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April 25, 2005

Simplify Authorization for Team Project Creation

I prefer to have Team Projects created by non-administrative users. Unfortunately, properly authorizing users to create new team projects is not easy in the current beta release of Team Foundation Server. The standard install of TFS requires three separate authorization entries to accomplish this.
If you haven't set up the permissions for SQL Server Reporting services you'll get something like this in the error log.

Event Description: Initialization for plugin "Microsoft.Pcw.Rosetta" failed with error: "Failed to retrieve projects from the report server"

If you haven't set up the permissions for Windows Sharepoint Services you'll get

Event Description: Initialization for plugin "Microsoft.Pcw.wss" failed with error: "The request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized."

These errors arise because the TFS permission system is maintained in Active Domain/Application Mode (ADAM) and is not integrated with SQL Server Reporting Services or Windows SharePoint Services. Brian Harry confirmed yesterday that ADAM will be eliminated from TFS before it's released. So, in anticipation of this, I'd recommend that you create an Active Directory group for users that are authorized to create new team projects.

The following is a step-by-step guide to setting up this group so that all you have to do is add a user to the group when you want to permit them to create new projects.

  1. Add a new Active Directory group called TFS Project Creators.
  2. Start Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 under the <domain>/TFSSERVICE account.
  3. Select Team | Team Foundation Server Settings | Permissions...
  4. Select the Windows User or Group radio button and click the Add... button.
  5. Enter <domain>/TFS Project Creators in the object name text box and click OK.
  6. Click the Allow check box next to Create new projects. The dialog should look like:
  7. Click Close
  8. From the web browser within Visual Studio, navigate to http://<TFS Server>/Reports.
  9. Select the Properties tab
  10. Click New Role Assignment
  11. Enter <domain>/TFS Project Creators in the Group or user name: text box
  12. Select the Content Manager check box. The dialog should look like:
  13. Click OK
  14. Navigate the browser to http://<TFS Server>:<Sharepoint Admin Port>. This is the SharePoint Central Administration site.
    [Update: The Sharepoint Admin Port is not fixed. The easiest way to determine the port is to open the Sharepoint Central Adminstration shortcut in the TFS Server's Administrative Tools folder. Once there, you can click on the shortcut and continue with the following step.]
  15. Click Set Sharepoint Administration Group
  16. Enter <domain>/TFS Project Creators in the Group account name: text box. The dialog should look like:
  17. Click OK

Now to allow any domain user to create a new Team Project it's as simple as adding that user to the TFS Project Creators group.

Posted by Mike Attili at 03:13 PM | Comments (1)

April 20, 2005

High CPU load on Team Server

Buck Hodges has the answer to a problem that I was seeing on the Team Foundation Server. I have both the data and app tier installed on a single, slightly older machine and the system was at 100% CPU running at about a 30-40% duty cycle. I hadn't gotten around to investigating it, and now I don't have to.

The SQL Analysis data warehouse should recalculate every hour, but the interval was increased to every 2 minutes for Beta 2. Follow the link to Buck's site for details on reconfiguring this parameter.


Note 1: I haven't seen this high duty cycle all of the time. I suspect that the TFSServerScheduler may have crashed at some point and I was just so happy to have my CPU back that I didn't notice.
Note 2: Buck references 'Warehouse/Warehouse.asmx', but on my system it's at 'Warehouse/warehousecontroller.asmx' (in the VSTFWeb).

Posted by Mike Attili at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2005

Problems with SQL Server Reporting Services Permissions

In the default installation for Visual Studio Team Server Beta 2, the SQL Server Reporting Services only allow access from the server's BUILTINS/Administrators group. This prevents you from creating new team projects, viewing reports, and probably other things if your domain account is not in this group.

Nothing in the Team System permission system seems to do anything with the Reporting Services permissions, so it doesn't matter what you do from within VS 2005.

