Team Foundation Server installation memo...
This is a memo for my installation of Microsoft Team Foundation Server, in case I'll have to install it again later.
I was doing all the installation under VMWare Workstation 5.5.1 build 19175. The big tip is... just follow Rob Caron!
You'll need the latest version of TFS image as well as installation guide. for possiblely security problem of reading the guide you'll need to refer to this KB to solve it.
The installation is logically simple by just following the installation guide, but actually there are lots of things need to be aware during installation process.
First of all, determine whether you want a single-server deployment or a dual-server deployment. for my testing environment, I'll just go single-server deployment. about how to partition applications throughout virtual machines, originally I was doing a 2 VMs installation with one for Active Directory server (simple windows 2003 server with AD installed, only giving 200mb ram), and the other with all the stuffs (data tier, application tier, client tools, visual studio 2005). later found that with this configuration I'll have to give about 1.5GB ram for the VM to let it run smoothly. so I changed the configuration and install all the stuffs again.
The final decision is to use 3 VMs for the whole environment setup. 1 VM for AD, 1 VM for TFS Single-Server Deployment, and 1 VM for my Dev Env (SQL 2005, VS 2005, tools, utils). AD VM used 200mb ram and is pretty enough, TFS VM used 1024mb ram, those 2 resides in my home server with 2GB ram so that I can still have about 800mb ram for normal server operations like DNS server, mail server, etc. Dev Env VM resides in my working notebook so that I can do my work no matter the TFS Env existed or not.
All 3 VMs used BlackIce personal firewall. for AD VM, there are ports need to be opened to let AD packets flow through, the port info is in this post. for TFS VM, refer to TFS installation guide for ports need to open (basically ports for SQL server services, TFS services). several AD accounts needs to be opened for installation, also remember to grant proper ACL for those accounts in TFS VM (the log on locally security principle for TFSService and TFS Setup, etc). after all this, just install IIS + ASP.NET , install WSS 2.0 sp2 (with English language template if you are not using english version OS like me, and remember to install language template SP2, it's a single package supporting all the language templates you've installed in your WSS, so you'll only find a English version of the language template SP2 package via Microsoft download site), install SQL Server 2005, install SQL Server hotfix, install .NET framework hotfix (all reside in TFS iso image), and then install the TFS single-server deployment. so the TFS VM is done.
Recommanded to take a snapshot before going the final install of TFS itself. we now got trial edition of TFS, although it's valid of 180 days which is long enough for evalution, and also possible for directly upgrade to registered version later. saving a snapshot here gives you the possibilities if you want to change your mind to install another version like the workgroup one or some others in later release, without to re-process all the pre-requesties again. that's the goodies what VMWare workstation gave you!
for Dev Env VM, have to notice that VS 2005 now not includes Team Explorer as a default installation. therefore no matter what version of VS2005 you are installing (I am using VSTS), remember to install Team Explorer via TFS image to let you have the access abilities to TFS. VSTS is easy to install just to run the setup and click click click, done! that's pretty much for Dev Env VM, simple.
after all 3 VMs are done. it's now time to test the connectivities of the environment. notice that it's possible to change WSS admin port by using stsadm.exe if you want to manage your own port mapping (WSS and SharePoint tricks). I did change the admin port mapping to other port numbers instead of port 17012 specified at installation guide. and later found that there will be problems creating team site in team explorer. here is an article showing the process of changing some configuration settings of TFS, including the server name and service mapping to let TFS run via internet access. I did do the tfsreg.exe things to change the wss admin port mapping but still not work at all, seems there were other places that records this port mapping that didn't change via tfsreg. so I gave up changing the port and set it back to 17012 and everything is working fine for a team project creation.
It IS required to have at least 1gb RAM for TFS VM! in the idle time of TFS VM, with all the SQL Server 2005 Services and TFS services running, it already costs about 750mb ram. it will be over 900mb ram when a team project is in access operation with one dev vm. didn't have chance to test if there will multiple Dev VMs accessing the same team project or multiple team projects.
That's pretty much of what I've got on Team Foundation Server RTM installation. next step will be read articles of MSF 4 and MSF for CMMI.
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