As you already know, Microsoft made SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 available about a week ago. You may also know, that a lot of folks have been confused by the installation problems, so lots of questions arose round this very service pack.

Brian Harry, for example, has been attacked with questions about whether or not TFS 2008 SP1 will work with SQL 2008 SP1, according to his latest blog post. There he reassures TFS 2008 users that it, certainly, will, but… But they’ll have to do quite a piece of work to get it to install.

The problem has to do with version checks that the TFS installer does to ensure the SQL version is compatible. The checks are too restrictive and even though it will actually work, the installer will insist on incompatibility of the SQL version.

The solution is the install order. According to Brian

If you already have TFS 2008 SP1 running with SQL 2008, and you want to upgrade SQL to 2008 SP1, that will just work - because you aren’t running TFS setup where the block happens. If, on the other hand, you want to install TFS 2008 SP1 using an already installed SQL 2008 SP1 server, you will need to modify an XML file to get around the block.

Microsoft explains the process in this KB article.

Charles Sterling points out how useful it is to bookmark TFS Setup and Admin FAQ as these documents are constantly updated. He also lists the latest updates, some of which include:

Team Foundation Server Administration. 2
1. How to change the credential for the TFS command line tools. 2
2. How to migrate TFS 2008 Workgroup to TFS 2008 Standard. 2
3. How to Set the Maximum Attachment Size for Work Items. 2
4. How to access TFS from internet. 3
5. How to modify the portal template. 4
6. How to set the domain trusts between different TFS components. 5
7. Error Message: VersionControl.Adapter: An unexpected exception occurred while calculating code churn 5
8. Unable to undo local changes after you upgrade Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server to Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server. 6
9. How to upgrade Windows SharePoint Services from version 2.0 to 3.0 after upgrading Team Foundation Server 2005 to version 2008 6
Team Foundation Server Source Control. 11
1. How to structure solutions and projects. 11
Team Foundation Server Team Build. 12
1. How to build .NET 1.1 projects with Team Build. 12
2. How to pass MSBuild properties to solutions and projects. 12

See his blog for answers.

A new draft documentation on “Moving Team Foundation Server From One Configuration To Another” has been recently posted and is availably for public review over here.

Let VSTS developers know if you’ve gone though a similar process to improve this draft.

Also, do not forget, if you have any problems with VSTS deployment you can always seek additional consultation and services from TeamExpand.

Check out new HowTo sections for TeamExpand Looker and Chrono. These new pages walk you through the installation and some main features of TX Products and contain enough screenshots not to lose you halfway.

Here’s a quick tip I came across today: the easiest and quickest way to undo someone else’s checkout in TFS is by using this command:

tf undo /workspace:WORKSPACE-NAME;User $/myProject/CheckedOutFile.cs /login:myusername,mypassword

And another one: to delete an entire workspace there’s a command that will automatically undo any checkouts:

tf workspace /delete Workspace (add “/login:name,password” to end of command if

MSDN, as usual, has more.

Let’s leave the 2008 version of Team Server for a while and move back to TFS 2005. Some say TFS 2005 is one of the hardest tools to install, as it annoys you to death screaming “error” and asking for more information at installation. Well, here are the guidelines that you can follow to avoid going through all this trouble.

“This is only for New BOX and single server deployment
1. Install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2003 R2 with SP2
-Install IIS from windows components. enable ASP.NET, do not enable FrontPage extensions.
2. Install MS SQL Server 2005 with all features.
-Make sure that all services in MS SQL server set to Start automatically.
3. Install Windows SharePoint service 2.0 with SP2
-DO not configure WSS and select farm installation type
4. Install MS SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2
5. Install .NET Framework 2.0 Service pack 2
6. Create 2 accounts on server TFSSERVICE and TFSREPORTS (if you have a domain and using active directory then create these account in Active directory)
7. Now time to start installation of TFS. if you are using domain controller then login in as domain admin and not local admin.
8. Insert the TFS CD/DVD and start the installation.
-First it will check the server health and necessary components, its nothing but what we did in above steps, if everything is fine then it will ask for login for services , enter TFSSERVICE login details then report service login details, enter TFSREPORTS then SMTP ( you can skip this for now)
-Start installation
-Finish installation
9. Install Team Explorer.
10. If you want to access TFS in Internet Explorer then download Team System Web Access Tool from Microsoft downloads site free of cost and install it, (chose different web site normally port 8090 or any other port and not default 8080)
11. Install Team Foundation Server 2005 Service Pack 1
12. Done !!! your server is ready to use.
DO Read TFS Installation guide (which comes in DVD or you can download new version from Microsoft web site) carefully before starting installation.”
From here

Using TFS in your daily work? Ever stumbled on something having no clue where to go for information? Asked good old Google and still found no answer? Well that time has passed. There’s finally a thorough guide on TFS!
From Ralf Rottman’s post over here
“On 496 pages this guide covers everything you need to know.” Might take you ages to figure certain details out on your own, the book is precious!
“Unfortunately as to my current research it seems as if there is not too much written information about the product available at microsoft.com . I found a brief downloadable product overview on the main product pages but that’s more or less it.
Digging a bit deeper I happened to stumble across a TFS dedicated project at CodePlex, the Microsoft hosted site for open source initiatives. The team there published a great Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Guide!”
The software market quite often lacks proper written information on the products, making developers sweat on it, that’s a great leap forward for TFS

These licensing changes will be really useful in managing bugs, as in the previous version each user adding a bug needed a Client Access Licence. With the cost of around $500, multiplied by the number of potential users reporting bugs you’d re-consider having TFS as your primary bug management tool.
The licensing policy changes in Team Foundation Server 2008 will enable an unlimited number of users within your company to operate any kind of work items.
“The new licensing provisions are designed to make it easy if you want to allow lots of people in your company to use TFS to file bugs, feature requests, etc and have them available for your development team. Specifically they allow an unlimited number of users in your company to create any work item, query for work items they have created and view or update any work item they have created all without a CAL. This right comes with your Team Foundation Server Standard Edition server license and requires no additional purchase.”
*note: the changes so far apply to the Standard Edition only*