症状:

有客户报告当他们的TFS2008服务器完全是基于虚拟机（如VMWare或hyper-V）的情况下，源代码操作的服务器端响应可能会比较慢。具体症状有：

• 较大规模的源代码管理操作，比如在较大范围上作撤销已有变更集/打标签/迁入等操作时，服务器端响应可能会需要几分钟时间，极端情况下甚至会出现超时错误;
• 当错误发生时，观察SQL Server则会发现CXPACKET 和PAGEIOLATCH_SH 等待类型。同时操作系统性能观察器上能看到出现比较高的硬盘操作队列（disk queue）和较高的硬盘使用率(% Disk);
• TFS应用层服务器上的事件察看器出现一些包含SQL Server 超时(“timeout expired”)错误。

原因和解决方案:

TFS版本操作的很大一部分逻辑是在SQL Server中通过存储过程实现的，其中涉及大量临时表操作，以及硬盘输入输出操作。一旦SQL Server因为某种原因性能下降，TFS版本管理操作性能就会明显受影响。

出现以上症状的一个常见原因是在某些虚拟机配置下，SQL Server 硬盘输入输出操作比较慢。解决方法是调整虚拟机配置，提高硬盘I/O速度，或者将SQL Server转移到一台专用虚拟机上，甚至将SQL Server移到一台物理机。

更多信息:

SQL Server的超时分为连接超时和命令超时。 管理员可以通过修改%program files%/Microsoft visual studio {version} team foundation server/web services/web.config文件中的SQLTimeOut 值来调整TFS应用层 SQL Serve 命令超时时间，修改%program files%/Microsoft visual studio {version} team foundation server/web services/services/web.config 文件中的连接字符串来定义（比默认时间长的）连接超时时间。修改以上值不会提高版本控制操作的性能，但是至少可以让SQL Server 超时错误不那么容易被触发。

相关文档:

1. TFS在虚拟机上部署时的性能问题注意事项

https://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2008/06/27/tfs-on-hyper-v.aspx

https://blogs.msdn.com/charles_sterling/archive/2006/11/22/how-to-boost-tfs-performance-under-a-vm-by-dugie.aspx and

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd904316.aspx

2. TFS硬件需求推荐值

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms400687(VS.80).aspx

有客户报告出现以下问题：TFS2008 SP1使用SQL 2008 SP1作为数据库服务器，这种TFS服务器配置在建立新团队项目时失败（通常建立系统中的第一个团队项目时不会失败，问题从第二个团队项目的建立开始）。团队项目建立日志包含下面的详细信息：

2009-12-15 17:54:43Z | Module: Rosetta | Thread: 16 | Entering Initialize in RosettaReportUploader
---begin Exception entry---
Time: 2009-12-15 17:54:43Z
Module: Initializer
Event Description: TF30207: Initialization for plugin "Microsoft.ProjectCreationWizard.Reporting" failed
Exception Type: Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.PcwException
Exception Message: TF30224: Failed to retrieve projects from the report server. Please check that the SQL Server Reporting Services Web and Windows services are running and you have sufficient privileges for creating a project.
Stack Trace:
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.RosettaReportUploader.CheckForProjectFolder(PrivateData data, String projectName, ProjectCreationContext context)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.RosettaReportUploader.Initialize(ProjectCreationContext context)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.EngineStarter.InitializePlugins(MsfTemplate template, PcwPluginCollection pluginCollection)
--   Inner Exception   --
Exception Type: System.InvalidOperationException
Exception Message: Client found response content type of '', but expected 'text/xml'.
The request failed with an empty response.
Stack Trace:
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Proxy.Reporting.ReportingService.ListChildren(String Item, Boolean Recursive)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.RosettaReportUploader.CheckForProjectFolder(PrivateData data, String projectName, ProjectCreationContext context)
-- end Inner Exception --
--- end Exception entry ---

这里出现问题的原因是TFS试图调用reporting service的web服务文件ReportService.asmx。可是这个web service URL在SQL Server 2008 SP1中已经废弃了。新的URL是ReportService2005.asmx。 在TFS 数据库服务器管理控制台中，运行以下SQL脚本：

Select url from TfsIntegration.dbo.tbl_service_interface where name=N'ReportsService'

返回的值原本应该是 “https://{path}/ReportService.asmx” 。要解决以上团队项目生成失败的问题，这里您需要将 ReportService.asmx 修改为 ReportService2005.asmx. 可以直接在表中修改，也可以运行一个SQL update 语句。 (注意，不要修改这个值的其他部分，只要在asmx文件中添加2005字样。). 同时，因为这篇文章指出的原因，不要试图使用TFSAdminUtil.exe这个工具来修改这个field。

这篇blog是关于Visual Studio 2010 团队套件增加的一个新的，很酷的功能：编码的用户界面测试。关于这种新测试方式，这个视频资料给出了一个很好的介绍和演示。

最近我的一个客户初次体验这种新测试方式的时候遇到了问题。看起来他完全在按照上面视频演示的方法在操作，但是在点击“添加并生成代码”按钮之后，不但没有生成预料中的测试代码，反而出现了“取值超出预期范围”(value does not fall within the expected range) 错误。 反复测试结果都是如此。

