As you can obviously tell the good ole blog has been a bit neglected this month as I have been developing and presenting the VSTS KickStart workshops around Australia. From the title of this blog post, you can see that it has taken something big to make me jump in and post while my students are doing a lab.

The big news of the moment, from Rob Caron’s blog, is “Rick LaPlante announces Team Foundation Server to ship tomorrow (March 17th) and that it’ll be available for download within 3 – 5 days.“

Looks’ like the guys are going to make their Q1 2006 deadline for TFS RTM with a couple of weeks to spare 🙂

Swamy Subramanian from the Team System team has created a number of screencasts on various aspects of the Team Foundation Server Proxy. The screencasts are available for download as a 29.5Mb zip file from the Microsoft website here

The zip file contains six WMV files covering the following topics;

• Overview
  • Installation
    • Configuration
      • Cache Management
        • Request Processing
          • Dogfooding Experience</ul> The screencasts are quite informative and the Overview screencast goes for 23 minutes alone. Well worth watching if you want to learn more about TFS Proxy.

          [Via Rob Caron]

I noticed this morning that the Team Foundation WebLog has a post concerning a change to the upgrade process from RC to RTM. While this was not expected to require a change to the database, a recent decision has meant that administrators will need to upgrade the TFS database. Having said that, the new process from the blog post should be;

1. Uninstall RC
   • Run TfsUpgradeRTM.exe
     • Install RTM.
       • Upload Reports.</ol> Now you really can’t complain too much about that

       Read the blog post here

Well the end is in sight with Rob Caron announcing that they will officially launch Team Foundation Server at SDWest later this month as expected. It is strange to think of it as being an “end” but after reading blogs from the VSTS product team for so long where they see the launch as the deadline they are aiming for, it is hard not to feel like something great is coming to an “end” of sorts.

In reality the launch may be the culmination of an incredible amount of great work by the product team to bring this completely new product to market, but for most of us it really marks the beginning. The beginning of an exciting time as many organisations that have been trialling the product finally consider moving their teams over to VSTS/TFS. Yes, many dev shops have taken advantage of the Go-Live licenses and are already using the product suite in production, but I figure a larger majority are awaiting the official release version of the product before really getting started in earnest.

The product team will now be examining the many features that didn’t make the release and considering them for the vNext release. Brian Harry posted a great article a little over a week ago entitled Team Foundation Server and the Future. He is eager to hear from the community about what we think about TFS and what we would like to see added or changed in the next version. Make sure you visit his blog and give them feedback to help make the next release even better.

My favourite little tool for administering users across TFS/Sharepoint & SQL Reporting services now supports the Release Candidate version of Team Foundation Server. They have also fixed the annoying bug that caused problems if a user belonged to more than one role in TFS. A very useful utility for anyone responsible for administering TFS!

Download the latest version of this tools from GotDotNet.

Microsoft have just released the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider Beta 2 which now includes support for not only Visual Studio 6.0 (see my post on installing it for VB6) but the long awaited support for Visual Studio 2003! It is important to note that the system requirements for using this provider state that Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation RC is required. If you’re still on Beta 3 Refresh, you’ll need to consider upgrading to the Release Candidate. (You should upgrade anyway, the RC is much nicer than the betas)

[Via Rob Caron]

I blogged last week about the Team Foundation Server Administration Tool and how long overdue a tool such as this was to allow you to easily and conveniently manage security across TFS, Sharepoint and SQL Reporting Services. The tool however was only designed for use with TFS Beta 3 Refresh and not for the Release Candidate. Well the good news is that Kannan now reports the main bug that was reported with the tool has now been fixed and they have started testing the changes for TFS RC. We should see an updated version of the tool any day now.

Next month is shaping up to be a busy month with the local Microsoft Technical Readiness team kicking off our first VSTS Event around Australia. I’m scheduled to deliver the VSTS KickStart in Brisbane (13/14th Mar), Sydney (16/17th Mar), Canberra (21/22 Mar) and then Melbourne (23/24th Mar). The event is only available to Microsoft Partners and is not available to the general public at this stage.

The dates for Melbourne also mean I’ll be in town for the next meeting of the VSTS User’s Group where I’ll have the opportunity to present a session on Work Item Tracking. Jeff Beehler (Lead Product Manager for VSTS) is also presenting at the same meeting so it’s not to be missed. I also get to finally meet Australia’s VSTS MVP Joe Sango in person for the first time so it will be a huge couple of days.

Here’s some more information on the VSTS KickStart event.

Objectives

• To help partners get up to speed with Visual Studio 2005 Team System and Team Foundation Server as quickly as possible
• To help partners install and configure a reliable, secure Team Foundation Server installation
• To examine many of the new Software Development Lifecycle tools built into VSTS

What is a KickStart?

The goal of a ‘KickStart’ event is to help partners kick start their evaluation or initial adoption of a new technology or product. KickStarts are ideal if you are planning or considering a proof of concept (POC) or you are in the early stages of implementing the technology. KickStart events typically aim to cover as much of a product as possible in a short time.

Workshop Outline

This fast-paced two day course provides partners with a solid overview of Visual Studio Team System 2005 and Team Foundation Server. The course combines instructor led sessions with hands-on exercises designed around real-world scenarios to ensure that participants are able to get up and running with VSTS rapidly.

Target Audience 

Before attending this course, students must have:

• A high degree of proficiency with Windows server operating systems
• Basic VSTS knowledge and skills
• Used VSTS for a few weeks at a minimum.
• Basic familiarity with VSTS SKU’s, features, architecture etc.

To learn more about the VSTS KickStart event or to register visit the Microsoft Australia Events site. (Remember – only Microsoft Partners can register)

Kannan Sundararajan has posted that the first CTP version of the Team Foundation Server Administration Tool has been released and is now available on GotDotNet.

The TFS Administration Tool allows a TFS administrator to quickly add users to all three platforms utilized by TFS: TFS, Sharepoint, and SQL RS, all through one common interface. The tool also allows administrators to change the current permissions on any of the three tiers, identify any errors, and view all of the users and their permission sets across TFS, Sharepoint, and SQL RS.

This tool was created by the Developer Aftermarket Community Solutions team in Developer Division at Microsoft.

[Update – I just noticed this important point in the documentation]

“This tool is only compatible with the Beta 3 refresh of Team Foundation Server.  The RC and December CTPs are not currently supported.”

Well my first install of the Team Foundation Server Release Candidate has gone smoothly and I must say the install is getting quite a bit faster than in the past. The need to apply two hotfixes during the installation (fixes for NET 2.0 & SQL)  for is a new step but one that is well covered in Rob Caron’s installation guide for RC.

My next step is an upgrade of a live dual server installation. This should be quite a bit more challenging. Etienne’s already had the experience and notes one small ommission from the upgrade manual. Read his blog post for the details.