Applied Visual Studio Team System

How to build a Team Foundation Virtual Server (TFS)

As promised, you can learn more about my Team Foundation Server setup experience at VSTeamSystemCentral.com.

I have started posting a series of articles (Team Foundation Virtual Server) describing the process I used to build and configure a virtual PC similar to the VPC Microsoft distributed with their releases of Visual Studio 2005. At the time of this writing, 6 of 12 to 15 articles have been posted. I attempted to capture screenshots for every step I used to build a functional TFS server.

I do not provide software. The series assumes you have access to an MSDN subscription or licensed copies of Windows 2003 Server Enterprise, SQL Server 2005 Developer, Visual Studio 2005 Team System (or the trial version), and Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 SP1.

Registration is required to access the content.

:{> Andy

More on my Team Foundation Server (TFS) experience...

Follow-up to Team Foundation Server - Dec CTP post.

Let's just say I learned a lot and leave it at that - for now. I promise I will provide more information as soon as possible...

:{> Andy

Some "gotchas" in SQL Server 2005 upgrades

The forum responses to Steve Jones' editorial (Why Upgrade?) are mixed, at best. Some are describing why they will or are upgrading, others are descibing why they're waiting. Excellent points (mostly) on both sides of the argument thus far.

Here's a handful of "gotchas" some friends and I have encountered:

1. Security. It's different - a lot different. It can be fun, it can be tricky, but it will definitely be a learning experience.

2. Database diagrams. For now, I'm creating SQL Server 2005 databases from backups of SQL Server 2000 databases. One way to get the database diagrams to display is to navigate to the database properties, click on the Options, and change the database compatibility from SQL Server 2000 (8) to SQL Server 2005 (9).

3. To quote my friend Harper Trow, "in [SQL Server] 2005, you cannot do a select distinct with an order by and not have the column in the select statement". There's an article here...

4. In SQL Server Management Studio, the F7 key is your friend. It displays the summary for the item you've selected in the Object Explorer.

:{> Andy

Team Foundation Server - Dec CTP

I just finished installing the Dec CTP of TFS.

I haven't tested the installation yet (that's the task du jour), but I am quite impressed with the installation. Concise instructions, well-written and well-formatted help. And (for me at least), no ugly and unexpected dialogs.

I installed on a VPC running Windows 2003 Server enterprise configured as a standalone AD / DNS server on its own local domain. My only issue was with SQL Server Surface Area configuration: I needed to expose TCP for communications. The pre-installation checks caught this and warned me before the TFS installation even started - which was really nice.

All in all, installation of the Dec CTP was a positive experience. Now, on to testing...

 

:{> Andy

SQL Server 2005 and Team System

For arguably the first time ever, DBAs have a stable Microsoft development environment with integrated source control.

There's a chapter in the upcoming Wrox Press book "" on this very topic. It serves as an introduction to some source control and project management features available to DBAs using SQL Server 2005.

There's lots more information available online about Team System - I find most of my information on blogs:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/jeffbe/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/robcaron/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/

There is also a Wrox Press book due out in February entitled "".

"Why should we care about Visual Studio, Andy?" I'm glad you asked. If you haven't yet tinkered with the new SQL Server 2005 development environments, you may not know this: When you develop SQL Server applications in SQL Server 2005, one of the tools available to you is the Visual Studio 2005 environment. In fact, if you develop business intelligence applications (Analysis Services, Integration Services, etc.), you utilize a tool called the SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS), which is a version of Visual Studio with tools for developing SQL Server business intelligence applications.

If Visual Studio is a new environment for you, learning about it will make you a more effective DBA when you move to SQL Server 2005.

If you don't use a source control product currently - or even if you do - I encourage you to examine the new version of Visual SourceSafe (2005) and Team System.

:{> Andy