Course Content

Building custom Bicep Local Deploy extensions From fundamentals to publishing your first custom-ready extension 4 Lessons

Introduction to Bicep Local Deploy extensions 20 min
Creating your first Bicep Local Deploy extension 45 min
Testing your Bicep Local Deploy extension 60 min
Documentation and publishing Bicep Local Deploy extension 35 min

Course content

This course takes you from Bicep Local Deploy fundamentals to publishing custom extensions that are production-ready. The getting started module starts with an introduction to the Bicep Local Deploy framework and its architecture. It covers how custom extensions work within Bicep's ecosystem. You'll set up your development environment and verify your installation using a quick-start project.

Next, you'll be building your first complete extension, expanding on the quick-start project. From looking at the project structure to defining type models with attributes, and lastly, implementing handlers that manage the resource lifecycle.

The advanced module lessons dive deeper into testing and documentation. You'll be using the bicep-local-docgen CLI tool to validate your documentation.

Prerequisites

Before starting this course, you should have:

C# programming: Be familiar with C# syntax, classes, and properties.
PowerShell basics: Understand PowerShell commands and scripting for running build scripts and tests.
REST APIs: Basic understanding of HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and JSON.
Command-line tools: Be comfortable running CLI utilities.

Don't worry if you're missing some recommended knowledge. The course provides explanations along the way. The required knowledge is mainly for following the code examples and completing the exercises.

What you'll learn

Understand Bicep Local Deploy architecture: Learn what custom extensions are, how they extend Bicep's capabilities, and the role of Azure.Bicep.Local.Extension framework and documentation attributes.
Build complete custom extensions: Create type models with documentation attributes, implement resource handlers, and test with Bicep files and Pester.
Generate and publish documentation: Use bicep-local-docgen CLI to generate markdown documentation and validation.

By the end of this course, you'll have a production-ready Bicep Local Deploy extension, including:

Documentation
End-to-end tests
Publishing workflow

You'll understand the complete lifecycle from initial concept to a published extension that users can consume in their Bicep templates.

Plan your migration Inventory your PowerShell DSC estate and choose a path for every artifact 7 Lessons

Introduction to migrating from PowerShell DSC 4 min
Why migrate, and when not to 8 min
Inventory what you have 12 min
Build and inventory the Bindery estate 20 min
Choose a migration path 10 min
Knowledge check 5 min
Summary 3 min

Migrate configurations and resources Walk all four migration paths against one legacy estate 10 Lessons

Introduction to migrating configurations and resources 3 min
Path A: Adapt in place 12 min
Adapt the legacy configuration 15 min
Path B: Import your compiled MOFs 12 min
Convert a MOF file 15 min
Path C: From script-based to class-based 15 min
Rewrite AppEnvironment as a class 20 min
Path D: Going native 8 min
Knowledge check 5 min
Summary 3 min

Replace the LCM Own the enforcement schedule, handle reboots, and migrate credentials 9 Lessons

Introduction to replacing the LCM 3 min
Map LCM features to Microsoft DSC 12 min
Own the enforcement schedule 10 min
Reboots and cross-node coordination 10 min
Migrate credentials 10 min
Prove equivalence end to end 20 min
Pitfalls from the field 8 min
Knowledge check 5 min
Summary and next steps 5 min

Course content

This course takes you from a working PowerShell DSC estate to a Microsoft DSC estate, without a rewrite weekend and without breaking production. The planning module starts where every real migration starts: with an honest look at what you already own. You'll learn why the trajectory points to Microsoft DSC, build an inventory that classifies every resource on a machine, and use that inventory to assign each artifact to one of four migration paths.

Next, you'll walk all four paths against the same small legacy estate. You'll adapt a Configuration script into a configuration document with the resource code untouched, rescue a compiled MOF file whose source script is long gone, rewrite a script-based resource as a class-based one that runs on PowerShell 7, and learn the signals that justify a full native rewrite.

The final module deals with the part of PowerShell DSC that isn't a file: the Local Configuration Manager. You'll map every LCM behavior your estate might depend on to its Microsoft DSC equivalent, replace scheduled enforcement with something you own, move credentials out of MOF files, and run an end-to-end equivalence check that proves all three migration routes converge on the same machine state.

