The VSTS Rangers have really been in release mode the last couple of weeks! This time I want to mention another project I’ve been involved in - the update to the TFS Branching Guide project. In this release the content has been updated for TFS 2010 and shows best-practices on many of the new TFS Source Code features, in particular the ones related to branching of course. Just look at this beautiful picture of what the guide covers:
The guide also has a nice hands-on lab you can use to quickly get up to speed with the concepts. So head over to Codeplex and download the release!
On February 11 we’ll do a half-day presentation at Microsoft in Stockholm focusing entirely on virtualization in general and using the new lab management tools coming in Visual Studio 2010 in particular.
The event will cover the following (in Swedish):
13.00 - Inledning
Dag König, Microsoft
13.30 - Virtualisering
Anders Björling, Microsoft
Windows Server och Hyper-V ger en konsoliderad servermiljö och en infrastruktur som snabbare svarar upp till utvecklares nya och förändrade krav. Presentationen täcker in:
- Virtualisering från Microsoft
- System Center för hantering av virtualiserade miljöer
14.30 - Kaffe
14.45 - Visual Studio Lab Managment
Mathias Olausson, Qwise
I detta pass visar vi hur man får igång Lab Manager och hur man använder de olika delarna i produkten. Vi går igenom ett exempel som visar på följande delar: - Arkitektur, installation och konfiguration
- Skapandet av miljöer
- Manuell testning i virtuell miljö
- Automatisering av tester
- Byggautomatisering, deployment och automatiska tester i byggen
16.00 - Visual Studio Lab Management hos Länsförsäkringar
Tomas Scott, Länsförsäkringar
Länsförsäkringar har använt Visual Studio 2010 under en tid. I den här presentationen delar Tomas vision och erfarenheter ifrån deras införande av Visual Studio Lab Manager.
For more information and registration visit the registration site here: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032439767&Culture=sv-SE
The training kit for VS 2010 and .NET has been refreshed. This time it includes new content for the application lifecycle tools (such as labs and videos).
You can download the training kit here.
The VSTS Rangers released another great project - the Visual Studio 2010 TFS Upgrade Guide. This is a valuable resource for anyone who wants more information on the process to upgrade to TFS 2010. The 2010 Upgrade guide has the following content (from the project site):
1 Introduction
2 Upgrade Process
3 Scenarios
3.1 Upgrading Projects from Multiple TFS 2008 servers into one TFS 2010 server
3.2 Upgrading severs when SQL Mirroring is enabled
3.3 Recovering system if upgrade fails midway
3.4 Updating Team Project Portal for an existing Team project
3.5 Splitting Team Project Collection into Multiple Collections
3.6 When I move a Team Project Collection, how do I move the reports?
3.7 Bringing Workgroup Machine inside Domain
4 Frequently Asked Questions
4.1 Can I use a TFS2008 Process Template to create team projects in TFS 2010
4.2 How can I enable Agile Workbooks in upgraded Projects
4.2.1 Enabling the Product Backlog Workbook
4.2.2 Enabling the Iteration Backlog Workbook
4.3 How can I enable Test Case Management in upgraded project
4.4 How can I enable Branch Visualization in upgrade projects
4.5 How can I enable Lab Management in upgrade projects
4.6 What is WIT Admin Tool
4.7 What happens to my custom reports created in TFS2008 post upgrade?
4.8 Will my old TFS2008 reports work post upgrade?
4.9 Can I add a new Database to my existing TFS 2010 farm?
4.10 Error bringing cloned Team Project Collection online
4.11 Move Team Project Collection Database from one Database server to another Database Server
4.12 How to enable the TFS reports if the WSS server is upgraded to MOSS server?
4.13 How to Move Team Projects from one Team Project Collection to another
5 References
Attrice has just release a beta version of their sidekicks for TFS 2010 beta 2. The functionality is almost the same as the 2.4 version for TFS 2008 but more goodness may come once the TFS 2010 API has been finalized.
Read the full release notes here and download the bits from here.
I attended and presented at the first SDC conference in Gothenburg in March this year. It was a well-arranged one-day conference with lots of good speakers (Kent Beck did the keynote, just to mention one). Next year the conference is back and this time for two full days.
