Once again I have been renominated for the Microsoft MVP in the Visual Studio ALM category. I am always honored to recieve the award. I cannot thank the team enough for their decsion and look forward to participating in the next year full of activities. Thanks All.
-paul
Brian Keller has a post that announces the release of the Visual Studio 2010 RTM Virtual Machine with Sample Data and Hands-on-Labs. Check it out
The first official (RTM) release of the Team Foundation Server Power Tools for Team Foundation Server 2010 have been released. There are three separate downloads available:
TFS Power Tools April 2010 release – This is the main set of TFS Power Tools
The release date of the new Visual Studio toolset is fast approaching. There are going to be a bunch of launch events happening across America. There will be both big city all day events and smaller city half-day events.
Full day events https://microsoft.crgevents.com/Register2010/Content/Event_Selection.aspx
Half Day events http://www.microsoft.com/business/2010events/Highlights.aspx
Brian Keller has announced the release of Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate Virtual Machines with Sample Data and Hands-on-Labs.
The team has just released a patch so that Team Explorer 2005 will interoperate with TFS 2010. You can download the patch here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=22215e4c-af6f-4e2f-96df-20e94d762689
Here is the info about the TSUG meetings coming up. For more info visit www.tsug-ve.com
March Meeting (Americas)
Meeting Date: Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Time: 5:00PM PDT
Code Review in Visual Studio Team System
Everyone has heard that code review is good. Some people have even tried it. But continued value from code review isn’t realized in most organizations. So why is code review good? If it’s good, why is it rare? And finally, how can I successfully benefit from code review with my team? JB Brown will provide answers and demonstrate how TFS can streamline code reviews and maximize your code review benefits.
JB Brown is a .NET Developer, a Lean, Agile and Team System advocate, and the author of TeamReview. JB is a Microsoft Visual Studio ALM MVP.
April Meeting (EMEA)
Meeting Date: Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Time: 10:00AM PDT (1800 UTC)
Agile Management with TFS
What does “agile software development” mean to you? Many people have different interpretations of “Agile”. In this session, Dave McKinstry will demonstrate how Microsoft has evolved their interpretation of agile software development by digging into the new tools available to track and manage software projects. We will demonstrate not only the enhanced work item tracking available with TFS 2010, but also dig into the enhanced reports and especially the new project management worksheets. Still in 2005 or 2008? Don’t worry – we’ll talk about how you have use some of these tools today!
Dave McKinstry is a partner with Notion Solutions, a Microsoft gold gartner in the United States focuses on helping our clients “efficiently build better software.” Dave has been in IT for over 20 years, has been consulting with Microsoft technologies for 10, and has been focused on Microsoft ALM tools for five. He is a Visual Studio ALM MVP and leader of TSUG-VE Americas meetings.
Everyone that has to manage permissions on a TFS server knows that its a pain. You have to go to TFS, SSRS, and WSS to get folks added. Some folks started to create a TFS Admin tool on codeplex, but it never really worked quite right for me. Well they have come out with a new Beta v2.0 of the tool. I have been using the CTP for a while now and it works great all the time. They really put some effort into this release. Check out the project and download the tool at http://www.codeplex.com/TFSAdmin
-paul
I decided that I was going to setup a VHD that had all the bells and whistles of TFS with Moss, VS 2010 and Lab Management. I thought it would be a good idea to write a post of all the sites/posts that I used to get up and going. I was able to accomplish eveything in a weekend, but for you it may go faster as I had downloaded some corrupt files and it took a while to figure out that was the issue.
Machine Specs
Lenovo W500 with 8GB ram, 250 GB main spindle and a 500 GB second spindle
The first thing I did was to create a 40 GB bootable VHD. To create a bootable vhd I followed this post. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2953-virtual-hard-drive-vhd-file-create-start-boot.html While the post focused on Windows 7, I used Windows Server 2008 R2. I created a 40 gig vhd to act as the host machine.
Once I completed the install of Windows Server, I booted into the new vhd. I added the Active Directory Domain Services and Hyper-V roles. I called my domain Demo, but you can use whatever you want.
Here is a post to get you started if you are not sure how to install roles in Windows Server 2008. http://www.petri.co.il/installing-active-directory-windows-server-2008.htm
Once I had the Hyper-V role setup, I created a 50 GB hyper-v image of Windows Server 2008 R2. This is going to be my single server install for TFS, Moss, SQL Server 2008 Office (Excel), MS Project, VS 2010, and Lab Management.
Once I had the New server image setup and patched, I joined it to the new Demo domain. I then installed all the previously mentioned components. I stumbbled upon a great guide to help you the rest of the way. The guide is focused on Beta 2 TFS/VS 2010, but it is still quite relevent for the RC. I used the guide for the remainder of my installs, except for MOSS 2007, which is really easy to install. You will need to configure MOSS for TFS 2010 after you install it. I followed this post to get that all setup. http://juliocasal.com/archive/2009/11/02/team-foundation-server-2010-beta-2-office-sharepoint-server-2007-single-server-installation-part-1.aspx
Lastly, I would like to point you to the Lab Management Team Blog. This is a great resouce for everything Lab Management. It helped me get the application deployed and tested to the Lab Servers I built
http://blogs.msdn.com/lab_management/
For all my lab images I setup the library on the second spindle for both speed and to take advantage of its capacity.
I hope that this helps you get started using the cool RC features and the new Lab Management features. While I have most everything on a single image, You can spread everything out amongst a group of sevrers. I just needed to have a good, solid, fast demo environment.
-paul
I am pleased to announce that SaaS Made Easy (www.saasmadeeasy.com) is offering 30 day free TFS Hosting trials. Visit their website to sign up today.
