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TheLability module enables simple provisioning of Windows Hyper-V development and testingenvironments. It uses a declarative document for machine configuration. However, rather thandefining configurations in an external custom domain-specific language (DSL) document,Labilityextends existing PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) configuration (.psd1) documents withmetadata that can be interpreted by the module.

By using this approach, it allows the use of a single configuration document to describe allproperties for provisioning Windows-centric development and/or test environments.

TheLability module will parse the DSC configuration document and provision Hyper-V virtualmachines according to the metadata contained within. When invoked,Lability will parse a DSCconfiguration document and automagically provision the following resources:

• Virtual machine disk images
  • Download required evaluation Operating System installation media
  • Expand Windows Image (WIM) image files into Sysprep'd virtual machine parent disks, including Server 2016 TP4 and Nano server
  • Apply required/recommended DSC Windows updates
• Virtual networks
  • Create internal and external Hyper-V switches
• Virtual machines
  • Connect to the correct virtual switches
  • Inject DSC resources from the host machine
  • Inject a dynamically created Unattend.xml file
  • Inject external ISO, EXE and ZIP resources
  • Inject the virtual machine's DSC document
  • Invoke the Local Configuration Manager (LCM) after Sysprep

An example DSC configuration document might look the following.Note: this is a standard DSC.psd1 configuration document, but has been extended with specific properties which theLabilitymodule can interpret.

@{AllNodes=@(@{NodeName='DC1';Lability_ProcessorCount=2;Lability_SwitchName='CORPNET';Lability_Media='2016_x64_Datacenter_EN_Eval';        },@{NodeName='APP1';Lability_ProcessorCount=1;Lability_SwitchName='CORPNET';Lability_Media='2016_x64_Datacenter_EN_Eval';        }    )NonNodeData=@{Lability=@{Network=@(@{Name='CORPNET';Type='Internal';                }            )#end Network        }#end Lability    }#end NonNodeData}

WhenStart-LabConfiguration is invoked with the above configuration document, it will:

• Create an internal Hyper-V virtual switch named 'CORPNET'
  • If no network is defined, a default internal virtual switch will automatically be created
• Download required Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition evaluation media
  • Create a Sysprep'd Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition parent VHDX
  • Install required/recommended DSC hotfixes
• Provision two Hyper-V virtual machines called 'DC1' and 'APP1'
  • Each VM will be given 2GB RAM (configurable default)
  • 'DC1' will be assigned 2 virtual CPUs
  • 'APP1' will be assigned 1 virtual CPU
  • Attach each virtual machine to the 'CORPNET' virtual switch
  • Create differencing VHDX for each VM
  • Inject a dynamically created Unattend.xml file into the differencing VHDX

More examples can be found in the.\Examples folderof the module's root directory.

A brief introduction to theVirtualEngineLab module presented at the European PowerShell Summit 2015 can be foundhere. Other generous members of the community have written some comprehensive guides to compliment the built-in documentation – a BIG thank you!

• Lability tutorial bymrled
• Building A Lab using Hyper-V and Lability via @kilasuit
• The Ultimate Hyper-V Lab Tool via @absolutejam
• Create Your Virtual Lab Environment with Lability How-To via @Naboo2604
• Microsoft Channel 9 PSDEVOPS presentation recording
• Using Lability, DSC and ARM to define and deploy multi-VM environments via @rikhepworth
• Building Hyper-V lab environments based on PowerShell DSC via @JanEgilRing

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