Over the past few months I have been very impressed with the Application Insights feature in Visual Studio Online. I was so impressed I have presented talks to three user groups in Australia all about the feature to share my enthusiasm with the local community.

To help people get started using this feature, I have made it part of the newest course I have developed and announced at the ALM Forum in Seattle this week.

Build, Release and Monitor software using Visual Studio 2013

This 3-day course is an introductory (Level 200) look at the following three technologies and how you can best use them to improve your processes.

1. Team Build
   • Release Management for Visual Studio 2013
     • Application Insights</ol> The course is available as a closed course, onsite course or through our public schedules in Australia and the United States.

     You can download the course outline (PDF) to find out more about what’s in the course. To find out about upcoming dates or to register, contact shanehb@alm-training.com and be sure to follow @ALMShane for upcoming news about a more advanced course.

I was installing Release Management for Visual Studio 2013 with Update 1 today and had an issue that I haven’t seen before.

Installing the Release Management server went fine but when I tried to install the Release Management client and connect it to TFS, I received the following error message.

The server specified could not be reached. Please ensure the information that is entered is valid (please contact your Release Management administrator for assistance).

Here’s the dialog box showing the error.

I checked the usual things – I hadn’t mistyped anything, name resolution was fine, the port was open in the firewall etc. I then tried accessing the service directly from a browser where the Release Management Server was installed (My TFS AT in this case).

I received the following error

Service Unavailable
———————————————
HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.

OK, so the error is on the server side, not the client I was trying to configure.

I checked the event logs on my TFS server where the Release Management Server was installed and found it was filling up rapidly with error’s from the Release Management Monitor. The errors were the same two errors repeating over and over again.

A bit of searching on the Internet led me to the cause of the issue and the appropriate fix. The problem stemmed from the fact that I have SharePoint Foundation 2013 installed on the TFS Server. For small teams just wanting to use the dashboards and document libraries, this is perfectly acceptable.

The steps needed to get things back on track were as follows;

1. On the machine where the Release Management Server was installed with TFS and Sharepoint, start a Command Prompt. I chose Run as Administrator but I am not sure this was required.
2. Navigate to C:WindowsSystem32Inetsrv
3. Enter the following command
   appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/globalModules /[name=’SPNativeRequestModule’].preCondition:integratedMode,bitness64

I rebooted the server for good measure and then tried to access the service directly in a browser on the server. This time, the result was much better and I was able to get the Release Management Client to connect without issue.

I’d like to credit the following forum and blog post for the ultimate solution above.

FORUM – http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/1411fb1f-a251-41af-9ac9-df038a0eeb30/releasemanagementmonitor-error-loading-profile-for-current-user?forum=tfsbuild

BLOG POST – http://blogs.flexnetconsult.co.uk/colinbyrne/2012/11/11/RunningA32bitApplicationAlongsideSharePoint2013Problems.aspx

Since the official release of Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 in November we’ve been testing our newest course updates and we’re pleased to be launching our new 2013 courses next week.

If you either working with, or you’re thinking of working with Microsoft’s latest release then you should take a look at the following courses. (US dates given these are running in the US)

All scheduled courses are guaranteed to run.

• 01/27/2014 – 3 days TFS 2013 Configuration & Administration Info

  Register

  • 01/30/2014 – 2 days TFS 2013 Developer Fundamentals Info

    Register

    • 02/03/2014 – 5 days ALM Solutions Using Visual Studio TFS 2013 Info

      Register

      • 02/10/2014 – 2 days Managing Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio TFS 2013 Info

        Register

        • 02/12/2014 – 3 days Software Testing with Visual Studio 2013 Info

          Register

          • 02/27/2014 – 2 days Test Automation, Web Performance and Load Testing with Visual Studio 2013 Info

            Register

            • 03/24/2014 – 3 days TFS 2013 Configuration & Administration Info

              Register

              • 03/27/2014 – 2 days TFS 2013 Developer Fundamentals Info

                Register

                • 04/07/2014 – 5 days ALM Solutions Using Visual Studio TFS 2013 Info

                  Register

                  • 04/14/2014 – 3 days Software Testing with Visual Studio 2013 Info

                    Register

                    • 05/19/2014 – 3 days TFS 2013 Configuration & Administration Info

                      Register

                      • 05/22/2014 – 2 days TFS 2013 Developer Fundamentals Info | Register</ul> You can find out more and register for these course on QuickLearn’s dedicated TFS 2013 page.

