Anybody able to successfully install/configure Release Management Server for TFS/Visual Studio 2013?
Went through simple install of SQL Express 2014/Release Management Server on both Win 8.1 Pro and Win Server 2012 R2 and the attached image is the result.
Interface appears to be missing many components, as if permission or some other IIS setting is incorrect.
Tried in both Chrome and IE with the same result.
Used default install settings (Network Service account) and currently running SQL Express on same machine as Release Management install.
This is the interface for RM's Release Explorer and it does look like that, unbelievable as it may seem. All this will change with new RM components in TFS 2015 - check out Donovon Brown's talk at Build 2015 for a preview.
Back to the root of your issue, which is that Release Explorer is only a minor part of the RM stack. Have you installed the RM client (a WPF application) which is the main interface for configuring RM? My continuous delivery with TFS blog post series here has all the details you need.
Related
The requirements on the following page state that you need to install Visual Studio with Xamarin on your local TFS server to setup Xamarin CI builds:
https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/ci/intro_to_ci/
topography of the CI
This is a real pain. We have lots of developers that rely on our local TFS server, most of whom don't do any Xamarin development. As such, any changes are heavily scrutinized. This often leads to us not installing the latest VS/Xamarin releases, as it's considered too risky for this vital bit of infrastructure.
We could have a Windows build machine with VS and Xamarin installed, that is connected to a Mac build machine. We'd be free to update the Windows and Mac build machines regularly, without the fear of compromising the TFS server. Is this possible? If not, why not?
Thanks in advance.
That diagram can't be right. There is no reason why you'd need VS or Xamarin installed on your TFS app tier.
I think it's showing a simplified configuration where the Windows build agent is installed alongside the app tier. That is a supported setup but is never, ever recommended by anyone, for exactly the reasons why you don't want to do it.
The diagram is simplified. You don't need to install anything on your TFS server. What you do instead is to install a Build Agent on a separate machine or virtual machine.
The installation details for the TFS 2017 / VSTS build agent v2 can be found in the official visual studio documentation.
The procedure is similar for both TFS and VSTS, where you generate an access token in TFS/VSTS, then simply enter the url for the TFS/VSTS instance when running the build agent install script, along with the access token.
There are build agents for Windows, Linux and macOS, so it is up to you how you configure how iOS builds are made.
After cloning a 2010 TFS server, upgrading the clone's OS to 2012R2, upgrading SQL Server to 2012 SP2 (11.0.5343), uninstalling TFS 2010, and upgrading to TFS 2013 with update 5, we are running into issues starting the Build Service on the clone.
I've removed the agents and build controllers referencing the other original server through Manage Build Controllers, in Visual Studio 2013.
I've tried to use the TFS 2013 upgrade wizard and it fails when attempting to start the build service so I tried to unconfigure: "tfsconfig.exe setup /uninstall:TeamBuild" and reconfigure through the TFS 2013 upgrade wizard but it yielded the same result.
The TFS database server, Build Server, controller, and agent are located on the same box
For measure, I've even deleted the agents, controllers, and Unregistered and Registered the Build Service in the Team Foundation Server Administration Console as both the batch account used on the original server but that failed so to rule out authentication, I used my domain account (I'm a Local Admin, SQL Server Admin, and TFS Admin) but still had the same result with both accounts.
The Windows event log states “Service cannot be started. The handle is invalid”.
I'm not sure what else could be missed does anyone have any pointers?
There were over 100 Microsoft patches/updates applied over the weekend and the issue went away. Microsoft confirmed that the issue was related to the OS, not the TFS configuration or installation/upgrade.
Thanks for all your suggestions. Hopefully this will help someone else out if they are in the same situation and spinning wheels to find the answer. Keep your systems as up to date as possible!
Try to remove build service by going to Team Foundation Server Administration Console, select server name, and click Remove Feature, to remove build service feature, then re-configure it.
I want to know the features and limitations of TFS express 2013. Such as Check in and check out options, how many users can be configured and regarding sql server versions it supports and so on.
I found this:
What's missing in TFS Express?