I’ve got the opportunity to talk at this conference as well:
and this is what I plan to cover:
Testing, testing. A first-look at the new testing capabilities in Visual Studio 2010
The new release of Visual Studio Team System will include a large set of powerful testing features. Whether you're into manual or automated testing there will be things you want to check out!
We'll look at the many of the exiting new features in VSTS 2010, including:
- Test planning and execution
- Issue tracking with rich bugs
- Eliminating the "works on my machine / cannot reproduce" scenario
- Automated UI Testing
- Virtual Lab Management
Visit http://www.scandevconf.se/ for all the details about the conference and make sure to sign up early!
As many of you know the virtual machines that Microsoft kindly provides for evaluation of Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server expire on December 31. Fortunately Brian Randell has been busy creating a set of new virtual machines for VSTS/TFS/VS:
http://www.mcwtech.com/blogs/brianr/post/Happy-Holidays-and-look-what-Santae28099s-brought-2009-edition.aspx
This time we get both Virtual PC 2007/Virtual Server 2005 and Hyper-V compatible images, which is really useful since I use both Hyper-V and Virtual PC for demos and presentations. And we get images for VSTS 2008 SP1 and VS 2010 beta 2. The beta 2 image will be really useful for testing out the coming version (which I really recommend you checkout if you haven’t done so already). Here are the links to the full VPC images:
Here are the file sets if you use the Free Download Manager for downloads:
Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server SP1 and Team Suite SP1 VPC Image
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0001.exe
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0002.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0003.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0004.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0005.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0006.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0007.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0008.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0009.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0010.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0011.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/3/D73B91D4-6DAA-4DA6-8635-3F10A1B918DB/en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_sp1_december2009_vpc.part0012.rar
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation ServerR 2010 Beta 2 for Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 Image
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0001.exe
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0002.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0003.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0004.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0005.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0006.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0007.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0008.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0009.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0010.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0011.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/6/026148BB-44EB-444F-BA8B-BFF39901A7CA/en_visual_studio_2010_beta2_december2009_vpc.part0012.rar
Enjoy!
A few weeks ago I posted about some issues I’ve had with Team Build on TFS 2010 beta 2 (http://msmvps.com/blogs/molausson/archive/2009/11/23/issue-with-team-build-2010-beta-2-on-some-localized-machines-value-cannot-be-null-parameter-name-path1.aspx). A fix for this and a few other issues has been released and it works great on my configurations.
Here’s the isses this fix resolved:
- Fixes an intermittent race condition that prevents WIT data from making it to the Warehouse
- Fixed an issue where the iteration backlog for each build workbook is based on the root iteration and not on the individual iterations
- Fixes an issue where in the Regional Options, the Decimal Symbol is defined to something other than “.” (For example ”,”.)
- Fixed an issue that prevents saving multiple work-items in excel or project when connected to TFS 2010 server from a 2008 client.
Get the patch here:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/KB977226
The TFS Administration Tool is probably the most widely used tool for TFS Security administration but it has been known for having a slightly akward user-interface. In v2 the UI has been re-done and some other nice features have been added. I think the new version will make the tool even more used by TFS admins.
Oh, and another cool enhancement is support for TFS 2010 beta 2!
Release notes from Peter’s blog:
Finally it’s time for the brand new design of the tool to see the light, you can download the v2.0 CTP from here. Please take it for a spin and let us know what you like and not like about it (along with any potential problems you have).
The main new features in this release are:
- Support for all available versions of Team Foundation Server (2005, 2008, 2010 Beta 2)
- Complete redesign of the user interface
- Multiple server connection
- Bulk edit of users
- Undo pending changes
- Tracing
You can read more about the release on the homepage
Today Microsoft released a new patch for the Team System Web Access 2008. This fix addresses some memory issues that occurs when you run TSWA under reasonable load. Here’s the releases information from Hakan Eskicis blog:
We have just published updates to address the scalability issues in Team System Web Access 2008 power tool.
The update consists of two parts that can be installed separately, but I strongly recommend installing both updates to get the most benefits for improved scalability:
1. Patch for referenced object model assemblies
This update contains fixes in various assemblies used by Web Access, Team Explorer and Team Foundation Server.
You can download it at:
You need to install this patch to the server where Web Access 2008 power tool is running.
2. Web Access 2008 power tool:
This is a full release that contains the latest version of Web Access 2008 power tool with the scalability fixes.
You can download it at:
You need to uninstall any existing installations of Web Access 2008 before installing this.