                      We’re also planning on releasing an additional three TFS 2013 related courses in the coming months.

Is your team working as effectively as possible using Microsoft’s Visual Studio ALM stack? Enhance ALM is delivering a number of their recently launched Visual Studio 2013 ALM courses in Australia in early 2014.

NOTE: Attend in person in Brisbane or attend remotely from anywhere in Australia

FEBRUARY 2014

• TFS 2013 Developer Fundamentals (2 days 24th – 25th Feb)
• TFS 2013 Configuration and Administration (3 days 26th – 28th Feb)

MARCH 2014

• Managing Projects with Visual Studio TFS 2013 (2 days 10th-11th Mar)
• Software Testing with Visual Studio 2013 (3 days 12th-14th Mar)

Find out more or register…

At the end of last week Microsoft updated the TFS 2013 RTM ISO and web download installers on the MSDN website. This means that if you downloaded the ISO prior to November 9th, 2013, you might be well advised to delete your initial download and download it again.

The reason provided for the updated installers was that they found two bugs that they wanted to address broadly. Updating the installers was a logical choice.

Bugs fixed in the updated installer related to;

1. Red error box when using Code (version control) in the web UI
2. Unable to install into a custom path

You can read more about this in the following blog post from Buck Hodges – “Updated Team Foundation Server 2013 download addressing web and installation path issues”

Now that Visual Studio 2013 and Team Foundation 2013 are available for our software development teams, it is time to announce our range of courses to help your team take full advantage of these new releases.

The following courses are now available starting in Australia and the United States.

• Application Lifecycle Management solutions using TFS 2013
  5-days | More information | Download course outline
  • **Managing Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013
    ** 2-days | More information | Download course outline
    • **Software Testing with Visual Studio 2013
      ** 3-days | More information | Download course outline
      • **TFS 2013 Configuration and Administration
        ** 3-days | More information | Download course outline
        • **TFS 2013 Developer Fundamentals
          ** 2-days | More information | Download course outline
          • **Test Automation, Web Performance, and Load Testing with VS 2013
            ** 2-days | More information | Download course outline</ul> These courses can be delivered onsite for your teams or you can attend our public courses remotely from your home or office. Dates for public courses will be available soon.

          These two courses are also due to be released in the first quarter of 2014.

          • Applied Scrum using Team Foundation Server 2013 (3-days)
            • Visual Studio 2013 Developer Immersion (2-days)</ul> Full course outlines for these two courses will be available following the beta delivery of both courses.

This week, TechEd Australia 2013 is once again at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. I wanted to highlight some sessions that might be of particular interest for anyone wanting to get to know more about Microsoft’s Team Foundation Service. The Service provides a great hosted offering for development teams wanting the power of Team Foundation Server without the overhead of self-hosting it. In addition to not having to host the server yourself, the Service provides elastic build and load testing capabilities with next to no setup required.

Start your TechEd Team Foundation Service experience with an instructor-led lab where you hands-on knowledge of getting started with the service.

Get Started with Team Foundation Service (ILL)

When: Wednesday 9:45am

Where: TLC Theatre 1

Who: Anthony Borton

Follow this up with a breakout session from Ed Blankenship, Microsoft Product Marketing Manager from Redmond.

Hosting your ALM Toolset: Team Foundation Service and Development Tool Services

When: Wednesday, 11:30am

Where: Meeting Room 9

Who: Ed Blankenship

The next stop on your experience is a look at the new Load Testing Service in one of my breakout sessions.

