Using Team Foundation Server in a Distributed World

Working Offline With VSTS

• Wayne Ewington
• Microsoft
• DEV307

Going Offline

• When TFS is not available
• Remove the read-only attributes
• Work with the files
• Renaming Files!! Treated as a Delete and Add pair

TIP: Check-out All Artefacts

• Check-out all artefacts
• Go offline
• “Do stuff”
• Go back online
• Check-in all artefacts: TFS will determine which artefacts have changed
• Won’t work in a Team situation

TIP: Stopping TFS Auto-Connect

• Registry Hack: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\TeamFoundation\AutoLoadServer(Dword)

TFS Proxy Server

• Architecture
• Uploads go to TFS
• Downloads come from proxy(ies)
• Configuring
• Tips & Tricks

TFS Over the Internet

• VPN
• All features of TFS work
• Easiest to implement: no additional changes required
• Requires infrastructure support
• Publish using a Reverse Proxy
• Reverse Proxy will Authenticate
• Remote Users don’t require Domain access
• Requires ISA Server 2006, TFS SP1
• TFS is “chatty”
• Disadvantages: can’t get Publishing Test Results, Accessing Build Reports
• Extranet
• Clear segregation
• Internal Users must connect “remotely”
• TFS is “chatty”
• Won’t get Test Results and Build Reports

Fully Qualified Domain Names

• Resolves the issue of getting the Test Results and Build Reports
• Use on TFS Server, SharePoint (Sites and Central Admin), Reporting Services
• TFSAdminUtil.exe Configure Connections
• TFS Server needs to authenticate to itself
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926642

How? By Enabling

• Basic Authentication
• SSL

TRICK: Enabling Team Build Logs

• http://www.woodwardweb.com/teamprise/accessing_team.html

References

• How TFS Proxy Works http://blogs.msdn.com/tsyang/archive/2008/03/24/how-team-foundation-server-proxy-2008-works.aspx
• Providing Internet Access to TFS http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb668967.aspx
• Setting up Team Foundation Server 2008 for HTTPS/SSL http://blogs.msdn.com/dstfs/archive/2008/10/03/setting-up-team-foundation-server-2008-for-https-ssl.aspx
• Publishing TFS with ISA Server 2006 http://blogs.southworks.net/aalvarez/category/isa-server/