TF30017: Team Explorer cannot connect to Team Foundation Server {0}. The security certificate is either not installed, misconfigured, or expired.
A security certificate associates an identity with a public key, and only the owner of the certificate knows the corresponding private key. The private key allows the owner to make a digital signature or decrypt information encrypted with the corresponding public key. A Certification Authority (CA) issues server and client authentication certificates to the servers and clients that request them.
Team Explorer will not connect to a server that does not have a valid CA certificate. This error indicates there is a problem with the CA certificate on the server running Visual Studio. When Team Explorer begins its connection with the server, it reads the CA certificate on the server to determine if the server is authentic and is safe to connect to. There are at least three conditions that can cause Team Explorer to avoid connecting to the server:
The CA certificate is not from a trusted authority, is not installed correctly, or is missing.
The CA certificate has expired and the certificate must be re-issued with an unexpired date.
The name on the CA certificate is not correct or does not match the URL of the page used by Team Explorer. For example, if the certificate is issued to AdventureWorks.com, but the URL used by Team Explorer is www.AdventureWorks.com, the mismatch will cause this error. The certificate must be reissued using the correct name, or the URL must be changed to match the name on the certificate.
To determine the specific cause of this error
On the Start menu, click Internet Explorer.
In the Address bar, type https://servername:portnumber/bisserver/
In the Security Alert dialog box, click the Content tab, and then click Certificates.
On the Certificate dialog box, click the Untrusted Publishers tab, select the publisher, and then click View.
Look for a yellow warning icon in front of one of the following messages:
The security certificate was issued by a company you have not chosen to trust. View the certificate to determine whether you want to trust the certifying authority.
The security certificate has expired.
The security certificate name does not match the name of the page you are trying to view.
If the red X appears before a. and you have Administrator privileges on your client computer, follow the steps in the first set of procedures below.
-or -
To correct this error if the CA certificate is not installed or from a trusted authority
In the Security Alert dialog box, click View Certificate.
In the Certificate dialog box, click the Certification Path tab.
On the Certification Path tab, click the top node (with the red icon in front of the node name), and then click View Certificate.
In the Certificate dialog box, click Install Certificate.
In the Certificate Import Wizard, click Next.
On the Certificate Store wizard page, click Next.
On the Completing the Certificate Import Wizard page, click Finish.
In the Security Warning dialog box, click Yes.
Close Internet Explorer and try connecting to Team Foundation Server again.
To correct this error if the CA certificate is not configured correctly or has expired
- Contact the system administrator for the server and ask him or her to reconfigure or renew the CA certificate.