Load Testing with Team Foundation Service

When: Thursday 5:00pm

Where: Meeting Room 8

Who: Anthony Borton

Then finish off your experience with a look at Scrum and Kanban with Richard Banks.

Scrum and Kanban with the Team Foundation Service

When: Friday 1:45pm

Where: Meeting Room 5

Who: Richard Banks

With these four sessions under your belt, you’ll be in a great position to evaluate and possibly adopt Team Foundation Service for your team.

Twenty years ago today (9th Aug 2013) I sat my very first Microsoft certification exam. The exam was none other than exam 001 – Introduction to MS-DOS & Microcomputer Hardware. I had to travel a little over two hours to reach the exam centre in my nearest capital city and fortunately I passed the exam so I didn’t waste the trip.

Following exam 001, I took two more exams in 1993 which were Word for Windows 2 and Windows 3.1. These three together earned me a Microsoft Certified Professional title and a 4 digit MCP ID.

Since 1993, I have passed a total of 58 exams with the most recent being the 3 exams on TFS 2012 required for the MCSD: Application Lifecycle Management certification.

Having sat all of these exams, I have held quite a number of Microsoft Certifications over the years including many that are still current and many for which I was a Charter Member (C*).

• Microsoft Certified Application Developer
• Microsoft Certified Professional
• Microsoft Certified Professional + Internet
• Microsoft Certified Professional + Site Building
• Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: Enterprise Application Developer (C*)
• Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: Web Developer (C*)
• Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: Windows Developer (C*)
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (.NET)
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (VB 6.0)
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer: Application Lifecycle Management (C*)
• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer + Internet (NT 3.51)
• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications (C*)
• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications (C*)
• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications (C*)
• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server (C*)
• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server, Administration (C*)
• Microsoft Certified Trainer

Over the years since I sat my first exam I have seen Microsoft Certifications slowly gain value in the eyes of employers and peers in the industry. I also witnessed the bleak years of brain dumps where actual (and often complete) exam questions and answers were available either to buy or for free on the internet. This greatly devalued the certifications and led to terms like “paper-based MCSE” to refer to people that had passed the exams with little or no actual experience. Fortunately the worst of these sites have been closed down and the certifications have regained some, if not all, of their value in the industry.

Holding certifications is not in and of itself proof of much more than your ability to study and pass an exam. You still need to be able to back your certs up with practical knowledge, experience and skills. What I do like is that studying for the exams almost always helps you to expand your knowledge into areas of a product or technology that you may not have know existed, or that you may not have ever needed to use before.

I am very glad I made the decision all those years ago to take my first exam and I anticipate sitting plenty more exams over the coming years. While 58 exams might seem a lot, I am aware of people that have passed over 100 Microsoft certifications exams. I enjoying pushing myself to do these exams but I have a limit to what my brain will hold

After clicking around the administration screens in Team Foundation Service looking for a way to delete a Team Project, I looked more broadly for an answer.

The answer is to use the tfsdeleteproject.exe from the command line.

On a computer with Team Explorer 2012 installed, navigate to the following directory.

C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0Common7IDE>

Now you’ll use the tfsdeleteproject command and specify both the URL to your collection on Team Foundation Service and the name of the Team project you wish to delete.

tfsdeleteproject /collection:https://yourname.visualstudio.com/defaultcollection projname

Remember to substitute your account name in the URL and replace projname with the name of the team project you wish to delete. If your project name includes spaces, remember to put quotation marks around the name.

Yesterday I received an email congratulating me on delivering the highest rated pre-conference seminar at TechEd Europe 2013. There is a lot of preparation work that goes into getting a good pre-con written, rehearsed and delivered so hearing that attendees really valued and appreciated the work makes it all worthwhile.

My pre-con entitled “Kickstart Your Application Management with Team Foundation Server 2012” was ranked 1st out of 13 pre-conference seminars at TechEd Europe.

I would like to thank everyone that attended my pre-con and I certainly appreciate the positive feedback you have provided for the session.

As an added bonus I also had the highest rated Instructor-Led Lab (ILL) for the conference as well