We are investigating using TFS for a small development group. All the developers are remote to the office. VPN is an option but not preferred, as we have to change vpn connections several times daily to support other functions in the business.
So I'm trying to figure out the different options that TFS can be configured with to support that model. I've read about setting up Proxy Servers but that was using an older version of TFS so I'm not sure that still is/was the best option.
I haven't been able to locate good current documentation about the best/different ways to configure TFS to support this model.
I don't need comments about using Mercuial, GIT or something else. I'm aware of them and including them in my overall evaluation but right now I'm trying to see what solutions TFS does or does not offer. All developers have MSDN licenses and so TFS is free to the group.
You have 2 options (without VPN)
1) Like Martin suggested, look at VSO (Visual Studio Online, http://www.visualstudio.com) this is the cloud based version of TFS it's free for up to 5 developers.
2) Setup TFS internally inside your organization and make that instance available on the internet through your firewall. You can secure it with certificates so only you team can connect in. There is a lot of information on MSDN on how to secure it using SSL and certificate.
Cheers,
ET
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We have web application developed in visual studio 2015. We are using Microsoft SQL server 2008 R2.
So far only single developer was handling the development so source code was in one machine only. Now we are thinking of expanding the team. So If we go for online
Visual Studio Team Services
which is free for 5 users (I guess so), do we need to upload all source code to Azure?
How about the security about the source code?
Is there any possibility of leaking the code or any issues regarding security?
Any one has used this?
Yes, Visual Studio Team Services is free for up to five users, and includes unlimited private Git repositories.
Your repositories are private, and you can manage who can view and edit your repositories. The VSTS team is aggressively committed to security. Microsoft's own source code is managed in Visual Studio Team Services, and stored in Azure.
But if you are truly worried about bringing your source code outside of your firewall, then you can use Team Foundation Server instead. This is the on-premises version of Visual Studio Team Services, with the same functionality. It's also free for up to five users, but you will need to configure and manage it yourself.
Is there any way to move custom queries I've setup in my company's locally hosted TFS server to my instance of TFS on visualstudio.com? I've Googled/Binged/Yahoo'd and even DuckDuckGo'ed around and asked other devs using the service but none of them had any saved queries they wanted to move, so no one had done any researching yet. After a few fruitless searches I've turned to the experts here on SO. Anyone find anything about this they can share?
The usual suspects when it comes to TFS Migration (namely the TFS Integration Platform) does not support moving project or personal queries. Depending on the quantity of queries, a manual recreation is obviously possible. However, if there are a significant number, then another option is to use the TFS SDK (Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client and Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client). Within there, you can access the "My Queries" and project queries, including their folder hierarchy.
One example of this is available on Mike Poulson's blog where he shows going from a TFS 2010 -> TFS 2012 server. While this example is targeting on-prem, the same holds true for a move from TFS on-prem to Visual Studio Online.
Some of the queries may need "translation" in the migration process (naming differences, etc), using the SDK can also help in that process. So at the end of the day, it's a tradeoff between a manual recreation vs effort to code/debug/test a solution with the SDK.
We are working on a very large portal project. We need a scalable source version control architecture such that, it should be scalable to many teams and possible incoming teams.
There will be common libraries and each group will work on different part of the system. At demo times, we need to integrate these parts and have the product testable, demoable and so on.
Do you recommend some guidelines or architectures?
How would you approach this problem?
In terms of version control system, we are using TFS, if it helps.
Sounds to me you would be better off with a DVCS (Distributed Version Control System) like Git, rather than TFS which has a centralised version control system.
TFS now integrated with Git, here is a good blog post which provides you with most of the details you would need - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2013/01/30/getting-started-with-git-in-visual-studio-and-team-foundation-service.aspx
Add an enterprise level Git Repository Management tool like Atlassian Stash and life will be sweet - http://www.atlassian.com/software/stash/overview
From a TFS server side...setup only 1 team project. This will be key. The other key is to have the server running SQL Server 2012 with SP1 (there's tons of perf improvements in SQL that will help you scale TFS).
How can I add non windows users to my team foundation server 2012 express edition? We work with an outsourcing company and we would like a set up where TFS express edition is accessed by both teams here and outside. Since the outside developers are not our domain/windows users, I am struggling to add every one onto a project. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Not sure about 2012, but previous versions of TFS could be managed on a Workgroup. You would need to create local accounts for all your users. And even domain users would need to authenticate each time.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms252507.aspx
On premise TFS only supports Windows auth (either local or domain).
I would suggest you look at using Team Foundation Service (TFS in the cloud) for this project. It's currently free and uses Microsoft live accounts instead.
I have been thoroughly confused by CodePlex and the TFS services it offers or doesn't offer. I am going to soon begin working on on open source project with a few friends using Visual Studio 2010 Professional. Because VS is so nicely tied in with TFS, we would prefer to use TFS.
However, we do not have the money to purchase TFS ourselves, so we were looking at CodePlex as an alternative. Does CodePlex offer free TFS hosting? I believed it did, until I came across this which led me to believe it only offers part of the TFS feature set.
(This is my first experience with version/source control, so please be light on the terminology.)
CodePlex offers free TFS hosting with a feature set aimed at hosting open-source projects. Its version control offerings are complete, but Team Foundation Server is a platform with many feature areas, so let's look at those:
Version Control: CodePlex supports the entire feature set of TFS Version Control. In fact, CodePlex pioneered some version control tools for TFS like their SVNBridge.
Work Item Tracking: Team Foundation Server allows for a customizable work item tracking template and ships several out-of-the box to suit development processes ranging from CMMI to Agile. CodePlex, however, provides a single work item tracking template that is suitable for open source projects and does not allow customization.
Continuous Integration: CodePlex does not support automated builds at this time. You can set up your own continuous integration builds against a CodePlex endpoint for source code, though.
Document Repository: There is no SharePoint document repository available in CodePlex.
Reports: SQL Reporting Services are not available in CodePlex.
I would argue that for a small open-source project, none of these are deal-breakers. For a very large project, however, some or all of these features may be desirable, though.
If you want to use TFS and you are looking for a cost-effective solution for a small project, you may also want to look into Team Foundation Service, which is currently free while it is in its preview state. (Future pricing has not yet been announced.)