SqlServerNetwork: Fails when with non specific error message when Database Engine is not installed

[johlju]

Details of the scenario you tried and the problem that is occurring:
When using xSQLServerNetwork resource on a configuration without SQLENGINE the resource fails with the following error message.

Cannot find path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\Setup' because it does not exist.
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (HKLM:\SOFTWARE\...QL Server\Setup:) [], CimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetItemPropertyCommand
    + PSComputerName        : sqltest.company.local

Cannot validate argument on parameter 'ApplicationDomain'. The argument is null. Provide a valid value for the argument, and then try running the command again.
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [], CimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Unregister-SqlAssemblies
    + PSComputerName        : sqltest.company.local

It could write out a warning, or throw, that SQLENGINE is not installed so it can't do anything. I don't know whats better, throwing or write a warning. There might be a scenario where throwing would be better so it is logged that the configuration was not correct.

The DSC configuration that is using the resource (as detailed as possible):
Install any feature except SQLENGINE and run this configuration.

xSQLServerNetwork 'InstanceNetworkConfiguration'
{
    SQLServer = $Node.NodeName
    InstanceName = $Node.InstanceName
    ProtocolName = 'Tcp'
    IsEnabled = $true
    TcpDynamicPorts = '0'
    RestartService = $true

    PsDscRunAsCredential = $SqlInstallCredential
}

Version of the Operating System, SQL Server and PowerShell the DSC Target Node is running:
Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2014, WMF 5.0

What module (SqlServer or SQLPS) and which version of the module the DSC Target Node is running:
n/a

Version of the DSC module you're using, or 'dev' if you're using current dev branch:
Dev

[nabrond]

@johlju I think this issue was resolved by #538.

[johlju]

Hmm... I'm not certain. #538 was merged on May 21:st, I submitted this on May 27:th.

I see my error reporting is lacking. I think the problem was that it do write out those errors but don't actually throw an error so execution is stopped. I think I come across that accidentally when I had this resource in the configuration when I tested configuring a Reporting Services.

I think we keep it open until we can validate if it is a problem or not. 😄

[nabrond]

My thinking was that the error message stated that a registry path was missing. This would absolutely be the case if SQL Server was not installed. It appears this path was used to build a unique name for the AppDomain used to load the libraries used by WMI. When you refactored the code in #538, the dependency on the registry path was removed.