SharePointDsc: SPInstallPrereqs: Doesn't work from network path

Details of the scenario you tried and the problem that is occurring

Trying to run DSC with the sources on a network path which is supposed to be supported (and used to work) doesn’t work anymore.

Verbose logs showing the problem

VERBOSE: Perform operation 'Invoke CimMethod' with following parameters, ''methodName' = ResourceTest,'className' = MSFT_DSCLocalConfigurationManager,'namespaceName' = root/Microsoft/Windows/DesiredStateConfiguration'.
VERBOSE: An LCM method call arrived from computer DEV-SP2019 with user sid S-1-5-21-2574351433-2186952018-4287395133-500.
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]: LCM:  [ Start  Test     ]  [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess]
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Testing installation status of SharePoint prerequisites
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Getting installation status of SharePoint prerequisites
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Check if InstallerPath folder exists
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Checking file status of \\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller.exe
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Checking status now
The parameter is incorrect
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], CimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetItemCommand
    + PSComputerName        : localhost

VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] File not blocked, continuing.
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Version: SharePoint 2019
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Getting installed windows features
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] OS Version: Windows Server 2019
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] The operation 'Get-WindowsFeature' started:
Web-Server,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Dir-Browsing,Web-Http-Errors,Web-Static-Content,Web-Health,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,W
eb-Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,NET-Framework-Features,NET-HTTP-Activation,NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,NET
-Framework-45-ASPNET,NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45,Windows-Identity-Foundation,WAS,WAS-Process-Model,WAS-NET-Environment,WAS-Config-APIs,XPS-Viewer
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] The operation 'Get-WindowsFeature' succeeded:
Web-Server,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Dir-Browsing,Web-Http-Errors,Web-Static-Content,Web-Health,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,W
eb-Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,NET-Framework-Features,NET-HTTP-Activation,NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,NET
-Framework-45-ASPNET,NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45,Windows-Identity-Foundation,WAS,WAS-Process-Model,WAS-NET-Environment,WAS-Config-APIs,XPS-Viewer
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Checking windows packages from the registry
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Prerequisite AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server was not found on this system
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Prerequisite Microsoft CCR and DSS Runtime 2008 R3 was not found on this system
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Prerequisite Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64) was not found on this system
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Prerequisite WCF Data Services 5.6.0 Runtime was not found on this system
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Prerequisite Active Directory Rights Management Services Client 2.1 was not found on this system
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Current Values: AppFabric=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe;
DotNet472=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\NDP472-KB4054530-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe; DotNetFx=; Ensure=Absent; IDFX=; IDFX11=\\vmware-host\Shared
Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\MicrosoftIdentityExtensions-64.msi; InstallerPath=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller.exe; IsSingleInstance=Yes; KB2671763=; KB3092423=\\vmware-host\Shared
Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\AppFabric-KB3092423-x64-ENU.exe; MSIPCClient=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\setup_msipc_x64.exe; MSVCRT11=\\vmware-host\Shared
Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\vcredist_x64.exe; MSVCRT14=; MSVCRT141=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\vc_redist.x64.exe; NETFX=; ODBC=; OnlineMode=False; PowerShell=;
SQLNCli=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\sqlncli.msi; SXSpath=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\WindowsServer2019\sources\sxs; Sync=\\vmware-host\Shared
Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\Synchronization.msi; WCFDataServices=; WCFDataServices56=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\WcfDataServices.exe
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]:                            [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] Target Values: AppFabric=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe;
DotNet472=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\NDP472-KB4054530-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe; Ensure=Present; IDFX11=\\vmware-host\Shared
Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\MicrosoftIdentityExtensions-64.msi; InstallerPath=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller.exe; IsSingleInstance=Yes; KB3092423=\\vmware-host\Shared
Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\AppFabric-KB3092423-x64-ENU.exe; MSIPCClient=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\setup_msipc_x64.exe; MSVCRT11=\\vmware-host\Shared
Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\vcredist_x64.exe; MSVCRT141=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\vc_redist.x64.exe; OnlineMode=False; SQLNCli=\\vmware-host\Shared
Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\sqlncli.msi; SXSpath=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\WindowsServer2019\sources\sxs; Sync=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\Synchronization.msi; Verbose=True;
WCFDataServices56=\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\WcfDataServices.exe
VERBOSE: [DEV-SP2019]: LCM:  [ End    Test     ]  [[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess] False in 0.6870 seconds.
The PowerShell DSC resource '[SPInstallPrereqs]DirectResourceAccess' with SourceInfo '' threw one or more non-terminating errors while running the Test-TargetResource functionality. These errors are logged to the ETW channel called
Microsoft-Windows-DSC/Operational. Refer to this channel for more details.
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (root/Microsoft/...gurationManager:String) [], CimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NonTerminatingErrorFromProvider
    + PSComputerName        : localhost

VERBOSE: Operation 'Invoke CimMethod' complete.
VERBOSE: Time taken for configuration job to complete is 1.124 seconds

Suggested solution to the issue

The problem stems from MSFT_SPInstallPrereqs.psm1:234. You can’t Get-Item a network path. I suppose the CD-Drive check beginning in line 207 should also check for a network path and don’t check the file status.

The DSC configuration that is used to reproduce the issue (as detailed as possible)

Invoke-DscResource -Name SPInstallPrereqs -ModuleName SharePointDsc -Method Test -Property @{
  OnlineMode=$false;
  Ensure="Present";
  IsSingleInstance="Yes";
      InstallerPath        = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller.exe"
      SXSpath              = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\WindowsServer2019\sources\sxs"
      SQLNCli              = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\sqlncli.msi"
      Sync                 = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\Synchronization.msi"
      AppFabric            = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe"
      IDFX11               = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\MicrosoftIdentityExtensions-64.msi"
      MSIPCClient          = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\setup_msipc_x64.exe"
      WCFDataServices56    = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\WcfDataServices.exe"
      MSVCRT11             = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\vcredist_x64.exe"
      MSVCRT141            = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\vc_redist.x64.exe"
      KB3092423            = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\AppFabric-KB3092423-x64-ENU.exe"
      DotNet472            = "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Share\SharePoint2019\PrerequisiteInstaller\NDP472-KB4054530-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe"
} -Verbose

The operating system the target node is running

OsName : Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Datacenter OsOperatingSystemSKU : DatacenterServerEdition OsArchitecture : 64-bit WindowsVersion : 1809 WindowsBuildLabEx : 17763.1.amd64fre.rs5_release.180914-1434 OsLanguage : en-US OsMuiLanguages : {en-US}

Version of SharePoint that is used

SharePoint 2019

Version and build of PowerShell the target node is running

5.1.17763.592

Version of the DSC module that was used (‘dev’ if using current dev branch)

3.6.0.0