客户使用的是在windows 7操作系统上新安装的Visual Studio 2010 正式发布版本，被测试的工程和测试工程本身都是新生成的，因此不存在这篇文章中提到的由于代码升级造成的问题。那么为什么会失败呢？

观察用户操作过程之后我发现原因在于当“录制”测试时，被测试的应用程序是在Visual Studio debug模式下启动的。 进程以debug模式启动与非debug模式启动由很大不同，这里我不会说明其细节。重点是 界面测试生成器无法操作debug模式启动的进程。录制编码的界面测试时，目标应用程序必须以非debug模式运行。你可以在Visual Studio中通过Ctrl+F5的方式启动程序，也可以直接在windows资源管理器中双击应用程序文件来启动目标进程。

Well this post is about a new cool feature comes with Visual Studio 2010 Team Suit: the Coded UI Test. Check out this video demo to see how VSTS2010 make your UI test so enjoyable easy.

A customer of mine was following the video demo to record a Coded UI Test and when he click “Add and Generate” button on the Coded UI Test Builder dialog, he received a error message box “Value does not fall within the expected range”. No code was generated. He tried several times with the same result.

It is a brand new VSTS 2010 RTM version installation and the tested project is newly created in it, so there is nothing about IDE or code upgrading discussed in this thread. What happened?

Problem is the application being recorded was started in debug mode.  When running in debug mode the application differs largely from non-debug mode , and the test builder is not able to handle this. To record a coded UI test, the target application must run as a standalone process. You either press Ctrl+F5 to “start without debugging”, or directly launch the process from windows resource explorer. 

Till next time,

-Emma

Symptom:

================

I’ve meet some cases where TFS version control operations can be quite slow when the TFS deployment is based on a virtual machine like VMWare or Hyper-V. Problem inludes

• When performing large updates to TFS, such as undo pending changes/label/checkin multiple items, user may experience slow server response up to several minutes. Sometimes user even receive timeout error.
• When the problem happens, people can observe  CXPACKET and PAGEIOLATCH_SH Wait Types in SQL Server, along with high average disk queue length and high %Disk Wait in the operating system.
• The TFS application tier server application event log containe a lot of SQL “timeout expired” exceptions.

Root cause & solution:

==================

A common root cause is SQL Server slow disk I/O on a virtual machine. It can be solved by improving the virtual machine disk I/O speed, moving the SQL Server instance to dedicated box , or even moving the SQL Server instance to a physical box.

More information:

=================

One can configure TFS SQL Server command timeout value on the application tier server, in file %program files%/Microsoft visual studio {version} team foundation server/web services/web.config , SQLTimeOut value; and configure TFS SQL Server connection timeout value on the application tier server, in file %program files%/Microsoft visual studio {version} team foundation server/web services/services/web.config , the database connection string. 

Enlarging the default value does not boost the performance, yet can prevent the timeout error from happening.

Documents:

===================

1. Performance considerations about TFS on a virtual machine

https://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2008/06/27/tfs-on-hyper-v.aspx

https://blogs.msdn.com/charles_sterling/archive/2006/11/22/how-to-boost-tfs-performance-under-a-vm-by-dugie.aspx and

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd904316.aspx

2. TFS hardware requirement recommendation

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms400687(VS.80).aspx

在团队浏览器2008中定义团队构建类型时，向导会提供此次构建的默认工作空间，映射到“$/<team_project_name>” 即团队项目源代码管理根目录。很多时候这个默认设置并非最佳选择。为了让构建更加高效，建议此处修改工作空间，使其“服务器端源代码控制文件夹”仅包含构建需要访问的路径。忽略此处定制而使用默认设置给构建带来的坏处有以下几点（非完全列表）：

1. CoreGet target 默认情况下获取整个工作空间范围的源代码文件。如果工作空间映射范围太大，则CoreGet执行时会造成非必要的文件下载，尤其是整个项目源代码较多，但构建仅涉及其中一小部分时的情况下，默认工作空间映射会浪费更多时间和硬盘空间；

2. CoreLabel target默认情况下将标签设置在整个工作空间范围。然而通常用户希望每次构建仅label构建涉及的源代码文件，而不是整个团队项目范围。

3. GenCheckinNotesUpdateWorkitem target 比较两个标签--一当前构建的，何上次成功构建的--来得到与当前构建相关联的变更集和工作项集合。当CoreLabel 应用于整个团队项目源代码范围，GenCheckinNotesUpdateWorkitem 也会令构建报告中包含整个团队项目范围的变更集和工作项，而其中有些可能与此次构建根本不相关。

我遇到的一个相关实例是，客户希望在代码的一个分支上进行构建，但是发现构建报告竟然涵盖了其他分支上发生的变更集和工作项。导致项目组无法按照分支进行信息追踪。解决方法既是将构建的工作空间限制在目标代码分支上，而不是整个团队项目范围。

产品组的Jim和Buck对此问题进行了详细的解释。在此致谢。

In a TFS2008 SP1 deployment with SQL 2008 SP1 as the database server, new team project creation can fail very fast. The creation log contains the detail resembling this:

