftTeams", "PnP", "PowerPlatforms", "SecurityComplianceCenter" | The name of the Microsoft 365 workload associated with the resource to be generated |
| CmdLetNoun | False | String | The noun part of the cmdlet associated with the resource. E.g., for the AADDomain resource, the associated cmdlets is Get-MgBetaDomain. Therefore the value for this property is 'MgDomain'. |
| Path | False | String | Local path to the root DSCResources folder where all the DSC Resources are being stored (e.g., C:\Github\Microsoft365DSC\Modules\Microsoft365DSC\DSCResources) |
| UnitTestPath | False | String | Local path to the root of the unit test folder (e.g., C:\GitHub\Microsoft365DSC\Tests\Unit\Microsoft365DSC) |
| ExampleFilePath | False | String | Local path to the root of the examples Ressources' folder (e.g. C:\GitHub\Microsoft365DSC\Modules\Microsoft365DSC\Examples\Resources) |
| APIVersion | False | String. Any of: "v1.0", "beta" | Represents what version of the Microsoft Graph APIs to use. Should use 'v1.0' whenever possible. |
| Credential | False | PSCredential | Credentials of a Microsoft 365 account that will be used to take a snapshot of the resource to be generated from a given tenant. This is used to generate the examples. Use a test tenant. |
As an example, to generate the AADDomain resource for the Azure Active Directory workload, we've run the following command. NOTE: The paths specified represent the local path on the machine we've used. Make sure to update this to point to the location of your local branch on your machine.
cd C:\Github\Microsoft365DSC\ResourceGenerator
Import-Module .\M365DSCResourceGenerator.psm1
$ResourcePath = "C:\GitHub\Microsoft365DSC\Modules\Microsoft365DSC\DSCResources"
$UnitTestPath = "C:\GitHub\Microsoft365DSC\Tests\Unit\Microsoft365DSC"
$ExamplePath = "C:\GitHub\Microsoft365DSC\Modules\Microsoft365DSC\Examples\Resources"
$creds = Get-Credential
New-M365DSCResource -ResourceName AADDomain -Workload MicrosoftGraph -GraphModuleCmdletNoun 'MgDomain' -Path $ResourcePath -UnitTestPath $UnitTestPath -ExampleFilePath $ExamplePath -Credential $creds
We are currently looking for users to help us test and improve the DRG. If you are interested in helping out, please try it out with the instructions above and report any issues or questions in the Issues section of the GitHub repository (https://GitHub.com/Microsoft/Microsoft365DSC) mentioning that the item is related to the DRG testing.