Running into an issue with Team Foundation Server 2010 and I'm hoping someone in the community has come up with a solution I can add as a patch to the server.
We have 2-3x QA personnel on a project I'm on, and 1 of them is running TFS for bugs as you would expect... if she finds an issue and it's logged already, she moves on. The issue is that the rest of the IT Team is thinking she isn't doing anything, and I don't want an issue with her not getting her credit where it's due.
Is there anything around that I can plug into TFS 2010 that she can upvote the issue, so that she gets the credit for at least working on the bugs as well? Any advice would be great (may not be a Stackoverflow question, but in that case, let's get this over to Programmers or something similar where it belongs).
You can define a custom field in the TFS item template (i.e. a new drop-down) that can serve as an "upvoting" mechanism.
The issue with "upvoting" a bug is that it may be confused with its Priority. Additionally, it won't necessarily solve the problem of whether she gets credit or not (she could technically just go through the bug queue and upvote every item - doesn't mean that she found the bug herself). As an alternative (although not ideal), she could simply use the "Notes" tab in the TFS item to acknowledge that she came across the same issue.
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I wonder if the community out there can help with this.
We are using Microsoft Dynamics 365 v8.2.2.112, on-premises (not cloud).
The problem is this: millions – yes, literally millions – of Contacts are being created for no apparent reason.
Our users access CRM via an intranet page, but also using the CRM Outlook Plugin.
Since upgrading to v8.2 in January, something in CRM is creating millions of CRM Contacts.
The same Contact is being repeatedly re-created hundreds and thousands of times for the same user. And this happens for multiple Contacts and for multiple users. The end result is that millions of Contacts are being generated. The contact gets created every 5 minutes (approx).
You can easily see the Contacts being created. If you run an “Advanced Search” on Contact order by “created_on” descending order, you can see the same new Contact being generated every five minutes or so, and whose details exactly match the one created 5 minutes ago.
We’ve got about 20 users who seem to be particularly prolific Contact creators. Possibly because of the nature of their role, they add lots (ie dozens) of Contacts to Outlook (but they definitely don’t add hundreds of thousands of the same person!)
I'm absolutely baffled as to why this should happen.
The prevailing view at my company is that CRM Outlook synchronisation is to blame. We use the Outlook plugin widely. We use version 8.2.3.8 of the Outlook CRM plugin. When users sync their Outlook Contacts, maybe it doesn't recognise that the Contact is already in CRM, so regenerates it? We think it's a bug of that nature.
We can’t turn off Outlook synchronisation, because users require it in order to do their jobs. They need to be able to sync Activities, Emails, Contacts and so on.
We've checked all our custom code (C# plugins) to ensure that no Contacts are being create anywhere. We've especially checked the "on create" of Contacts to ensure it’s not creating an additional Contact. No code generates Contacts.
I understand that I am able to turn off users' Outlook Synchronisation filters. But I don’t want to do so as they do need to be able to sync with Outlook. It’s one of the reasons we use Dynamics CRM.
Does anybody know what’s causing this? Has anybody come across this before? What’s the solution to stop this happening? I'm after a root-cause if possible!
Just wanted to keep this post up to date, for the benefit of any other poor souls who encounter this ghastly problem.
We were in touch with Microsoft who have been very helpful (although weren’t able to provide a “silver bullet” solution). The case is ongoing.
The first suggestion was that the problem was down to a customisation, integration or homemade plugin that had got itself into an endless loop, creating CRM Contacts ad infinitum. After searching absolutely every line of code and custom logic, I was able to confirm that the problem is not down to any of our customisations.
What we then did was to examine the Contacts being created on mass. We identified one Contact that was being generated over and over again. We checked its owner, let’s call this owner “John Smith”, and found that John Smith was the one creating this contact over and over. So we checked John Smith’s “Appointments, Contacts, and Tasks” syncing. We did this by “Settings -> Email Configuration -> Mailboxes”, then searched for John Smith’s mailbox. From John Smith’s mailbox, under the “Synchronization Method”, we set “Appointments, Contacts, and Tasks” from “Server-Side Synchronization” to “None”.
