The following post describe some minor issues encountered when trying to set the SQL tracing within a load test of visual studio 2008. For a little back round, it is possible to set you load test run settings to read a SQL trace file that includes all the database request request that took longer than a set amount of time. This will show up in you load test results (as a SQL trace table as explained here) and can be used to help in finding potential bottlenecks with the application under test. ... [More]

The following post describes a problem that can occur when installing or upgrading TFS 2008. We have encountered this error a few times and maybe these tips can save someone a little time. If you are upgrading or installing TFS 2008 and near the end of the install the following pop-up occurs Do not cancel just yet, not all is lost. The installation is try to validate this installation by going to the following URL: http://localhost:8080/Services/v1.0/ServerStatus.asmx. You can open up a... [More]

Cleaning up after unit test that tests your data layer can be pretty tedious. In order to simplify that work using the concept of transactions has been well documented in the book “Test-Driven Development in Microsoft.NET” from James W. Newkirk. However, it still involved some level of code that can be simplified using the concept of TransactionScope. Here is what you need to add to your test class using MSTest in order to remove/avoid any cleanup code in your unit test: private Trans... [More]

The following post describes a problem we had with a TFS instance where queries run against the description field where not returning any values. Specifically, the "Contains" operation on system.description or on the user entered contents of the history fields was not working. (on a side note, the following codeplex utility really helps doing queries much faster across multiple fields http://www.codeplex.com/searchworkitems) In TFS the work item data in multi-lines field (plaintext ... [More]

Say you wanted to create a report that included all commands users issue against the source code repository, based on its path in source control.  Such a reports might contain data like this: Username Source Control Folder Start Time Command Darren $/ScrumIsAwesome/ 07/09/2009 19:38 Download ... [More]

Purpose and the appropriate use of dbschema files,including how to get rid error TSD03006 , and how .dbschema files differ from the ones that are created when you build your database and server projects. Relates to VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR R2, and may apply differently to earlier versions of VSTS Database Edition (VSTSDB). [More]

Any .Net developer can tell you that Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) to develop software.  However, I find that relatively few developers (or product managers) are familiar with the features and advantages of Visual Studio Team System (VSTS), including Team Foundation Server (TFS) as compared to Visual Studio, so for those of you who might not know, I’ll cover some key points. Visual Studio 2008 & Editions Most of us are aware that we don’t nee... [More]

We encountered an issue when we set up a TFS warm by stand by tier on a window server 2008 machine at a client site. The set up of TFS application tier “warm stand by” went well. The steps to set it up are in the section “How to: Configure a Standby Server for the Application Tier in the TFS installation guide” of the Team Foundation Server 2008 installation guide. We choose to set it up using a DNS host. Once we ran the activateAT command to specify the virtual server name we had selected,... [More]

When installing TFS 2008 on a windows server 2008, it is important to select the proper rules in IIS 7 prior to installing TFS 2008. This is important because the TFS installation will no do this check for you. We had the following happened that made me wonder of my sanity. TFS application was completely installed without issue but the "Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler" service was not starting. In the event log, the error was an TF30069: An unexpected condition h... [More]

My Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) environment is automatically connecting to Team Foundation Server (TFS) as another user. What’s going on? The default behavior when you connect to TFS is to use Windows Authentication and therefore use your current identity when authenticating. If at some point, you connected to your TFS application tier via an Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path, the operating system may have prompted you to specify credentials and gave you the option to store the password ... [More]