What's new for Azure DevOps Server

Azure DevOps Server 2022 | Azure DevOps Server 2020 | Azure DevOps Server 2019

You can use Azure DevOps Server, previously named Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS), to manage your product lifecycle, reduce risks, and improve team efficiency. Updates are made every few weeks to the cloud-hosted version, Azure DevOps Services. These updates are then rolled up and made available through quarterly updates to the on-premises Azure DevOps Server and TFS. To understand the differences between the hosted and on-premises versions, see A tour of services provided with Azure DevOps Services and TFS.

To learn about what's new with the cloud service offering, see Azure DevOps Services features update.

You can download the latest version of Azure DevOps Server from the Visual Studio download page.

Azure DevOps Server 2020 RC

See Azure DevOps Server 2020 RC1 Release Notes.

Azure DevOps Server 2019

The following table provides links to the Azure DevOps Server 2019 release notes that describe what's new in Azure DevOps Server 2019.

General

• New web portal navigation
• Expanded search box
• My work flyout
• Azure SQL Database support

Wiki

• Publish from a Git repository

• Link to headings within a page

• Attach files and images in folders

• Embed a video

• Rename a wiki

• Page titles can have special characters

• Open page in new tab

• View broken links

• Fix broken links when moving pages

• Create table of contents for wiki pages

• Use YAML tags to surface metadata for wiki and code preview

• Publish code as wiki

Reporting

• Analytics marketplace extension support
• Build history dashboard widget

Azure Boards

• Link GitHub Enterprise commits and PRs to Azure Boards work items

• Process inheritance supports new collections

• New Work Items hub

• New Boards, Backlogs, and Sprints hubs

• New Queries hub

• Move work items to another project

• Change a work item type

• Sprint planning features

• New directory pages

• New View options menu

• Suggested Areas and Iterations

• Query work with +/- @CurrentIteration

• Clarify query iteration with the @CurrentIteration Team parameter

• Query work for a team with the @TeamAreas macro

• Query for empty rich text fields

• Find existing work items in linking and mention experiences

• Open work items from search

• Card annotations include bugs and custom work item types

Azure Repos

• Improved branch picker
• Bypassed pull request policies generate notifications
• Allow bypassing branch policies maintaining push protection
• Quickly describe pull requests using commit messages
• Create pull requests without a default team as reviewer
• Use templates to standardize pull request descriptions
• Change the target branch of a pull request
• Extension authors can query context about the current repo

Azure Pipelines

• Improved experiences for Tests in Pipelines
• Simplify definitions with multiple agentless tasks
• Pass environment variables to tasks
• Clone variable groups
• Manage build and deployment completion emails better using improved formatting
• Run inline or file-based Python scripts in your pipeline
• Leverage improved Xcode build and test output from xcpretty
• Locally update your agent
• Use improved Windows remote PowerShell based tasks
• Follow the new unified Azure Pipelines terminology
• Azure Policy compliance and security validations in Pipelines
• Changes to Artifacts and Release Management Deployment Pipeline Licensing

Builds

• Configure builds using YAML

• Manage build pipelines using the new Builds page

• Chain related builds together using build completion triggers

• Locally update your agent

• New build status badge URL

• Add custom build counters to your builds

• Build on Linux/ARM and Windows 32-bit platforms

• Build applications written in Go

Releases

• Manage release pipelines using the new Releases page
• Visualize release progress
• Progressively expose and phase deployments using release gates
• Automatically deploy to new targets in a deployment group
• Continuously deploy builds tagged by post-build processing
• Continuously deploy to Azure Database for MySQL
• Deploy Linux containers with the App Server Deploy task
• Filter branches for GitHub Enterprise or external Git artifacts
• Hold deployments until gates succeed consistently
• Ignore a release gate for a deployment
• Perform additional testing using a pull request release trigger
• Create Azure service connection with service principal that authenticates with a certificate
• Run from Package supported in Azure App Service deployments
• The Xcode task supports newly released Xcode 10
• Streamline deployment to Kubernetes using Helm
• Control Helm version used in Release
• Set a variable at release time

Azure Test Plans

• Test Runner (Azure Test Plans) client can run manual tests for desktop applications

Azure Artifacts

• Upstream sources
• Follow packages
• Change feed settings without having to manually save
• Simplify authentication using the new cross-platform Credential Provider for NuGet
• Compress symbols when publishing to a file share
• Changes to Artifacts and Release Management Deployment Pipeline Licensing

TFS 2018

TFS 2018.3

View the release notes for Team Foundation Server 2018.3.

