win_dsc using PolicyFileEditor DSC Module: failed to convert String to SINT32

[Ricardo Gaspar]

Hi all,

I was using the cAdministrativeTemplateSetting DSC Resource part of PolicyFileEditor module ( https://github.com/dlwyatt/PolicyFileEditor)  in a DSC script and it works fine. Here are the resource's properties:

cAdministrativeTemplateSetting [String] #ResourceName
{
    KeyValueName = [string]
    PolicyType = [string]{ Administrators | Machine | NonAdministrators | User }
    [Data = [string[]]]
    [DependsOn = [string[]]]
    [Ensure = [string]{ Absent | Present }]
    [PsDscRunAsCredential = [PSCredential]]
    [Type = [Int32]{ Binary | DWord | ExpandString | MultiString | None | QWord | String | Unknown }]
}

It has a property called Type which is a map of strings to integers (https://github.com/dlwyatt/PolicyFileEditor/blob/master/DscResources/PshOrg_AdminTemplateSetting/PshOrg_AdminTemplateSetting.schema.mof):

[write,ValueMap{"0","1","2","3","4","7","11","-1"},Values{"Unknown","String","ExpandString","Binary","DWord","MultiString","QWord","None"}] sint32 Type;

When using in my DSC script it works fine, I can use DWord or String as an argument for the Type property. Check my Script:

Configuration LocalGPO
{
    param
    (
        [string[]] $NodeName = 'localhost'
    )


    Import-DSCResource -ModuleName PolicyFileEditor


    Node $NodeName
    {


        cAdministrativeTemplateSetting "RDP Users Home Directory Path"
        {
        #    SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services!WFHomeDirUNC
        #    SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services!WFHomeDir
        #    SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services!WFHomeDirDrive
            KeyValueName = "SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\WFHomeDir"
            PolicyType = "Machine"
            Data = "\\servershare\test"
            Ensure = "Present"
            Type = "String"
        }


        cAdministrativeTemplateSetting "RDP Users Home Directory Letter"
        {
            KeyValueName = "SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\WFHomeDirDrive"
            PolicyType = "Machine"
            Data = "X:"
            Ensure = "Present"
            Type = "String"
        }


        cAdministrativeTemplateSetting "RDP Users Home Directory UNC boolean"
        {
            KeyValueName = "SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\WFHomeDirUNC"
            PolicyType = "Machine"
            Data = "1"
            Ensure = "Present"
            Type = "Dword"
        }


    }




}


LocalGPO
Start-DscConfiguration -Path .\LocalGPO -Wait -Force -Verbose

My Ansible Script (first attempt):

---
 - hosts: windows-ansible
   tasks:
# GPO rule


   - name: "RDP Users Home Directory Path"
     win_dsc:
      resource_name: cAdministrativeTemplateSetting
      Ensure: "Present"
      KeyValueName: "SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\Terminal Services\\WFHomeDir"
      PolicyType: "Machine"
      Data: "\\\\servershare\\test"


   - name: "RDP Users Home Directory Letter"
     win_dsc:
      resource_name: cAdministrativeTemplateSetting
      Ensure: "Present"
      KeyValueName: "SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\Terminal Services\\WFHomeDirDrive"
      PolicyType: "Machine"
      Data: "X:"


   - name: "RDP Users Home Directory UNC boolean"
     win_dsc:
      resource_name: cAdministrativeTemplateSetting
      Ensure: "Present"
      KeyValueName: "SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\Terminal Services\\WFHomeDirUNC"
      PolicyType: "Machine"
      Data: 1 #Also tried with: "1"
      Type: Dword # Also tried with: "DWord"; "[Microsoft.Win32.RegistryValueKind]::DWord"


...

But in Ansible, using win_dsc I can't use these keywords (Dword, String). It will fail with the error:

fatal: [mymachine.mydomain.com]: FAILED! => {"Data": "1", "Ensure": "Present", "KeyValueName": "SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\Terminal Services\\WFHomeDirUNC", "PolicyType": "Machine", "Type": "Dword", "attributes": [{"Key": "Type", "Name": "Type", "Value": "Dword"}, {"Key": "Ensure", "Name": "Ensure", "Value": "Present"}, {"Key": "Data", "Name": "Data", "Value": "1"}, {"Key": "KeyValueName", "Name": "KeyValueName", "Value": "SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\Terminal Services\\WFHomeDirUNC"}, {"Key": "PolicyType", "Name": "PolicyType", "Value": "Machine"}], "changed": false, "dsc_attributes": {"Data": "1", "Ensure": "Present", "KeyValueName": "SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\Terminal Services\\WFHomeDirUNC", "PolicyType": "Machine", "Type": "Dword"}, "failed": true, "msg": "Convert property 'Type' value from type 'STRING' to type 'SINT32' failed\r\n At line:12, char:2\r\n Buffer:\r\nirectResourceAccess\";\n};^\n\ninsta\r\n", "reboot_required": null, "resource_name": "cAdministrativeTemplateSetting"}

In the end, I managed to put it to work using the integer value that corresponded to DWord, but I would expect that DWord keyword would work on win_dsc.

   - name: "RDP Users Home Directory UNC boolean"
     win_dsc:
      resource_name: cAdministrativeTemplateSetting
      Ensure: "Present"
      KeyValueName: "SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\Terminal Services\\WFHomeDirUNC"
      PolicyType: "Machine"
      Data: "1"
      Type: 4 #DWord #"[Microsoft.Win32.RegistryValueKind]::DWord" #
      ## from the MOF file:
      ## [write,ValueMap{"0","1","2","3","4","7","11","-1"},Values{"Unknown","String","ExpandString","Binary","DWord","MultiString","QWord","None"}] sint32 Type;
...

[Jordan Borean]

Hey

Thanks for the info you've posted, win_dsc has only been recently merged. Without knowing too much about how it works it seems like this is a bug with the module and it would be beneficial to raise an Issue at https://github.com/ansible/ansible.

Thanks

Jordan