The Express edition is essentially the same TFS as you get when you
install the TFS Basic wizard except that the install is trimmed down
and streamlined to make it incredibly fast and easy. In addition to
the normal TFS Basic install limitations (no Sharepoint integration,
no reporting), TFS Express:
Is limited to no more than 5 named users.
Only supports SQL Server Express Edition (which we’ll install for you, if you don’t have it)
Can only be installed on a single server (no multi-server configurations)
Excludes the TFS Proxy and the new Preemptive analytics add-on.
And also no backlog board or task board...
I see the Backup tab is also missing...?
Backup is included in express version
Do we know whether CodeLens works with TFS Express?
CodeLens works with TFS Express.
https://lajak.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/tfs-2012-versions-of-team-foundation-server/
Team Foundation Server Express
TFS Express is a free limited version of Team Foundation Server. It is
great for small teams of up to 5 five users. TFS Express can be
downloaded from the MSDN website and it is around 500MB. Here is a
direct link to the TFS Express home page.
Pro’s
Free
Data stays inside your network
Comes with version control repository
Work item tracking
Build Automation
You have more control compared to the TFS Service
Can customize Process and Workitems template
CAL’s can be purchased in case your team grows beyond 5 users
Support for express versions of Visual Studio
Con’s
Must have own hardware or virtual machine
Not accessible from anywhere
Supports Basic installation only
Limited Agile Project management features and tools
No Reporting Integration
No SharePoint Integration
Supports only SQL Server Express Edition
Installed on one machine. Can’t scale out
Doesn’t support TFS Proxy
Excludes Preemptive analytics add-on
Need to manage your own database backups and downtimes in case of hardware failure
Buy license for the Operating System and CALs if required
social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/8f99b8b8-4406-4fb4-b326-4cff50683b8c/tfs-2012-free-vs-commercial?forum=tfsversioncontrol
In addition, there are some other limitations for TFS express.
Only supports SQL server Express edition.
Can only be installed on a single server.
You can get more information form Brian Harry's blog TFS Express (blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2012/02/23/coming-soon-tfs-express.aspx)
I'm trying to get started with building my own webparts, planning to follow this MSDN article.
I've downloaded Visual C# 2010 Express - I'm not quite at the point where I feel comfortable dropping 1000 big ones yet, and I installed Visual Web Developer 2010 Express via the WPInstaller.
Following through the tutorial, aside from the fact that I don't get the option to create a "Web Control Library", a gap I filled with this article, I can't seem to find the sn.exe tool (or the "Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt"!).
I know it's not quite a direct programming related question, but I can't even get the thing going yet!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
EDIT:-
I think I may be jumping the gun quite considerably, I wrote a simple hello world example and tried to build it but it doesn't have any references to the Microsoft.SharePoint packages and they don't appear in my lists.
Am I understanding some more research I've done (namely this) correctly, in that I have to actually have a full installation of actual SharePoint on the machine I'm developing on?
sn.exe is part of the .Net Framework SDK tools - not actually part of Visual Studio.
If you've got the SDK installed (which I think you must have if you're using VS) then it will be in a directory such as (depending on which version of .NET SDK you've got installed)
c:\program files\microsoft.net\SDK\v2.0\Bin
You can develop SharePoint web parts with VS express but you won't be able to use extensions like VSeWSS which can make your life a little easier.
You don't have develop on a machine with SharePoint installed upon - you can just copy the Microsoft.SharePoint.dll assembly from a machine with it installed on and reference it in your project.
There are pros and cons to developing on a SharePoint machine.
Its easier to get started -
especially debugging locally rather
than remote debugging.
Harder to be
sure that you're code will work a
'real server' - are you sure you
don't have any dependencies that may
not be installed.
Harder to work with
multiple versions of SharePoint (2007
WSS and MOSS and 2010 foundation,
server etc).
If you do want to work with a locally installed SharePoint then
You can install windows server OS with SharePoint and Visual Studio.
there is a hack for installing SharePoint 2007 on vista (referenced in the SO article you link to)
you can install SharePoint Foundation 2010 on Windows 7 (but I am not sure what the licensing restrictions are - is this maybe something thats given through MSDN?)