TFS 2018.2

Note

The following links open related sections within the Team Foundation Server 2018.2 release notes.

Code

• Get a permanent link to code
• Recover a recently deleted repository via API
• SSH: Support additional ciphers/keys and deprecate outdated ciphers
• Avoid overwrites and protect performance using repository settings
• Enhanced filter capability fr commits with more than 1,000 files changed
• Find lost commits due to a Force Push
• Blame now has history
• Toggle word wrap and white space in diff views
• Track code pushes to Git repo to builds and releases
• Rendered markdown in email notifications
• Perform TFVC commands right from Windows Explorer
• Control who can contribute to pull requests
• Pull request comment notifications include the thread context
• Complete work item settings
• Pull request status extensibility
• Pull request service hooks merge events
• Improved error messages for work items completing with a pull request
• Mention a pull request
• Help reviewers using pull request labels
• Pull request comments follow renamed files
• View pull request merge commit
• Recently used reviewers
• View remaining policy criteria for pull request auto-complete
• Discuss math in pull requests
• Pull request suggestions for forks
• Path filters for pull request policies

Work

• Keyboard shortcuts in the work item form
• Modernized column options
• Query last run by information
• HTML tags stripped in work item grids
• Added support for Not In query operator
• Query for @MyRecentActivity and @RecentMentions
• Custom fields and tags filter in work item tracking notifications
• Mentioned support for the My work items page
• Filtering on plans
• Updated plans navigation
• Expand/collapse requirements/people on the task board
• Grant the bypassrule permission to specific users

Build and release

• XAML builds
• Enhancements to multi-phase builds
• Skip scheduled builds if nothing has changed in the repo
• Build with continuous integration from GitHub Enterprise
• Secure files can be downloaded to agents during build or release
• Apple provisioning profiles can be installed from source repositories
• Trace GitHub sources to builds using build tags
• Specific Java Development Kits (JDKs) can be installed during builds and releases
• Improved Xcode build configuration
• Release gates
• Deploy selectively based on the artifact triggering a release
• Manage entity-specific security
• Approve multiple environments
• Release template extensibility
• Conditional release tasks and phases
• Requests history for service endpoints
• Default properties for Git and GitHub artifact types are now editable
• Bulk deploy environments manually from release view
• Jenkins multi-branch pipeline support and link jobs organized in folders
• Docker Hub or Azure Container Registry as an artifact source
• Default artifact versions
• Release triggers branch enhancements
• Release trigger for a Package Management artifact
• Scope a variable group to specific environments
• Release automatically from Azure Container Registry and Docker Hub
• Specify a default version for Jenkins artifacts
• Contribute release gates from extensions
• Scale deployments to virtual machines using Deployment Groups

Package

• Retention policies in TFS feeds
• Filtering in Package Management
• Share your packages using a badge
• Previous package versions are now a full-page list
• View quality of a package version in the package list
• Gulp, Yarn, and more authenticated feed support
• Package feed default permissions now include Project Administrators
• Recycle and restore packages
• Link to packages from anywhere

Test

• Visual Studio Test task doesn't need full Visual Studio
• Run Functional Tests and Deploy Task Agent tasks are now deprecated
• Filter large test results
• Identify flaky tests
• Preview improvements and support for different log types generated by Visual Studio Test task

Wiki

• Wiki search
• Print Wiki pages
• Contribute to Wiki pages with ease using keyboard shortcuts
• Rich markdown rendering in code repo markdown
• Wiki supports mathematical formulas
• Reference work items in Wiki
• Link work items and Wiki pages
• Ctrl+S to save Wiki page
• Paste rich Wiki content as HTML
• Move page in Wiki using keyboard
• Filter text highlighting
• Preview content as you edit Wiki pages

General

• Profile cards
• Circle avatars
• Project tags
• Re-order favorite groups

TFS 2018.1

Note

The following links open related sections within the Team Foundation Server 2018.1 RC1 release notes.