After doing this, the mass Contact generation immediately stopped. I’m not suggestion this is the solution to the problem (because we need to use syncing), but I am suggesting that this proves that the problem is down to a CRM bug in synchronisation (and not caused one of our customisations).
So if you’re getting this issue, and you want to rule out your customisations, I would follow these steps (above) to prove that it’s not your code that is responsible. If you turn off syncing for a user, and it stops generating millions of the same contacts owned by that user, I’d say you’ve got the same bug as me.
I think this bug is described in 2 possible places:
“Duplicate contacts are created if the rebuild of ID mapping fails after a test and enable.”: https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4046463/service-update-9-for-microsoft-dynamics-365-8-2-1
OR
“Contact synchronization that uses server-side synchronization causes infinite updates.”: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3203310/update-0-1-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2016-service-pack-1
The suggestion is that we’re getting this problem because we’ve not installed cumulative updates before installing a major version. I can’t agree that we were meant to. We installed the latest version as directed on-line. Obviously we can’t now install the updates which allegedly fix this bug, because we’re on a later version. We went from CRM 8.1.1.1005 to 8.2.2.0112 by skipping 2 cumulative versions (i.e. 8.2.0.0749 and 8.2.1.0176). It is alleged that these skipped versions had a bug fix for this issue in it (see link above), and by not installing them, this issue happened. I can’t really agree that it says anywhere to do this (install cumulative updates before installing a major version). Anyway, that’s the suggested cause of the issue.
Anyway, we’re still busy with the Microsoft guys. I’ll get back to you when there’s a definite course of action we can take. So it’s still work in progress.
We’re planning on deleting the millions of instances of that Contact from the user’s Outlook, then deleting the millions of that Contact from CRM (which has taken a week in a bulk delete), then we’re going to turn on “platform traces” (requiring a registry change), then we’re going to reactivate syncing, and gather the logs, and send them to Microsoft.
I’ll be back when there’s a definite solution.
Updated with a definite solution:
For the sake of completeness and in order to help anybody else who experiences this...
This nightmare was resolved by installing CRM patch v8.2.13.21. [NB We had been on v8.2.2.112] As soon as the patch was installed, the system ceased generated all these Contacts. They stopped being generated to the second!
We're still cleaning up the mess of the unwanted 20 million Contacts which shouldn't be there. But at least the issue is fixed.
I think the lesson is to keep your CRM system up to date in terms of patching!
I faced similar issue in OnLine when we enabled outlook synchronization for Dynamics.
Even we had contacts been created randomly. If you look in advanced find for contacts Created randomly it should be created by System user.
There is user setting in CRM as below and I think in your case Automatically create records in Microsoft Dynamics 365 is set to YES
You will have to change this to No.
For other users you can use XRMToolBox plugin called User Setting Utility and there in you can see every user's personal setting as below
with the same XRM Tool Plugin you can bulk edit user personal setting as well
I'm looking for a (if possible) web service/local server download of some kind that would allow me to share code snippets with my team at work. To increase the productivity of our team it seems like the best way to do this is for everyone in the team to submit code snippets with their name. So a way to share snippets on a local network (in the team) and a way to tell who submitted which code snippet when. I've looked a bit and I've found https://snipt.net which is fine but isn't really setup for a team from the looks of it.
If you are using git for version control, and you are using version control right? :). Github is the defacto standard in my opinion for sharing and managing code. They have free and paid plans that are very affordable. The also to subversion hosting so you are covered on both fronts.
I am pretty new in source control installation and inner workings, although I already had worked with TFS, I have no clue about how to make it work from scratch.
Basically I want to have some source control in my personal VS2010 projects, so I may see the code evolution, rollback and etc. but I am a little lost about how may I set it up...as far as I can see, I have to have a Team Foundation Server running, so is it possible to install one in my PC? Is it free? Or there is a better way for doing it?