Prerequisites

Before starting this course, you should have:

PowerShell DSC experience: You've written Configuration blocks, compiled MOF files, and run Start-DscConfiguration at least a few times.
Microsoft DSC fundamentals: You can read a configuration document, and you've run dsc config get, dsc config test, and dsc config set against one.
PowerShell scripting: Functions, modules, module manifests, and enough class syntax to read a [DscResource()] class.
A Windows machine: With both Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7+ installed, plus the dsc CLI on your path. Administrator rights are needed for the machine-level environment variable used in the exercises.

Don't worry if you're rusty on the Microsoft DSC side. Each unit explains the construct before using it, and every command in the exercises is shown in full. The PowerShell DSC knowledge is the part that's hard to substitute, because this course is about translating something you already own.

[!TIP]
If you've never applied a configuration document with Microsoft DSC, work through the getting-started chapters of The Microsoft DSC Handbook or The Fundamentals of Microsoft DSC first. This course assumes the mechanics and focuses entirely on the translation.

What you'll learn

Inventory a PowerShell DSC estate: Classify configurations, compiled MOFs, script-based resources, and class-based resources, and check what each Microsoft DSC adapter can already see.
Choose a migration path per artifact: Apply a four-path decision framework — adapt in place, import MOFs, rewrite as class-based, rewrite as native — and defend the choice with cost and payoff, not preference.
Execute each path hands-on: Translate Configuration scripts into configuration documents, convert MOF files with an import extension, and port Get/Set/Test-TargetResource trios into class-based resources.
Replace the LCM: Map enforcement modes, refresh intervals, reboot policy, partial configurations, and cross-node coordination to explicit Microsoft DSC replacements that you schedule and own.
Migrate credentials safely: Retire PSDscAllowPlainTextPassword and MOF encryption certificates in favor of secureString parameters and secret extensions.

By the end of this course, you'll have migrated a complete (if small) estate end to end, including:

A migration inventory report you can run against any machine
A configuration document that replaces a Configuration script
A class-based resource ported from a script-based one
A scheduled enforcement replacement for the LCM
An equivalence check that proves the migration didn't change behavior

You'll understand the full lifecycle from "we have hundreds of MOFs and nobody remembers who wrote them" to a reviewed, tested, version-controlled Microsoft DSC estate.

The running example

Every unit uses the same fictional estate, owned by a company called Bindery. A bindery is a workshop where loose sheets are fastened together into books, which is a fair description of what a migration does: fasten an old estate to a new engine without tearing any pages.

Bindery's operations team owns:

BinderyOps, a PowerShell module containing a script-based resource named AppEnvironment that manages a machine-level environment variable.
LegacyWebServer.ps1, a Configuration script that uses AppEnvironment alongside the built-in File resource.
output\localhost.mof, the compiled artifact that the LCM actually applies.

It's small enough to follow in a single sitting and structurally identical to the thousand-line resources in your production estate.

Getting started Learn the fundamentals and set up your development environment 4 Lessons

Introduction to Microsoft Desired State Configuration (DSC) 5 min
Installing Microsoft Desired State Configuration (DSC) 10 min
Your first resource invocation 10 min
Practicing and exploring 20 min

Course content

This course takes you from the Microsoft DSC fundamentals to practical implementation. The getting started module introduces Microsoft's Desired State Configuration (DSC) cross-platform command-line tool for declarative configuration management. You'll learn the core concepts that differentiate DSC from traditional configuration management approaches, install Microsoft DSC on your system, and get hands-on experience by invoking your first DSC resource. At the end, there's room for practical exercises and a knowledge check.

What you'll learn

Understand Microsoft's DSC architecture: Learn what Desired State Configuration is, how it's different from imperative tools, and why idempotency matters.
Install and configure Microsoft DSC: Set up Microsoft DSC on Windows, Linux, or macOS, including PATH configuration and installation.
Work with DSC resources: Discover how to explore resource schemas, understand property requirements, and invoke the core resource operations (get, set, test, and delete).
Configure your registry: Gain practical experience with the Microsoft.Windows/Registry DSC resource.

-/-

Choose a migration path

With the inventory in hand, every configuration and resource in your estate lands in one of four buckets. Think of them as increasing levels of effort and increasing levels of payoff.

Figure 1: The four migration paths. Effort and payoff both increase from A to D.

The four paths

Path A — Adapt in place.

Keep the module exactly as it is. Reference it through an adapter in a Microsoft DSC configuration document. Zero changes to resource code; the only thing that changes is the envelope around it.

