Multiple TFS_Configuration databases on a single SQL instance

I have been doing a number of upgrades over the last couple of months and have found that doing a migration to a test/dev environment is a good way to gauge the downtime needed to perform an upgrade on the TFS Collection databases.

This works well if you have a spare set of servers / VM's lying around and you are able to do a full migration. I have been in a situation where a new application tier was not much of a problem, but they had an enterprise SQL server setup that we "had to" use.
Even though the "duplicating" of the collection databases is no problem at all, the tfs_configuration database is a different story.

The options are:

1. Install a temporary SQL server on the application tier and simply use that for the tfs_config database or
2. Duplicate the tfs_config and then either "point" tfs to the instance in question or select the correct database during (re)configuration

To perform option 2,  simply create a backup of the tfs_configuration database and restore under a different name (on the same server). When you perform an upgrade or (re)configure the TFS application tier you have the option to select the "correct" config database:

If TFS is already configured and you want to change the database after the fact you can follow these steps:

1. Open up command prompt (run-as admin)
2. Go to the TFS tools directory (for 2015 the default is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 14.0\Tools )
3. Put TFS to "sleep" : TfsServiceControl.exe quiesce
4. Backup and restore the config database to the new name
5. Re-register the database : tfsconfig.exe registerdb /sqlInstance:<<sql-server>> /databaseName:<<new config db name>>
6. Finally, wake TFS up : TfsServiceControl.exe unquiesce

That should have TFS pointing to the new config database, meaning you can have multiple TFS instances using different configuration database hosted on the same SQL server.

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ALM Days Event : TFS 2015 - Open for all!?

I can hardly believe we are heading towards the end of the year.
With this brings the time for our final event this year on the 19th of November.

This time we are going to have a look at how TFS is opening up to everyone/everything around it, both in terms of functionality and flexibility.
We will briefly explore how TFS is opening up its doors to embrace extensibility and 3rd party systems, platforms and languages a like.
We will then delve into how we can manage technical debt with TFS and SonarQube.
If time permits, we will see some of the new features (yes even more) in the pipeline (TFS 2015 Update 1 is already in RC and there are some really cool features bundled in this update!).

Register on Eventbrite

Hope to see you all there !

Presented by Team Foundation Consulting
Thanks to Microsoft for sponsoring the venue.

TFS 2015 Update 1 RC

In case you have not noticed RC 1 for the first update to on-premise TFS 2015 is in release candidate.

Amongst others, my favourite new bits are:

1. Dashboards
2. Card colouring

Yours?

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ALM Byte Sized Session: Database as source wrap-up

I must admit, it was a very interesting session we had on managing databases last week.

Thank you again to Riaan and Roelof from Capfin, who took the time to show us what they have achieved, what they are using and where their problems are.

Some interesting question were posed and here is some feedback on the questions that we did not have a hope of answering on the spot:

Q) Is there any way to use something like Application Insights to trace database code?
A) As far as I can see not much to trace the code in a stored procedure or function. What is possible is something called "Dependency Tracker" that will track how long these calls to external systems (services calls, database calls etc.) take.

Q) How can we show Code Coverage in the new SonarQube C# plugin?
A) It seems you simply have to run the code coverage tool of choice and then import the code coverage result file as part of the runner settings. See this for more detail

Q) What is the table count limit in SQL?
A) Some useless information of the day: The sum of the number of objects (including objects such as tables, views, stored procedures, user-defined functions, triggers, rules, defaults, and constraints) in a database cannot exceed 2,147,483,647. (Cutting it close there Riaan )

I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did, and hope to see you at the next and final session for the year  http://bit.ly/almdays where we will look at technical debt analysis and some new extensibility features in TFS 2015

ALM days 2015 - Byte sized sessions : Database as source

I often see that the database does not get the love from developers that they give their code. One big topic is always around the tooling and how expensive some of the database management tools are.

Well this session will hopefully give you some insight into the "free" tools that are available and built into the Visual Studio ALM stack.

Interested in how to manage database schemas / source and to discuss some of the scars that one of my client is in the process of picking up?

Our next session is on 17th of September 2015 at the Microsoft Offices in Pinelands. Feel free to register here : http://bit.ly/almdaysSept15 
(and invite anyone you think may be interested!)

Edit: We apologise, but Microsoft has scheduled Dev Days Cape Town on the 17th as well. Due to this conflict we a re-scheduling to the 1st of October 2015. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Thank you to Microsoft for sponsoring the venue for this session.

TFS 2015 Finally released!

After waiting what seems like forever, TFS 2015 has finally been released after Brian Harry decided to hold back and get some more testing done.

This time it seems to be the real thing : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2015/08/06/team-foundation-server-2015-final-release.aspx

I've had some people ask me if they should upgrade or wait a while to have all the "kinks" worked out. My answer is twofold:

1. Evaluate the release first and make sure that there is value to be had out of the upgrade
2. Secondly, I would not worry toooo much about encountering any "kinks". TFS is pretty much production tested in VSO so there is not much of a chance that you will encounter any significant issues

If it makes sense for you to upgrade, by all means do (of course taking necessary precautions as you would in any upgrade situation!).

That said, it is always a good idea to keep up to date with updates and upgrades. This will make future updates less cumbersome and quicker, as well as keep you in the support band (TFS 2010 is not supported anymore and Visual Source Safe should not exist anymore!! (even though the tragic truth is I'm still doing the odd VSS migration ))

It should be noted that this will probably be a longer update/upgrade than most. There are some significant database changes due to the project rename (finally!) capability that was added. In most small TSF instances this will not be much of an issue, but I have dealt with some large instances that needed careful planning! Luckily there are ways and means to make it a bit easier.

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Visual Studio 2015 RTM on July 20th

woohoo.. finally the RTM date for Team Foundation Server 2015 and Visual Studio 2015 has been made public…

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2015/06/29/save-the-date-visual-studio-2015-rtm-on-july-20th.aspx

Edit: Visual Studio will be released, but Brian has decided that quality is more important than timelines.. So we will have to wait a bit longer for TFS 2015 to land, but be assured the quality will be right up there

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