TFS & Visual Studio ALM - by Neno Loje

How to set the SMTP Port in TFS 2010

The Problem

• You are configuring SMTP Settings for TFS 2010 and want to specify a different port for your SMTP server than the default port (which would be port 25)
  
  
  Figure: TFS 2010 does not allow to set a custom SMTP port.

Solution #1: Change config file

• As answered here and here, you could add the following XML to the TfsJobAgent.exe.config file (usually located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Application Tier\TFSJobAgent):

<mailSettings>
  <smtp deliveryMethod="Network">
    <network port="2525"/>
  </smtp>
</mailSettings>

• Keep in mind that this is only valid for TFS notifications itself and not for notifcations from SQL Server Reporting Services or the SharePoint-based Project Portal.

The Solution #2: Install a local SMTP server

1. Install the SMTP Service on Windows Server and ask it to route all SMTP traffic to a different SMTP server.
2. On the Delivery tab, click Advanced, an enter the SMTP server name as "smart host".
3. On the Delivery tab, click Outbound Connections, and set the TCP port (= SMTP port).

Figure: Setting up a local SMTP server has the great benefit that you can use it SMTP for other applications, too (like notifications from SQL Server Reporting Services or SharePoint).

How to move a SQL Server Database from Enterprise to Standard Edition

Cross-posted from my other blog:

The Problem

• You have a database (e.g. TFS collection database) in SQL Server Enterprise Edition.
• You want to backup and restore this database on a SQL Server Standard Edition.
• You get an error message on restore that some features are not supported.

The Solution

…

[Read the full post]

TFS Build cannot resolve dependency to assembly 'Microsoft.Windows.Design.Extensibility'

The Problem

• You are using DevExpress components.
• Compilation fails with the message:

'Cannot resolve dependency to assembly 'Microsoft.Windows.Design.Extensibility, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'

The Solution

• Check your references and remove any reference to DevExpress.*.Design.dll's.

(Thanks to "Kookiz" who solved this.)