Share via

The Team Foundation Administration Console

  • Article

By using the administration console for Team Foundation, you can manage resources and perform most management tasks for your deployment of Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS) from a central location. For example, you can find all log files that detail system events in TFS. You can also perform the following tasks:

  • manage users and permissions at the server level and the collection level

  • create and manage team project collections

  • add and manage SharePoint Web applications for use in the deployment

  • create and manage virtual labs for testing your software

  • add and manage build environments

  • review server status

Using the Administration Console

You can use the administration console for Team Foundation to perform most of the administrative tasks that are required to manage TFS. However, the functionality of the administration console depends on the permissions of the user who opens it. The console can be opened by anyone who has a valid user account on the server or servers on which the console is installed, but that does not mean that they will be able to use it to perform functions for which they do not have the required permissions. If a user opens the console but does not have the permissions that are required to perform certain functions within that console, the operation will fail when the user tries to perform that function. For more information, see Open the Team Foundation Administration Console.

The administration console is installed by default on any server on which you install one or more of the following components:

  • an application tier for TFS

  • TFS extensions for SharePoint Products

  • Team Foundation Build

  • Visual Studio Lab Management

For more information, see Open the Team Foundation Administration Console.

Managing Server Resources

If you open the administration console on an application-tier server, you can manage most aspects of the server resources for Team Foundation. In the Application Tier node, you can view summary information for the installation of TFS and manage server-level groups and security settings. In the Data Tier node, you can view information about the configuration database for TFS. In the Reporting Services node, you can view information about any resources in SQL Server Reporting Services that were configured for the deployment. For more information, Review Server Status and Settings.

In the Team Project Collections node, you can create, configure, view, start, and stop team project collections, which you can use to organize team projects that have similar needs or functionality. For more information, see Organizing Your Server with Team Project Collections.

In the SharePoint Web Applications node, you can configure one or more SharePoint Web applications for use with team project collections. If you add one or more Web applications, members of your team can create a SharePoint site automatically when they create a team project. Before you can add a SharePoint Web application, you must install the extensions for SharePoint Products on a server in the Web farm that hosts the application that you want to add. You must also add the service account that the SharePoint Web application uses to TFS. For more information, see Add a SharePoint Web Application to Your Deployment and Modify or Remove Access Between a SharePoint Web Application and Team Foundation Server. 

In the Lab Management node, you can configure one or more virtual machines to act as resources for developing and testing your code. For more information, see How to: Configure or Reconfigure Lab Management and Managing Lab Services.

Managing SharePoint Web Applications Used with Team Foundation Server

Before you can add one or more SharePoint Web applications to your deployment of TFS, you must first install the Team Foundation Server Extensions for SharePoint Products. Then you must configure access between the SharePoint Web application and TFS. Depending on your permissions, you either must configure access manually, or you can configure access automatically when you add the SharePoint Web application to TFS. After you grant access, you can manage the extensions if you open the administration console on a server on which the Team Foundation Server Extensions for SharePoint Products are installed. For more information, see Add a SharePoint Web Application to Your Deployment and Extensions.

Reviewing Log Files

In the administration console, you can review the log files for installation and for system changes. You can also open the folder where these files are stored and manually copy or delete them. For more information, see Review Server Status and Settings.

Managing Builds

You can configure and manage Team Foundation Build so that your team can automatically and consistently build and test your software in a distributed environment. You can review and manage build settings by opening the administration console on the computers where Team Foundation Build has been installed. For more information, see Configuring and Managing Your Build System.

Opening Specific Nodes in the Administration Console

The administration console contains different nodes based on what components of Team Foundation are installed on that server. If a particular node does not appear, you should verify that you are logged on to a server on which that component is installed.

To open the node for Team Foundation Server

  1. In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then expand the Application Tier node.

    The summary information for the installation of TFS appears. Under this node, you can view information about the server and configure group membership, security settings, and service accounts.

  2. (Optional) Under the Application Tier node, click one of the following nodes to view or modify the settings for that node:

To open the node for Extensions for SharePoint Products

  • In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then expand Extensions for SharePoint Products.

    In this node, you can view, create, modify, or delete a mapping from a server that is running SharePoint Products to a server that is running Team Foundation Server. For more information, see Add a SharePoint Web Application to Your Deployment.

To open the node for Team Foundation Build

  • In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then expand Team Foundation Build.

    In this node, you can view, create, modify, or disable build services for Team Foundation Build. For more information, see Configuring and Managing Your Build System.

To open the Logs node

  • In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then expand Logs.

    In this node, you can review the logs of configuration changes in Team Foundation Server. For more information about a specific change, double-click it in the results pane.

To open the Additional Tools node

  • In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then expand Additional Tools.

    In this node, the topnode remains static and does not display any information about installed tools in your deployment. However, if you install any additional tools from the Additional Tools and Components section of the Team Foundation Server Configuration Center, each tool should appear as a sub-node beneath this node. To view information about each installed tool, choose its sub-node underneath Additional Tools.

See Also

Tasks

Open the Team Foundation Administration Console

Concepts

Organizing Your Server with Team Project Collections

Configuring Users, Groups, and Permissions

Other Resources

Get Up and Running With a Single-Server Installation [Tutorial]

Configuring Resources to Support Team Projects