How to capture traffic (when applicable) from TFS Add-in, PSI extension, and TFSADMIN.EXE

Nitish Nagpal, Support Escalation Engineer, brings another amazing write up on capturing traffic from TFS Add-in, PSI extension, and TFSADMIN.EXE

We want to capture traffic (when applicable) from TFS Add-in, PSI extension, and TFSADMIN.EXE .  

  On TFS box where you run the registerPWA command, modify tfsadmin.exe.config file with below content added after making a backup of original config file (we may or may not need the system.net section, have to test it)  

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 

<configuration> 

    <system.net> 

        <defaultProxy enabled="true" useDefaultCredentials="true"> 

            <proxy usesystemdefault="false" proxyaddress="127.0.0.1:8888" bypassonlocal="false" /> 

        </defaultProxy> 

    </system.net> 

    <system.diagnostics> 

        <trace autoflush="true" indentsize="4"> 

            <listeners> 

                <add name="myListener" type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener" initializeData="c:\Logs\WinProj.log" /> 

            </listeners> 

        </trace> 

        <switches> 

            <add name="General" value="4" /> 

        </switches> 

    </system.diagnostics> 

</configuration> 

  

On BOTH Project Server WFE boxes, we are capturing Fiddler log collecting for TFS add-in and PSI extension: 

  

a.      Install Fiddler on box project WFE boxes from <fiddler2.com/>  

b.      In Administrator command prompt, run: SETX /M TFS_BYPASS_PROXY_ON_LOCAL 0 

  

1) Launch IIS and locate the project server web application 

2) Locate "vti_Bin\PSI" and explore (typically it's something like C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\isapi\PSI) 

3) Open web.config under the folder and add/merge follwing into it <system.net> 

       <defaultProxy enabled="true" useDefaultCredentials="true"> 

            <proxy usesystemdefault="false" proxyaddress="127.0.0.1:8888" bypassonlocal="false" /> 

       </defaultProxy> 

  </system.net> 

c.      Start Fiddler  

  

5) Restart the project server web app (Or iisreset) 

6) If you see traffic captured in fiddler from 'w3wp' (after you open project or run tfsadmin.exe) then it means it's working 

  

d.      <Repro the issue> 

e.       Save the fiddler trace and send back 

f.      Special Note: If TFS is running under HTTPS, In Fiddler click 'Tools'->'Fiddler Options'->'HTTPS'->'Decrypt HTTPS traffic' 

  

Cleanup: Remove the section in web.config and restart the web app. 

Written by: Nitish Nagpal, Support Escalation Engineer

Reviewed by TFS/Project Server Integration Product Team, Puvi