[Screen Gallery] Setting up a dedicated build machine: Installing & Configuring Team Foundation Build
Note: Make sure to read the Installation Guide before installing this software.
What do I need it for?
- You need "Team Foundation Build" to set up a dedicated build server.
Why should I do that? Can't I use the TFS itself?
- A build usually compiles code (which needs a lot of processor power). You don't want your primary TFS to timeout while a build runs.
Where to find it?
What do I need?
- Dedicated machine with Win XP Professional SP2, or Windows Server 2003 SP1 (Std./Ent.) or higher with .NET Framework 2.0 installed (as listed here).
- Username and password of your TFS Service Account which needs to be entered during install.
What must be done prior to installing?
- Nothing, the cleaner the machine (clean in the sense of no additional software installed), the better...
What should be done after it's installed successfully?
- If you are running tests as part of your build process, you have to install the Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers (VSTE/ST).
- If you are running static code analysis as part of your build process, you need to install the Visual Studio Team System for Software Developers (VSTE/SD).
- If you want to automatically generate a deployment report out of an deployment diagram as part of your build process, you'll need to install the Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Architects (VSTE/SA).
- Of course you can alternatively install the Visual Studio Team Suite instead of the individual Team Editions.
- If you use call further software during the build process (like for example NDoc, Sandcastle, NAnt, FinalBuilder, ILMerge, Dotfuscator, ...) make sure to install them as well.
Comment by the author: Of course it's not nice & clean to see Visual Studio on a build box and I'm sure Microsoft will fix this by providing a lightweight, xcopy-deployable Test runtime in future.
Addendum: We now have a solution we use internally for our customers which run large build labs in Virtual Environments where we don't install Visual Studio but just a small MSTest runtime.