If you decide to go with the remote server installation then save yourself some grief and use virtualization such as VMWare Server, Virtual PC or Hyper-V.
If you are doing SharePoint development trying to reference the Microsoft.SharePoint namespaces you need to have SharePoint installed on the machine if you want to do things like debugging, etc. For SP 2010 you CAN install SharePoint on a Win 7 machine. For previous versions of SharePoint, you will need to setup a Server that is Server 2003 or Server 2008 (you can't install SP 2007 and earlier on client machines). Generally this is a Virtual Machine for developers.
Having said all of that, there are relatively few reasons you need SharePoint to develop a WebPart. The vast majority of the WebPart functionality is part of the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts namespace. Even if I am accessing SharePoint data, I generally use the ASP.NET web part.
If you are trying to use the new SharePoint VS 2010 functionality to create Visual Web Parts, etc, then you will need to install SP 2010, since that functionality is not supported in earlier version of SharePoint.
John
What are the best practices in setting up a new instance of TFS 2008 Workgroup edition?
Specifically, the constraints are as follows:
Must install on an existing Windows Server 2008 64 bit
TFS application layer is 32 bit only
Should I install SQL Server 2008, Sharepoint and the app layer in a virtual instance of Windows Server 2008 or 2003(I am already running Hyper-V) or split the layers with a database on the host OS and the app layer in a virtual machine?
Edit: Apparently, splitting the layers is not recommended
This is my recipe for installing TFS 2008 SP1.
There is no domain controller in this scenario, we are only a couple of users. If I was to do it again, I would consider changing our environement to use a active directory domain.
Host Server running Windows Server 2008 with 8GB RAM and quad processor
Fresh install of Windows Server 2008 32bit in a VM under Hyper-V
Install Application Server role with IIS
Install SQL Server 2008 Standard edition
Use a user account for Reporting Services and Analysis Services
Create a slipstreamed image of TFS 2008 with SP1 and install TFS
Install VSTS 2008
Install Team System Explorer
Install VSTS 2008 SP1
Install TFS Web Access Power tool
After installing everything, reports were not generated. Found this forum post that helped resolve the problem.
Open p://localhost:8080/Warehouse/v1.0/warehousecontroller.asmx
Run the webservice (see above link for details), it will take a little while, the tfsWarehouse will be rebuilt
It is very important to do things in order, download the installation guide and follow it to the letter. I forgot to install the Team System Explorer until after installing SP1 and ventured into all sorts of problems. Installing SP1 once more fixed that.
One critical thing you has to keep in mind about TFS, is that it likes to have the machine all to it self. So if you have to create a separate instance on Hyper-V do it using the proven Windows Server 2003 platform with SQL Server 2005.
I am sure Microsoft has done a great job getting it to work under Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, however you don't get any additional features with this newer install and it is currently unproven in the wild.
So my recommendation is to stick with what is known until the next release of TFS comes out.
Also splitting the layers is definitely not recommended, especially in the workgroup edition where you will only be allowed to have 5 licensed users. Those 5 users will never exceed the server's needs. Also my recommendation is to not update Sharepoint if you don't need to. In my environment, we don't really use Sharepoint all that much, so I left it alone. Sharepoint is usually, in my experience, where most of the problems come from with TFS.
I just upgraded our team to TFS 2008, from TFS 2005. The hardest part was upgrading SharePoint 2.0 to 3.0, so I would make sure to do that first, if you have not already installed TFS 2008. We had a couple of other difficulties, but they were all either related to the SharePoint upgrade, or to the fact that we were using an aftermarket Policy package - Scrum for TeamSystem. We are on SQL Server 2005, so I cannot address SQL Server 2008. As for splitting the layers, we did not do this either, as we are running on Windows Server 2003 and everything ran under the host OS.
Splitting the layers is only needed for more than 450 users.
I would also recommend having the Build Server on a completely seperate machine. Building is very file system intensive. SQL Server performs best when it has complete control of a file system - so having build and TFS on the same machine may create performance issues while builds are executing.
Perhaps this can be alleviated with proper tuning and seperate physical drives - but I'd think in the long run it would be a lot simpler to just either use some old hardware - or spin up a small virtual machine on a seperate host for your builds