SPSite: Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite Constructur returns $null when run as Ressource

[ChristophHannappel]

Problem description

When the Get-TargetResource Function tries to load an existing site collection it always returns $null when run by the LCM:

SharePointDsc/SharePointDsc/DSCResources/MSFT_SPSite/MSFT_SPSite.psm1

Lines 76 to 85 in 13408f4

	try
	{
	$centralAdminWebApp = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication]::Local
	$centralAdminSite = Get-SPSite -Identity $centralAdminWebApp.Url -ErrorAction Stop
	$site = New-Object "Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite" -ArgumentList @($params.Url, $centralAdminSite.SystemAccount.UserToken)
	}
	catch [System.Exception]
	{
	}

Verbose logs

VERBOSE: Perform operation 'Invoke CimMethod' with following parameters, ''methodName' = ResourceGet,'className' = MSFT_DSCLocalConfigurationManager,'namespaceName' = root/Microsoft/Windows/DesiredStateConfiguration'.
VERBOSE: An LCM method call arrived from computer ServerName with user sid <SID>.
VERBOSE: [ServerName]:                            [[SPSite]DirectResourceAccess] Getting site collection https://sharepoint.contoso.com/sites/MySiteCollection
VERBOSE: [ServerName]:                            [[SPSite]DirectResourceAccess] Executing as the local run as user DOMAIN\DSCRunAsAccount
VERBOSE: [ServerName]:                            [[SPSite]DirectResourceAccess] Site Collection not found
VERBOSE: [ServerName]: LCM:  [ End    Get      ]  [[SPSite]DirectResourceAccess]  in 0.2780 seconds.
VERBOSE: [ServerName]: LCM:  [ End    Set      ]    in  0.3410 seconds.
VERBOSE: Operation 'Invoke CimMethod' complete.


ConfigurationName        : 
DependsOn                : 
ModuleName               : SharePointDSC
ModuleVersion            : 5.4.0
PsDscRunAsCredential     : 
ResourceId               : 
SourceInfo               : 
AdministrationSiteType   : 
CompatibilityLevel       : 
ContentDatabase          : 
CreateDefaultGroups      : 
Description              : 
HostHeaderWebApplication : 
Language                 : 
Name                     : 
OwnerAlias               : 
OwnerEmail               : 
QuotaTemplate            : 
SecondaryEmail           : 
SecondaryOwnerAlias      : 
Template                 : 
Url                      : https://sharepoint.contoso.com/sites/MySiteCollection
PSComputerName           : localhost

DSC configuration

SPSite SiteCollection
{
    PsDscRunAsCredential = $cred   
    Url = 'https://sharepoint.contoso.com/sites/MySiteCollection'
    OwnerAlias = 'Domain\Username'
}

Suggested solution

Switch to $site = Get-SPSite -Identity $params.Url -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

SharePoint version and build

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition 16.0.17928.20238

Operating system the target node is running

OsName               : Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Datacenter
OsOperatingSystemSKU : DatacenterServerEdition
OsArchitecture       : 64-bit
WindowsVersion       : 2009
WindowsBuildLabEx    : 20348.1.amd64fre.fe_release.210507-1500
OsLanguage           : en-US
OsMuiLanguages       : {en-US}

PowerShell version and build the target node is running

Name                           Value                                                                                                      
----                           -----                                                                                                      
PSVersion                      5.1.20348.2760                                                                                             
PSEdition                      Desktop                                                                                                    
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}                                                                                    
BuildVersion                   10.0.20348.2760                                                                                            
CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000                                                                                            
WSManStackVersion              3.0                                                                                                        
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3                                                                                                        
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1

SharePointDsc version

Name          Version Path                                                                             
----          ------- ----                                                                             
SharePointDSC 5.4.0   C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\SharePointDSC\5.4.0\SharePointDSC.psd1

[ChristophHannappel]

@ykuijs do you know if there was a special use case to get the Site Collection with

SharePointDsc/SharePointDsc/DSCResources/MSFT_SPSite/MSFT_SPSite.psm1

Line 81 in 13408f4

$site = New-Object "Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite" -ArgumentList @($params.Url, $centralAdminSite.SystemAccount.UserToken)

and not Get-SPSite ?

Also if you run the current code inside a PowerShell with the DSCRunAsAccount it works, it just breaks when run by them LCM 😆

[ChristophHannappel]

I think it was changed with #875 but i do not understand why🤔

[ChristophHannappel]

I found the PR #904 which explains the reason. Since its from 2018 - did a patch change that behaviour?
I got the bug on two SP Subscription Edition Farms. I'll test on 2016 and 2019 if they have the same issue.

[ChristophHannappel]

SharePoint 2016 and 2019 works fine.

[ykuijs]

Has been a while, so had to think hard what the reasoning was. Fortunately I documented this in PR 904 😉

Just to get things clear: The current code works on 2016 and 2019, but doesn't work properly on SPSE. Is that correct?

If so, we can add a check to see if SPSE is used and in that case use Get-SPSite. But when 2016 or 2019 is used, use the current code.

[ChristophHannappel]

Has been a while, so had to think hard what the reasoning was. Fortunately I documented this in PR 904 😉

Indeed :)

Just to get things clear: The current code works on 2016 and 2019, but doesn't work properly on SPSE. Is that correct?

Yes, it works on 2016 and 2019, but not on SPSE - at least my environments.

If so, we can add a check to see if SPSE is used and in that case use Get-SPSite. But when 2016 or 2019 is used, use the current code.

Good Idea, i'll use the following if statement, from the SPDistributedCacheService Resource.

SharePointDsc/SharePointDsc/DSCResources/MSFT_SPDistributedCacheService/MSFT_SPDistributedCacheService.psm1

Lines 152 to 155 in 13408f4

	$productVersion = Get-SPDscInstalledProductVersion
	if ($productVersion.FileMajorPart -eq 16 `
	-and $productVersion.FileBuildPart -gt 13000)
	{

[ykuijs]

That is exactly what you need indeed. We have used this logic on several occasions in SPDsc to make sure we can do specific actions for a specific version. The SPInstallPrereqs resource for example, where we have to install the prereqs for each specific version of SharePoint.