I just want some simple tips like "hey man, here are the steps you should follow" or "this is impossible, you have to have a server" or "follow this tutorial"
Thanks a lot guys!
[Disclaimer: I work on TFS and tfspreview.com]
If you are looking for ease of set up and a free offering then I would highly recommend tfspreview.com. While it is still in "preview" mode, it is certainly usable and safe. The site itself also has a great "learn" section to help you get started. The best part is that it has features available that haven't even been released in the on-premises product yet and the development team is consistently adding new features.
If you have any questions about the service, I'd be glad to answer them.
Oh, one other note, to connect to the hosted service you will need to install the VS 2010 compatibility GDR but that is free also.
GIT is a brilliant source control that has allot of easy to use functionality. In fact that have an extension for VS2010 as well. Check under the extensions menu and install the GIT extension. You can them commit and update from within VS itself. Super easy to use!
Enjoy :)
I've been trying to find a guide on how to get Team Foundation Server to turn on a lava lamp or traffic light to indicate the status of the build. I want to set up something that's visible right across the office so there's some peer pressure to encourage developers not to break the build; but I also want it to be fun.
There's a lot of examples for CruiseControl that use X.10 devices which seems like a good way to go. But I can't find anything similar for TFS. I'm sure that somebody must be doing this somewhere...?
Using X.10 has one problem in that it requires a serial port - but our TFS is completely virtualised in a data centre somewhere. Maybe there is some way to trigger the traffic light via an email?
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
The TFS have got a nice API for getting the status of recent builds. You can use the API and design your own fun system.
Also take a look at:
TFS Build Monitor
TFS Build Light
At some point I had stumbled upon this youtube-video, where Martin Woodward presents Brian, the funky TFS-build bunny. Might be worth checking. It might also be worth checking this SO post.
The TFS API's are terrible they're a pain to do yourself. You could start with this open source project on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/siren-of-shame/. That project is designed to work with a couple of different build servers, but everything is broken out, so you could start with the TFS 2010 project (TfsServices.csproj). Or if you don't want to do it all yourself that project is designed to work with a USB Siren that they sell (see http://www.sirenofshame.com/).
How do I let Microsoft know about a problem I've found in one of their core library routines? Do they have a central repository to report these things?
I am not a member of Microsoft Development Network (MSDN).
Or should I even bother?
There is no official way to report bugs to Microsoft for an end-user. If you are participating in a beta program for an upcoming release, the beta program includes a bug-reporting channel. Otherwise, if the bug causes problems that you want to get resolved, you can call Microsoft support, and they will help you solving the problem (be it by providing a patch, or a work-around); if the problem turns out to be caused by a bug indeed, they will refund the costs of the support call.
Microsoft does have a central repository (perhaps separate ones per product), but this repository is not accessible for the general public.
If it's a documentation bug (or if the documentation should call it out), you can get good results with the Feedback links in MSDN library. You can report bugs in Microsoft developer tools (among other things) by signing up at connect.microsoft.com.
If you're sure you've found a bug in a core library routine, you can raise a PSS (support case. It'll cost you money, but if it turns out you're right (and they issue you a hotfix), I think that they refund the money.
I've never been so confident that I've found a bug that I'm willing to make that gamble.
I don't know why ChrisN took back his answer. I saw it earlier today when he had it up, He said:
You can report bugs on the Microsoft Connect website (I've done this in the
past). You don't have to have an MSDN
subscription.
I had not heard of the Microsoft Connect website, but when I used the search box there to search for "Registry Unicode", the first entry listed was a bug very similar to the one I encountered. And clicking through on that entry led me to look at the conversation that appears to be Microsoft people addressing the issue, passing it on to appropriate people and escalating it as necessary.
I have no experience with the Microsoft Connect website, but if it turns out to be as promising as it appears, this may be the answer to my question.