I just received a mail informing me that the latest release of SfTS is available. It’s great to hear that support for 2010 beta 2 is available, I know many early adoptors are looking for this. Take a look at the links below to learn more about what’s coming;
The latest version of the Scrum for Team System * process template has now been released. This version is designed to work with Team Foundation Server 2010 (Beta 2) and introduces enterprise features to Scrum.
You can download the server and client side tools (free of charge) from the following forum post:
· SfTS v3 Beta 2 released - Download now.
Please use the below forum for all your SfTS version 3 feedback and questions.
· SfTS v3 Beta 2 forum
Additional Links
· Simon Bennett discusses the new Template and enterprise level scrum in his blog:
http://consultingblogs.emc.com/simonbennett/default.aspx
· Crispin Parker discusses the new template tools in his blog:
http://consultingblogs.emc.com/crispinparker/default.aspx
· Simon Bennett and Stuart Preston present the new template at PDC:
http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/FT09
* Version 3 (Beta 2)
Note: You have received this email because you choose to when registering to download the SfTS template or when you created a Task Board for Team System account. Please respond with the text “Unsubscribe me” to remove you consent to receive future notification emails.
Regards,
Scrum for Team System
I got this strange litte error a while back when I tried to run a newly created build definition: “Value cannot be null. Parameter name: path1”. Not much to go on in that message…
My configuration is a Windows 7 x64 and VS 2010 Beta 2 Ultimate with TFS Basic running locally. Build controller and agent is also running locally. First I thought this was a problem related to my x64 OS. But after testing this on a different box running x86 and getting the same result that obviously wasn’t it.
So after getting some great help from the product team it turned out to be an issue with a registry value that was affected by the current regional settings for the decimal separator. In Sweden we use comma (,) instead of th US-default period (.) and that’s what caused this error to occur.
So to solve this problem you can simply change the regional settings for the build agent to use period instead of your normal symbol.
Another option is to use an updated build template xaml file, which can be found here.
Yesterday Microsoft announced the aquisition of Teamprise, the company providing access to TFS from other platforms and IDE. I think it’s great that Microsoft will provide a complete solution so hopefully this will make it even more natural to use TFS in an heterogenous development environment.
According to Mary-Jo Foley at ZDNet, the former Teamprise tools will be available as part of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate or as a separate package;
New users will be able to buy Team Foundation Server plus Teamprise shipped as a single package. The bundle will be offered as part of Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate SKU or at retail for approximately $799.
Reference: Microsoft 'builds a branch to Java developers" with Teamprise buy
So, just look at this beautiful picture showing the equivalent of Team Explorer running on Mac OSX:
Read the full press-release here: Microsoft Acquires Teamprise Assets, Provides Cross-Platform Support for Visual Studio.
Have you ever created a work item type and later on wanted to change the name to something different? Then you know the pain this will result in… Add new type definition, migrate data from old type to new (yes, most of that done by hand since work item ids change and so on) and finally delete the old work item type. Ohhh…
Now with TFS 2010 it is possible to rename a work item type definition. Using the command-line tool witadmin.exe you can specify the renamewitd argument followed by the details about the work item type to rename:
Excellent!
Recently Michel Perfetti finished up the work on a very useful work item control that lets you visualize the workflow of a work item. This is similar to the graphic view found in the Team System Web Access client but the custom control also has a nice grouping feature which further simplifies the analysis if a work items lifecycle.
The control looks like this:
Download the control and its source code from the Codeplex project TFSWorkflowControl.
If you are interested in how you can implement your own take a look at the Custom Controls for TFS Work Item Tracking project on Codeplex, which has several other controls in it as well as references to documentation on writing custom controls.
The short version is that TFS 2010 will support most of the clients used with TFS 2008 today.
There will be places where VS 2005/2008/2010 behave differently but for me it makes sense that 2005 and 2008 will work with their current feature set and only the latest features will be available in 2010.
One small noticeable difference in 2005 and 2008 is that the URL to TFS changes so that we can specify which project collection in TFS to connect to. The default collection (where all upgraded 2008 projects will be placed by default) would require the following setting in Team Explorer 2008:
For older clients to operate correctly with the new TFS version a “Forward Compatibility Update (GDR)” needs to be applied. In fact, in order to guarantee correct operation, TFS 2010 will block all unpatched clients. You can get the GDR for 2008 here: Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010. Updates for 2005 and MSSCCI are coming later.