The workaround, at least for the moment, is to do the following:

Load the report site from an account in the 'BUILTIN\Administrators' group on the Team Server (http://localhost/Reports), select the 'Home' link, select the 'Properties' tab, click the 'New Role Assignment' button, and add your domain account to the SQL Server Reporting Services. I selected all of the roles and I can now access the reports and create new team projects.

I've posted a question at the TFS Forum to see if there's a better work around.

Hopefully Rob Caron can add the necessary step to the Installation Guide to avoid others having the same problems.

UPDATE: Bruce Taimana confirmed that there are, currenty, no hooks from TFS security into WSS or RS security. So, you'll need to make sure that you set all three appropriately before deploying. I'd recommend that at least the exception messages provide more information on what needs to be changed.

Posted by Mike Attili at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)

Visual Studio Team Server Successfully Installed

I decided to repave the two machines that I was using for the Dec CTP, rather that have to be concerned with trying to remove all of the incompatible components. My new configuration consists of four separate machines:

Domain Controller on Windows 2003 with TFSSETUP and TFSSERVICE
Single server deployment of Team Foundation Server on Windows 2003 SP1
Team Build on Windows 2003 SP1
Visual Studio 2005 on Windows XP

I followed Rob Caron's detailed Installation Guide. The install went well with only one minor glitch.

When I got to the 'Service Logon Account' dialog (in the Team Server Installer), the system complained that TFSSERVICE was an invalid account/password. I was currently logged on as TFSSETUP, as directed by the install guide. When I logged out and tried to log in as TFSSERVICE (I'm using Remote Desktop Connection), I got an invalid RPC connection message box. I got the same message whenever I attempted to login with a domain account. I was finally able to log in using the local admin account.

I checked Computer Management | Local Users and Groups | Groups | Administrators | Properties to confirm that TFSSERVICE was correctly in there. However, it only showed the raw SIDs for the domain account. Somehow it looks like it lost it's connection to the DC.

After rebooting and logging in again as TFSSETUP, I went back to the Local Administrator properties and all of the domain users showed up correctly. I restarted the installer and this time it accepted the TFSSERVICE account and password.

So, things look like they're installed properly. The real test will come next when I setup a new team project.

Stay tuned.

Posted by Mike Attili at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2005

April CTP of SQL Server is available

As promised, the final prerequisite for VSTS is available in MSDN Subscriber Downloads | Servers | SQL Server 2005 | SQL Server 2005 Community Technology Preview | SQL Server 2005 CTP - April 2005.

You'll probably want the Developer Edition (English) for installing Team Server.

Posted by Mike Attili at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2005

SQL Server April CTP Missing

Paul D. Murphy checked into my question on SQL Server April CTP availability and confirmed that it is indeed missing, but should be available soon.

Rob Caron has posted an update to the installation guide that you'll need once the required version of SQL Server is available. I'll keep you posted.

Posted by Mike Attili at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)

Prerequisites for Team Foundation Server

In addition to the downloads mentioned by Dave Bost, you'll also need the Microsoft Windows Installer 3.0 (unless running under Win2K3 SP1)and the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 April CTP if you haven't already downloaded them. The installation also requires the Windows SharePoint Services with SP1 that was required for the December CTP that you probably already have that.

The server download has completed and I'm installing on a fresh Win2K3 machine, rather than attempt to clean up bits from the December CTP. Now, if I could just get decent speed out of my internet connection, I should have the Team Suite bits by morning.

UPDATE: Uh oh... I don't see an April CTP of SQL Server on MSDN. Perhaps in the morning.

Posted by Mike Attili at 02:29 AM | Comments (0)

Visual Studio Beta 2 finally available on MSDN

Walt Ritscher was right. The Visual Studio Beta 2 files are now available on the MSDN subscription site.
You'll need the Team Foundation Server Beta 2 and the Team Suite Beta 2 to test out the new Team Build features.
I'll let you know what I find out and how it stacks up to CruiseControl.NET once I get it working.

Posted by Mike Attili at 12:23 AM | Comments (2)