Scenario: Installing Team Foundation Server Using Existing Infrastructure or More than One Server

Installing Team Foundation Server on Multiple Servers Using Existing Infrastructure

Installing on more than one server

You can install Visual Studio Team Foundation Server on more than one server. By using this strategy, you can integrate Team Foundation Server with existing server software deployments in your organization, such as SQL Server or SharePoint Products. If you use multiple servers, you can distribute the load between Team Foundation Server and the configuration database, or you can ensure that prerequisite server software for features such as reporting or the portal site is running on capable hardware.

Team Foundation Server offers robust scale-out features, which include the ability to add one or more servers that are running Team Foundation Server to an existing deployment and add a team project collection to an instance of SQL Server that was not part of the original deployment of Team Foundation Server. However, these scale-out features are not part of this scenario. This scenario offers you guidance for an initial deployment of Team Foundation Server that uses more than one server. For more information about how to add an application-tier server to your deployment of Team Foundation Server, see Scenario: Installing a Team Foundation Server Farm (High Availability).

To install Team Foundation Server on multiple servers, you must use the advanced installation wizard. Typically, this scenario involves hosting Team Foundation Server and the configuration database on different servers. If you use optional features that require prerequisite server software, these installations can also be hosted on different servers. Team Foundation Server includes two such features: reporting and a team portal for sharing documents.

Tip

A multiple-server installation requires an Active Directory domain and domain accounts or the Network Service account. You cannot use local accounts for service accounts.

Reporting and Multiple-Server Configurations

If you want to use the reporting feature in Team Foundation Server, you must have an installation of SQL Server Reporting Services and SQL Server Analysis Services. These features can be installed on the same server or different servers. If you do not want to set up a server that is running Reporting Services, you can skip setting up the report server during your installation.

Team Foundation Server requires a report server that is dedicated only to its use. You cannot share the report server with any other application.

Portal Server and Multiple-Server Configurations

You can use a remote installation of any supported version of SharePoint Products for the portal server. However, you must first install and configure the Team Foundation Server Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services on the server that is running SharePoint Products before you install Team Foundation Server. The installation checklist for multiple servers offers guidance about how to set up this configuration.

Installing Team Foundation Server Extensions for SharePoint Products on a Remote Portal

install extensions on remote portal

You can use the Team Foundation Server Configuration Tool to install and configure Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on the same server as Team Foundation Server. If you do not want to use Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, you have the following options:

  • You can install any of the other supported versions of SharePoint Products before you install Team Foundation Server.

  • You can install Team Foundation Server on a server that hosts a supported installation of SharePoint Products.

In any of these cases, the installation wizard for Team Foundation Server installs and configures the Team Foundation Server Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services.

See Also

Reference

Checklist: Multiple-Server Installation