Summary of new features

• GVFS caching support in the TFS proxy
• Access information pertinent to test cases in your automated tests when running in the CI/CD pipeline
• Automated tests that use TestCase as a data source can now be run using the VSTest task

Bug fixes

Code

• If a repository is deleted while Search is indexing it, the job fails with GitRepositoryNotFoundException.
• During the first indexing of a TFVC repository, there might be folder drops and indexing might take a long time.
• The Search indexing patch job might fail if there are many files that fail to download.
• When a code file fails indexing and continues to fail during retries, you see "Lots of files rejected by Elasticsearch, failing this job" error messages indefinitely.
• Customers see a permanent message of "One or more projects in your account are still being indexed, and so you are not seeing any results." With this update, the error appears a maximum of 10 times for a given set of files.

Work

• No links are shown on a work item if there's a TFVC link from the work item and the TFVC artifact was deleted.
• Identity information might not correctly synchronize to work items.
• Allowed Values custom fields might not work when ALLOWEDVALUES is defined inside a WHEN rule.

Build and release

• The build summary doesn't show associated work items if the associated changes are empty.
• Pausing a build definition doesn't pause gated builds.
• The Local path under $(build.sourcesDirectory) gets unexpectedly populated when configuring the Get Sources step of a build definition.
• Save of a release definition gives a "service endpoint not available or not accessible" error, even when there's no change to the endpoints used in the tasks.
• In the release pipeline, rearranging the order in which parallel environments are visualized isn't possible. To fix this situation, an option was added in the environment panel of the editor to move an environment up/down.
• A SQL exception might occur when queuing an agent pool maintenance job to an agent with a previous version.

Test

• The Run Timeout test setting isn't being honored.
• The Test Category filter doesn't work when running tests in distributed mode.
• The Test Plan filter doesn't show if the filter query is invalid.
• Can't extract more than 10 steps from a Test Case into a Shared Step.
• When a build completes with no test results, an incorrect message is shown, directing users to Visual Studio Test tasks.
• The Go button on the Test Runs page is clipped in Russian and French.
• "An error occurred while trying to load this content" error message displays in the My Favorites page after making a Test Plan a favorite.
• The context menu for assigning testers is missing.
• The total number of hidden tests isn't accurate after deleting existing test cases on the task board.
• The count in the Test Chart is incorrect when rolling up from child test plans.
• Users can't delete Test Plans and Test Suites when having manage test plans / test suites permissions or delete test runs permissions.
• Hierarchical views of ordered test cases aren't shown when publishing test results.

Wiki

• There's no error when an inserted file fails to upload due to a large size.

Reporting

• The color picker isn't visible when configuring the Chart for Work Items.
• The warehouse jobs are running after opting out of reporting during an upgrade to TFS 2018.

Upgrade and installation

• ArgumentNullException is thrown while running the Migrating CFD data step when upgrading to TFS 2018.
• "Invalid length for a Base-64 char array or string" error occurs in the Migrate to latest CoD Migrations (On prem) step when upgrading from TFS 2017 to TFS 2018 with a large number of NuGet package versions.
• The upgrade to TFS 2018 can take a long time when configuring scheduled backups.
• The reporting server and analytics server values aren't populated in the upgrade wizard.
• The upgrade to TFS 2018 causes duplicate Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Warehouse.OptimizeDatabases jobs.
• "TF50620: The Team Foundation identity scope does not exist" error occurs when upgrading TFS.
• The Configuration wizard fails when the machine names include Unicode Extension B characters.
• "1 error(s) occurred while executing upd_AnalyticsToDev15M108PreSchema.sql script" error occurs when upgrading to TFS 2018.
• "Execution Timeout Expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding." error occurs when upgrading to TFS 2018.
• Configuring Search fails when a project collection is offline.
• Upgrades to TFS 2018 take a long time when there are many NuGet packages.
• The prc_CopyContainerItemFiles job might fail due to exceeding the timeout when upgrading to TFS 2018.

Administration

• The Team Foundation Server Activity Logging Administration job fails on a project collection after timing out.
• The certificate is invalid when using Git clients with OpenSSL if using a self-signed SSL certificate generated by TFS.
• "TF246017: Team Foundation Server could not connect to the database." error occurs when trying to unconfigure reporting in the TFS Admin Console when the warehouse database isn't reachable.
• "Could not find validator for token" error occurs when configuring an agent after changes to a TFS hostname, such as changing the public URL or moving the TFS databases.
• tfsconfig offlinedetach doesn't warn if the collection appears offline.
• Unable to save a new notification when using one of the notification templates, such as work item is created, if the user locale isn't in English.

TFS 2018

Note

The following links open related sections within the Team Foundation Server 2018 RC1 release notes.

