TFS Orcas Deployment Changes

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I pointed out in my last post that in Orcas TFS will make server deployment compatible with more configurations. In order to do that we did the following changes

  1. We have removed the Installer for TFS Databases, so now You can install the databases locally on the same machine or on remote machine by giving the SQL Instance Name
  2. I did not make a mistake in number 1, Yes we now support SQL Instances so you can provide the database location as either <Server Name> or <Server Name\Instance Name>.
  3. SharePoint Support has changed from V1. In V1 you have to install SharePoint 2 on the Application Tier Machine in Farm Mode and Leave it for TFS to Configure SharePoint. Now in Orcas You have one of two choices
  • Point the Setup to an Existing SharePoint by providing both the sites root and admin URLs. This existing SharePoint can be on a remote machine too
  • TFS will install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on your Server machine

TFS Services can now run as a built in account. So in Domain Environment Network Service can be used and in Workgroup environments Local Service Account can be used.

These are the main changes we did to expand our deployment compatibility some of these changes need more details some of these details can be found on Sudhir's blog and I will try to cover some of these aspect in my next Posts.