2009-12-15 17:54:43Z | Module: Rosetta | Thread: 16 | Entering Initialize in RosettaReportUploader
---begin Exception entry---
Time: 2009-12-15 17:54:43Z
Module: Initializer
Event Description: TF30207: Initialization for plugin "Microsoft.ProjectCreationWizard.Reporting" failed
Exception Type: Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.PcwException
Exception Message: TF30224: Failed to retrieve projects from the report server. Please check that the SQL Server Reporting Services Web and Windows services are running and you have sufficient privileges for creating a project.
Stack Trace:
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.RosettaReportUploader.CheckForProjectFolder(PrivateData data, String projectName, ProjectCreationContext context)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.RosettaReportUploader.Initialize(ProjectCreationContext context)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.EngineStarter.InitializePlugins(MsfTemplate template, PcwPluginCollection pluginCollection)
--   Inner Exception   --
Exception Type: System.InvalidOperationException
Exception Message: Client found response content type of '', but expected 'text/xml'.
The request failed with an empty response.
Stack Trace:
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Proxy.Reporting.ReportingService.ListChildren(String Item, Boolean Recursive)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.RosettaReportUploader.CheckForProjectFolder(PrivateData data, String projectName, ProjectCreationContext context)
-- end Inner Exception --
--- end Exception entry ---

The problem here is that when doing job above TFS calls a reporting service web service at ReportService.asmx. Yet this URL was deprecated in SQL Server 2008 SP1. The new url is ReportService2005.asmx instead.

So the solution is: from the tfs database server SQL management console, run this sql query:

Select url from TfsIntegration.dbo.tbl_service_interface where name=N'ReportsService'

This value should be something like “https://{path}/ReportService.asmx” . Change the ReportService.asmx into ReportService2005.asmx. You can change this manually in the table, or by running an SQL update statement. (Note: make sure the rest of the path is identical to the original value, only add “2005” in the asmx file name ).

It is not recommended that one modify the URL with TFSAdminutil.exe because of this article.

1. Use the project creator’s account, log on to the Client machine where he/she created the project;
2. From “start”->"run”->type %temp% in the command field, then press Enter to open the user’s temp folder. typically this should be C:\Users\{account}\AppData\Local\Temp;
3. All previous team project creation logs are stored there. the file name should resemble “VSTS_TeamProjectCreation_{timestamp}.log”.

The log files are placed under the operation account’s temp folder. To get them , one

• Log on to the TFS server with the setup user’s account;
• From “start”-> “run ”->type “%temp%" in the command field, then press Enter to open the user’s temp folder. Typically this folder is C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp;
  • The TFS installation log file name should resemble “dd_install_vstf_{at/dt}_{version}.txt” . In the same path there should be another file named “dd_error_vstf_{at/dt}_{version}.txt” which contains the details of any error happened during the installation.
  • The TFS Service Pack installation log name should resemble “Microsoft Visual Studio {version} Team Foundation Server Service Pack 1 {timestamp}-MSI0.txt”
• If you don’t find the expected file in the temp folder, open the TFS installation path (by default it is %program files%\Microsoft Visual Studio {version} Team Foundation Server \), then check folder \Microsoft Visual Studio {version} Team Foundation Server-{Language}\logs\ . TFS can move the log files there.

This post is based on TFS2008. TFS2005 & TFS2010 installation log file paths are the same but file naming conventions are slightly different—yet still clear enough for you to distinguish from other files.

A tip: If you are submitting the files to a Microsoft technical support engineer, better find all text/html files in the same path, modified during the same time. These files can provide information about pre & post the setup/upgrade process.

A BPA report typically means a TFS system health-check report. It contains information about:

• The TFS server operating system hardware capacity and configuration; If the TFS is of a dual deployment this will include the data for both servers.
• The TFS system configuration information including web services, windows services, accounts, SQL Server connections & permissions, as well as the recent application event log for TFS troubleshooting.
• A verbose trace of a (simulated) team project creation process.

BPA display this report in an elegant way and highlights all improper settings. TFS support engineer use this tool to understand a TFS system’s deployment details, as well as potential issues.

To do a TFS BPA scan and collect a report, one just

1. Download “Team Foundation Server Power Tools” that matches your TFS server version (for tfs2008 & for  tfs2005) and install it on a machine that has Team Explorer installed ; make sure the “Best Practice Analyzer” is selected in the feature select step.
2. Run the BPA tool, choose “Start a scan” from the left panel;
3. Choose the scan type (“health check” for an existing TFS server, or “pre-install” to check the pre-requisites before installing a new TFS instance); choose the scan scope (server/client/both), then define the target TFS server URL(https://{AppTierServerName}:8080). If the BPA tool is running on the TFS server box it can detect this URL automatically.
4. Now start the scan. A full scan can take several minutes.  The report will be displayed at the end.
5. Choose “Export this scan” to save the report into a xml file. Now this file is ready to be submitted to Microsoft CSS. 
6. One can use “Select a scan to view” to view an existing scan report.

BPA is also good tool for the TFS system administrators. It is recommended that one routinely BPA scan the all over system configuration to find/resolve potential improper settings.