Read the detailed post “Compatibility Matrix for 2010 Beta 2 Team Foundation Server to Team Explorer 2008 and 2005” for all the info about the compatibility from different clients with TFS 2010.
Today Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 was released. It's very exciting to be able to start talking to people about the features in beta 2. A lot has changed since beta 1 and most importantly beta 2 comes with a "go-live" license which means we can actually start building production software using this version. See "Get ready to "go live" with Team Foundation Server 2010 beta 2!" in case you're wondering that "go-live" means.
There's also been a change in the SKUs for Visual Studio and the new editions for 2010 are:
- Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Professional
- Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Professional with MSDN
- Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Premium with MSDN
- Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Ultimate with MSDN
- Microsoft® Visual Studio® Test Elements 2010 with MSDN
- Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team Foundation Server 2010
- Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team Lab Management 2010
- Microsoft® Visual Studio® Load Test Virtual User Pack 2010
Sadly for us working the VSTS, the Team System brand has been dropped. But fortunately this doesn't mean that Microsoft is stepping back from the ALM space, instead all MSDN editions will include Team Foundation Server. And for teams who want to start working with TFS but not interested in documents in Sharepoint or reporting the TFS Basic edition will be a great starting point.
As an MSDN subscriber you can get beta 2 today and on Wednesday it will be made available on the Microsoft Download Center as well.
I've earlier posted about the new installation process, which really simplifies the way we setup TFS. With VSTS 2010 Beta 2 around the corner it's time to start planning for upgrade to TFS 2010 Beta 2 and then forward to RTM. This post is an overview of the overall process of upgrading a TFS 2008 server to TFS 2010. In coming posts I'll dig in to the key steps below in detail.
Requirements for TFS 2010
- Windows Server 2003 or 2008, 32- or 64-bit.
- SQL Server 2008
- WSS 3.0, 4.0, MOSS
Process
The following steps outline the overall upgrade process:
- Uninstall TFS 2008
- Upgrade to SQL Server 2008
- Upgrade to WSS 3.0 SP1 or SP2
- Install TFS. This will copy the bits from the installation media to the local machine.
Configure the features you want from the TFS admin console.
- Team Foundation Server
- Team Build Management
- Team Lab Management
Validate the upgrade
- SQL Server
- Reports
- Sharepoint
- Upgrade existing projects to take advantage of the new features in TFS 2010.
Brian Keller has posted more details on Go-Live with 2010 including links to a detailed checklist for rolling out TFS 2010.
I just received a mail from Ognjen Bajic at Ekobit that a new version of TeamCompanion is out.
From Ogy's blog:
Following is the list of the most important new and improved features of TeamCompanion in v2.2:
• Better offline support and support for occasionally connected clients
• Improved Work item edit form
• Improved Work item preview (Support for history; preview is now fully customizable)
• Improved Work item from Mail action
• Improved Open related object action – for emails multiple related objects are offered; related work item for Outlook Appointments
• Improved Reports support (new conversion formats for Reports; support for Canceling )
• Improved Send Work Item as Mail action ('with attachments' option including attaching created mail back to the Work Item)
• Improved usability/ease of use
• TFS 2010 Beta support
• TeamCompanion v2.2 is compatible with Windows 7
Read more in this blogpost.
Here a screenshot showing TeamCompanion nicely integrated in Office 2007:
Make sure to try it out, this is a really useful add-on to TFS!
TFS is a pretty large piece of software. To deploy a TFS instace will require knowledge of both TFS and the underlying infrastructure (SQL Server DBMS, SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server Analysis Services, Windows Sharepoint Services and so on), which makes it difficult for some companies to handle. Not all team require all the TFS features so dealing with the pre-requisites can be a big deal. The licensing model and its pricing has also been a pain in some segments.
Last night Brian Harry wrote a lenghty post about the latest addition to the TFS suite. In TFS 2010 we'll have the possibility to install a subset of the full TFS, which will not require Sharpoint or Reporting services. The installer in general is much improved in TFS 2010 but in this particual case it will be a "next, next, finish"-experience, it will install the required pre-requites if needed and do the necessary configuration. This means you should have TFS up and running in less than 30 minutes! And it will run on desktop operating systems as well.
Looking forward to beta 2...
More Posts
Next page »