How do I set multiple AppSettings values using xWebConfigKeyValue? - powershell

Question

I'm trying to use the xWebConfigKeyValue resource of the DSC module xWebAdministration to set multiple values on our application's web.config file. This is an excerpt from our configuration with the main activities surrounding the web.config changes:
Configuration C4M
{
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[string] $BuildDropLocation
)
Import-DscResource -Module xWebAdministration
Node $AllNodes.NodeName
{
$managementPortalInstallPath = 'c:\Company\ManagementPortal'
File ManagementPortalContents
{
DestinationPath = $managementPortalInstallPath
SourcePath = "$BuildDropLocation\ManagementPortal"
Type = 'Directory'
Recurse = $True
}
xWebConfigKeyValue RecaptchaPublicKey
{
WebsitePath = $managementPortalInstallPath
ConfigSection = 'AppSettings'
Key = 'recaptchaPublicKey'
Value = $Node.RecaptchaPublicKey
DependsOn = '[File]ManagementPortalContents'
}
xWebConfigKeyValue RecaptchaPrivateKey
{
WebsitePath = $managementPortalInstallPath
ConfigSection = 'AppSettings'
Key = 'recaptchaPrivateKey'
Value = $Node.RecaptchaPrivateKey
DependsOn = '[File]ManagementPortalContents'
}
}
}
But when I try to run the configuration, I get the following error:
Add-NodeKeys : The key properties combination
'C:\Company\ManagementPortal::AppSettings' is duplicated for keys
'WebsitePath,ConfigSection' of resource 'xWebConfigKeyValue' in node
'myNode'. Please make sure key properties are unique for each
resource in a node. At line:160 char:9
+ Add-NodeKeys $keyValues $keyNames $keywordName
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Write-Error], InvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DuplicateKeyInNode,Add-NodeKeys
After seeing the error, I took a look at the modules schema.mof file, and noticed that the appSettings key is not a key to the configuration at C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\xWebAdministration\DSCResources\MSFT_xWebConfigKeyValue\MSFT_xWebConfigKeyValue.schema.mof:
[ClassVersion("1.0.0.0"), FriendlyName("xWebConfigKeyValue")]
class MSFT_xWebConfigKeyValue : OMI_BaseResource
{
[Key, Description("Path to website location(IIS or WebAdministration format)")] String WebsitePath;
[Key, Description("Config Section to be update"), ValueMap{"AppSettings"}, Values{"AppSettings"}] String ConfigSection;
[Write, ValueMap{"Present","Absent"}, Values{"Present","Absent"}] String Ensure;
[Required, Description("Key for AppSettings")] String Key;
[Write, Description("Value for AppSettings")] String Value;
[Write, Description("If the given key value pair is for attribute, default is element")] Boolean IsAttribute;
};
Since only the site path and config section are keys, I can't have multiple instances of the resource pointing to the same appSettings block but with different appSetting keys. How can I configure multiple appSetting keys then?

Answer 1

You can't configure two xWebConfigKeyValue resources in the same Configuration because, as you've found, the resource key only contains the WebsitePath and ConfigSection properties and doesn't discriminate on the Key property.
I think your immediate options are:
Create a new cWebConfigKeyValue resource module based on xWebConfigKeyValue, and add the "Key" attribute to the "Key" property in the "cWebConfigKeyValue.schema.mof" to fix it yourself.
or
Define the clashing resources in separate Configuration blocks. I've had to do this in a project that uses the xService resource.
Neither of these is a particularly good solution, but it might unblock you until a better fix comes along.