Work item tracking improvements

• Project Creation Wizard on the web
• Process Template Manager on the web
• Mobile work item form
• Filtering on backlogs, Kanban boards, sprints, and queries
• Expand to show empty fields on a Kanban card
• Extensions block work item save

Version control improvements

• Forks
• Setting to turn off web editing for TFVC repos
• Identify stale branches
• Search for a deleted branch and re-create it
• Search for a commit in branches starting with a prefix
• Richer pull request callout on commit details page
• Retain a file name when moving from Files to Commits
• View, delete, and filter Git tags
• Git tags security
• Automatically complete work items when completing pull requests
• Reset votes on push/new iteration
• Filter a pull request tree by file name
• More pull request comments filtering options
• View original diff for code comments in pull request details
• Collapsible pull request comments
• Task lists in pull request descriptions and comments
• Ability to “Like” comments in pull requests
• Improved workflow when approving with suggestions
• Path filtering support for Git notifications
• Great email templates for pull request workflows
• Pull Request Status Extensibility

Collaborate feature improvements

• Project Wiki
• Create a Wiki page from a broken link

Package Management improvements

• Package Management experience updates
• Maven packages
• New unified NuGet task
• npm build task updates
• Maven now supports authenticated feeds
• dotnet task supports authenticated feeds, web projects
• Working outside your account/collection
• Feed picker for Azure DevOps Services/TFS feeds

Build and release improvements

• Removing support for XAML Builds
• Export and import build definitions
• Deprecate a task in an extension
• Let contributed build sections control section visibility
• Variable group support
• Work with secure files such as Apple certificates
• New Release Definition Editor
• Visualization of the pipeline
• In context configuration UI
• Getting started with deployment templates
• Improved task and phase editor
• Variable groups, Retention, and Options tabs
• VM deployment using Deployment Groups
• Task group references, versioning, and import and export
• Multi-configuration support in Server Side (Agentless) tasks
• Variables support in Manual Intervention task
• Control releases to an environment based on the source branch
• Release Triggers for Git repositories as an artifact source
• Release Triggers: Continuous deployment for changes pushed to a Git repository
• Enhancements to server-side tasks
• Release status badge in Code hub
• Enhancements to Build definition menu when adding artifacts
• Revert your release definition to older version

Test improvements

• Exploratory testing traceability improvements for work item links, iterations, and area paths
• Filters for Test Case work items in Test Plans and Suites in Test Hub
• Test trend charts for Release Environments and Test Runs
• Markdown formatting support for Test Run and Test Result comments

Deprecated features

• Removing support for Lab Center and automated testing flows in Microsoft Test Manager
• Automated testing
• Discontinuing TFS extension for SharePoint
• Discontinuing Team Rooms

For known issues, see Known issues.

Deprecated features

The following features have been deprecated with the indicated version.

Azure DevOps Server 2019

The Team Foundation plug-in for Office is deprecating support for Microsoft Project and Microsoft PowerPoint with Storyboarding. Project integration and the TFSFieldMapping command are not supported for Azure DevOps Server 2019 nor for Azure DevOps Services. The plug-in will continue to support Microsoft Excel.

The Configuration Features wizard is deprecated.

We will be removing the client object model and SOAP APIs in future versions Although Azure DevOps Server 2019 continues to support the work item tracking SOAP API and the client object model, it will be removed in the next major version of Azure DevOps Server. You can find more information in our documentation.

Impact of upgrading to Azure DevOps Server 2019 on tasks: Windows Machine File Copy and PoweShell on Target Machine Machine groups under Test Hub was deprecated in TFS 2017 RTM. With Azure DevOps Server 2019, the Machine groups service is no longer available. This will impact the users of 'Windows Machine File Copy' task version 1.* and 'PowerShell on Target Machines' task version 1.*. For your pipelines to continue working,

You have to switch to 'Windows Machine File Copy' task version 2.* and provide the full fqdn for the target machine instead of just the machine name.

And switch to 'Powershell on Target Machine' task version 2.* or later and provide the full fqdn of the machine or machine name followed by the Windows Remote Management ports (http/https). For example, targetMachine:5985 or targetMachine:5986

TFS 2018

TFS 2018.2: Deprecated Run Functional Tests and Deploy Task Agent tasks

TFS 2018: Deprecated the following features:

• Lab Center and automated testing flows in Microsoft Test Manager
• Automated testing
• FS extension for SharePoint
• Team Rooms Several good solutions are available that integrate well with Azure DevOps that support notifications and chat, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack.