<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>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-12T06:32:36.173Z
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).
RichVel
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-22T17:07:36.247Z
2020-01-22T17:07:36.247Z
Richard Slater
<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>

<ansible><azure><powershell><vmware>
Azure Powershell DSC or Ansible
bluehatgeek
# 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


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## 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).  

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