Path B — Import compiled MOFs.

Use an import extension to translate MOF files into configuration documents, either on the fly at invocation time or as a one-time conversion you commit.

Path C — Rewrite script-based resources as class-based.

A moderate rewrite that unlocks the PowerShell 7+ adapter and sheds the Windows PowerShell dependency. The three functions become three methods.

Path D — Rewrite as a native command resource.

Full modernization: a resource with its own manifest, invoked directly by the engine with no PowerShell host in the middle. Worth it for resources that need speed, cross-platform reach, or freedom from PowerShell hosting entirely.

[!NOTE]
"Native" describes how the engine invokes the resource, not the language you write it in. Technically, a command resource can still be PowerShell: the resource manifest calls pwsh and hands it a PowerShell script as the entry point. PSResourceGet ships its DSC resources this way.
"get": {
  "executable": "pwsh",
  "args": ["-NoLogo", "-NonInteractive", "-NoProfile", "-Command", "./appenvironment.ps1 get"],
  "input": "stdin"
}
You gain the manifest's full capability surface without leaving PowerShell. You don't gain the near-instant startup, because every invocation still starts pwsh.

Compare them honestly

	Path A	Path B	Path C	Path D
Effort	Hours	Hours	Days	Weeks
Resource code changes	None	None	Rewrite	Rewrite in another language
Requires 5.1 at runtime	Yes	Yes	No	No
Works cross-platform	No	No	Yes (PowerShell 7)	Yes (native binary)
Startup cost per invocation	PowerShell host	PowerShell host	PowerShell host	Near-instant
Full capability surface	No	No	Partial	Yes
Best for	Everything, as a first move	MOFs with no surviving source	Resources you'll keep for years	Resources invoked constantly, or shipped as products

[!NOTE]
The effort estimates assume a person doing the work by hand, without AI assistance. AI tools can shorten the typing, but they don't shorten the review, the testing, or the edge cases you still have to verify on a real machine. Apart from the aside in Figure 1, this course leaves AI out of every estimate.

A decision flow you can defend

Work down this list per resource. The first match wins:

Figure 2: The decision flow per resource. The first match wins.

[!IMPORTANT]
Paths A and B are not failures of ambition. They move the orchestration layer to Microsoft DSC while leaving resource code alone, which is exactly the decoupling that makes Paths C and D safe to do later, one resource at a time, with a working system between every step.

When Path D earns its cost

Rewriting working PowerShell into another language is a real cost that needs a real payoff. Four signals tell you a resource has outgrown the adapter:

Startup cost dominates. Every adapted invocation pays for a PowerShell host. For a resource invoked constantly — by a scheduler, a pipeline, or an AI agent — a native binary's near-instant startup changes the economics entirely.
You need platforms that PowerShell modules serve poorly. A native resource compiled for Linux and macOS beats "install PowerShell 7 everywhere first" as a deployment story.
You want the full capability surface. Native what-if support via whatIfArg, implementsPretest, handlesExist, and fine-grained capability declarations belong to resource manifests, not to adapted resources.
The resource is a product, not a script. If other teams or customers consume it, the single-binary distribution model and the language-agnostic contract are worth the rewrite on their own.

If none of those apply, a class-based resource running on PowerShell 7 through the adapter is a fully supported, long-term-viable end state.

Apply it to Bindery

Run the decision flow against the estate you built in unit 4:

Artifact	Decision flow result	Path
`LegacyWebServer.ps1`	Source script exists, resources are script-based	A
`output\localhost.mof`	Source exists, so the MOF is redundant — but you'll convert it anyway to learn the tool	B (as a drill)
`BinderyOps/AppEnvironment`	Script-based, still owned, no Path D signals	A now, C next
`PSDesiredStateConfiguration/File`	Built-in, script/binary-based, owned by Microsoft	A (or replace with a native file resource later)

That last row is worth pausing on. Some of your estate isn't yours to rewrite. Built-in PSDesiredStateConfiguration resources migrate via Path A by definition — the question is whether a native Microsoft DSC equivalent exists that you'd rather use instead. Check before you adapt.

[!TIP]
Record the chosen path in the inventory itself, next to the owner. When someone asks in six months why AppEnvironment is still on the 5.1 adapter, the answer should be a row in a file, not a memory.

> EOF