Administering Team Foundation Server

  • Article

Administrators for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server install, configure, and maintain Team Foundation Server, and they perform the following tasks:

  • backing up and restoring data

  • adding servers and other resources to the deployment

  • administering permissions and security for other roles

  • organizing projects and the resources that support them by creating and maintaining team project collections

  • maintaining the security of the deployment by creating server-level and collection-level groups for managing users and their permissions

  • managing groups and permissions on servers that are integrated with the deployment, such as SQL Server Reporting Services and SharePoint Products, or coordinating with the administrators of those servers to ensure the smooth operation of Team Foundation Server with those resources

  • managing the services and service accounts that are used in the deployment

As an administrator for Team Foundation Server, you must become familiar with Windows security restrictions, user account control, and the operation of and security for SQL Server databases. If your deployment is integrated with SharePoint Products, you also must familiarize yourself with how to manage site collections and Web applications.

If you are the administrator for a new or not-yet-installed deployment, you should carefully consider what features of Team Foundation Server you want to install and how you want to install them. By choosing a deployment topology that best meets the needs of your business, you can help maintain the long-term manageability and sustainability of the software projects that you support. You can review the example topologies of Team Foundation Server to see what kind of topology might best suit your needs.

Administrators can use the following additional resources:

Both the offline version of the administration guide and the installation guide are Compiled Help Module (CHM) files. Many users experience problems when trying to download or view this type of file. On computers that have security update 896358 installed, you cannot open CHM files that you download. For more information, see the following page on the Microsoft Web site: You cannot open HTML Help files from Internet Explorer after you install security update 896358 or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.

After you save the CHM file locally, you can view its contents by using one of the following methods:

Method 1

  1. Double-click the .chm file.

  2. In the Open File-Security Warning dialog box, clear the Always ask before opening this file check box.

  3. Click Open.

Method 2

  1. Right-click the CHM file, and then click Properties.

  2. Click Unblock.

  3. Double-click the .chm file to open it.

Common Tasks

Content

Common Tasks

Understanding Administrative Concepts and Tools

Organizing Your Server with Team Project Collections

Configuring Resources to Support Team Projects

Learn about Team Foundation Server: You can review the features and capabilities of Team Foundation Server, explore the server architecture and example deployment topologies, and choose the deployment structure that best suits your business needs.

Installation Guide for Team Foundation on the Microsoft Web site (downloadable .CHM file)

Installing Team Foundation Components (MSDN Library)

Install Team Foundation Server: You can choose the installation or upgrade scenario for your deployment, install prerequisites, and install the components of Team Foundation to support your software development projects.

To upgrade your edition of Team Foundation Server, see Upgrading Team Foundation Server.

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR CUSTOMERS UPGRADING FROM EARLIER VERSIONS OF TEAM FOUNDATION SERVER You should apply the following update after you install Team Foundation Server 2010 but before you start the configuration process. This update will prevent an issue caused by a specific pattern of version control operations that affects the upgrade of version control labels and merges.  To download this update, see the following page on the Microsoft Web site. For more information, see the following Microsoft Support page.

For specific information about how to upgrade from Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server or Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server, see the following page on the Microsoft Web site: Installation Guide for Team Foundation.

Upgrade Team Foundation Server You can upgrade from one edition of Team Foundation Server to another. You can also upgrade from an earlier version of Team Foundation Server.

Managing the Server Configuration

Configuring Your Server Using the Team Foundation Administration Console

Service Accounts and Dependencies in Team Foundation Server

Backing up and Restoring Your Deployment

Moving Team Foundation Server

View Installed Updates on Your Server

Managing Team Foundation Server Proxy

Stop and Start Services, Application Pools, and Websites

Securing Team Foundation Server

Manage the servers and resources in the deployment: After you install and first configure Team Foundation Server, you can monitor and change the configuration to support your development projects. You should also create a backup plan to protect your data. You can also expand or move portions of the deployment to better suit your operational needs.

SharePoint Products and Team Foundation Server

Add a SharePoint Web Application to Your Deployment

Modify or Remove Access Between a SharePoint Web Application and Team Foundation Server

Add Integration with SharePoint Products to a Deployment of Team Foundation Server

Upgrading SharePoint Products for Team Foundation Server

Extensions for SharePoint Products

Create SharePoint Web Applications and Sites for Use with Team Foundation Server

Manage SharePoint Web applications: You can support your team projects with resources in SharePoint Products by installing the Team Foundation Server extensions for SharePoint Products on one or more servers. You can also add SharePoint Web applications as resources for team projects and team project collections. If you want to use Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with your deployment of Team Foundation Server, you can configure Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to support reports and dashboards for your team projects.

SQL Server and Team Foundation Server

Add a Report Server to Your Deployment

Manage SQL Server Reporting Services: You can add a server that is running SQL Server Reporting Services to your deployment of Team Foundation Server and configure the permissions and resources that are required for the report server to integrate with Team Foundation Server and SharePoint Products.

Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010 and Microsoft Project Server Integration Feature Pack

Integrate with Microsoft Project Server: If your organization uses Microsoft Project Server, you can integrate that functionality with Team Foundation Server for a more robust project management experience.

Create a Team Project Collection

Modify a Team Project Collection

Create team project collections: You can organize a group of development projects and the resources that support them into a team project collection. You can create as many team project collections as you require to support development efforts.

Configuring and Administering Lab Management

Add virtual machines as development and testing resources: You can configure Visual Studio Lab Management to support developing and testing your team's code on virtual environments.

Configuring Resources to Support Team Projects

Configure Settings for Dashboard Compatibility

Add reporting or project portal resources to existing team projects: You can add or change the resources that are available to members of your team. These resources include process guidance, a team project portal, or a shared document library.

Administering Team Foundation Version Control

Change how source code is stored and accessed: You can help ensure quality code by configuring check-in policies, configuring check-out settings, and optimizing access to the source code.

Administering Team Foundation Build

Change how source code is built: You can configure and manage Team Foundation Build so that your team can automatically and consistently build and test software in a distributed environment.

Default Groups

Custom Groups

Create a Team Project Group

Create a Collection-Level Group

Add Users to Team Projects

Set Administrator Permissions for Team Project Collections

Set Administrator Permissions for Team Foundation Server

Team Foundation Server Permissions

Team Foundation Server Default Groups, Permissions, and Roles

Manage users and groups: You can control what users have access to team projects, team project collections, and the servers that run the components of Team Foundation. You can also control what tasks each type of user can perform.

  • Manage groups and group membership: You can more easily organize and manage users in Team Foundation Server by using the default groups and their associated permissions in a team project, in a team project collection, or at the server level. You can also create custom groups and grant them specific permissions that match the job requirements of users who work on your projects.

  • Manage users outside of groups: You can add a user to Team Foundation Server with very specific permissions to that user outside group membership.

  • Manage Permissions: You can view and change the permissions that are assigned to a user or group at the server level, the collection level, and the project level. By understanding the system permissions, you can better define custom groups and their permissions to meet the security needs of your deployment.

Technical Reference for Team Foundation

Technical Reference: You can learn about the command-line tools with which you can manage your deployment.

See Also

Concepts

Planning and Tracking Projects

Developing the Application

What's New for Application Lifecycle Management in Visual Studio 2010