I recently received a request for a straightforward blog post on installing TFS 2013. It struck me that I hadn’t documented a basic out-of-the-box installation since around 2010, as I’ve mostly been focused on upgrades. So, I decided to create a new virtual machine on my Surface, and I thought I’d share the process with you.
Setting Up the Virtual Machine
Memory Configuration:
- I set the virtual machine’s memory to a minimum of 2048 MB. TFS performs a check during installation, and if the memory is below this threshold, the installation will fail. I opted for dynamic memory to ensure that the VM only uses what it needs once it’s running.
Operating System:
- I chose Windows Server 2012 R2 for this installation. After starting the machine, I connected to it and began the basic installation of Windows.
Windows Installation:
- I used the standard version of Windows Server 2012 R2 and entered my product key. It’s important to note that TFS is not supported on the core installation, so I selected the GUI version instead.
Initial Setup:
- After the installation files were copied and the system rebooted, I logged in for the first time. The enhanced session mode in Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 allowed me to adjust the resolution and copy-paste easily, which was a nice touch.
Configuring the Virtual Machine
Changing the Computer Name:
- The system generates a random computer name, which I changed to ‘btar’. A quick reboot was necessary for this change to take effect.
Processor and Network Settings:
- I allocated two processors to the VM and added a private network adapter to improve performance and connectivity.
Domain Configuration:
- I joined the machine to my domain (in this case, ‘nm.com’), which is a more realistic scenario for TFS installations, as most users will not be installing TFS in a workgroup environment.
Installing TFS
TFS Installation:
- With the server now configured, I inserted my TFS installation disc. This was the RTM version of Team Foundation Server, and I was working with a completely blank server that had just joined the domain.
SQL Server Considerations:
- TFS includes a license for SQL Server Standard, but I opted to proceed with SQL Server Express, which TFS installs as part of the configuration process.
Installation Process:
- The initial phase of the TFS installation involves copying files and registering DLLs. It’s worth noting that this step does not configure any third-party tools yet.
Activation and Configuration:
- After a brief wait, I activated the installation and was greeted by the standard installation wizard. I chose the basic installation option, which would set up Express and configure work item tracking, build services, and source control.
Prerequisite Checks:
- The wizard checks for system prerequisites, ensuring everything is in order before proceeding. This includes installing IIS, which is essential for TFS.
Final Steps
- Completion:
- After a few minutes, the installation completed successfully. I logged into TFS, where I found one collection with no team projects set up yet. I’ll tackle that part later.
Conclusion
Installing TFS 2013 on a basic server configuration is quite straightforward, as I’ve outlined. This process is a great starting point for anyone looking to get TFS up and running in their environment. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out. Happy installing!
so I just got asked if I had a basic blog post for installing um TFS 2013 I realized that I hadn’t really done a basic out of the box install and since probably 2010 most of the time I’ve been doing upgrades so on my Surface I’m going to create a new virtual machine and I already have a domain controller running
now we need to set this um at a minimum of 248 for memory I’m going to use dynamic memory so I only use as much as I need once the machine’s running and but TFS does a check for the amount of memory in a machine and and if this isn’t set to 2048 will not be able to install TFS so that’s the minimum you need but it can be actually like L based on dynamic memory
private let me select now I’m going to use a Windows Server 2012 R2 there we go so I’m going to start this machine well I just going to connect to it and then start
now this is just going to do a a basic vanilla install of windows I will need to go and get a key let me do that while we’re waiting
oh awesome so I’m just going to use um Windows Server 2012 R2 standard and paste in my key there we go so we don’t want our core installation TFS is not currently supported on core um it mostly works there’s just a couple of things that don’t particular around build servers um so I’m going to pick with a guey now I obviously can’t upgrade it’s a blank install so and I just do that there we go that’s going to copy the uh files do the install uh reboot and that will get going so now that we have it installed wait it’s just took a minute not time to go and get a coffee
so that’s me logging in for the first time yep and now I can get a proper resolution awesome if you’re using Windows 8.1 and uh uh server uh 2012 R2 you get this enhanced session mode that allows you to not only copy paste uh but set the resolution a little bit more nicely and all kinds of stuff been
so if you’ve used server or server uh any of the newer server versions We fig a minute you will know that it just picks a random computer name and you have to change it so I don’t really want that as the computer name so I’m going to change that btar and I’m going to have to reboot that uh first before I do anything else give it a sec go so now we have a machine Co btar let me just check settings and everything think the network is ah see I’ve just got it set as private and One processor change that over to Wi-Fi but I will need private as well okay so let me just quickly uh’s shut this down there we go change the settings I’m going to get two processors I’m going to add a network adapter private Network there we go that should make it one run a little bit faster and uh to be able to connect to private Network awesome
okay I need to set up my private Network and these let me just do
okay so now I have that set up I should be able to change my work group to in. nm.com should find my domain um we should be good I want to do the install on a domain cuz that’s more uh a better example of what people would do in the field uh most people don’t install TFS in a work group so um that’s what I’m going to do just give that a minute to join there we go and we just need to do a quick restart and then we can install TFS
perfect now all we need to do is install TFS so let me insert my TFS dis this is just the RTM of a team Foundation server so this is a completely blank server we’ve just joined it to a domain we don’t have anything else installed on it and you may want to install SQL Server to get the full version of uh of SQL server and TFS actually includes a license for SQL Server standard and so you can just install that and you don’t need an additional license as long as it’s only used for TF but I’m just going to continue with Express and TFS will install at SQL Express as part of the the installation once we got get to the configuration part so and the first part of the TFS installation just gets all the files on disk registers all of the the dlls and does all of those um local piec that you need to do but it’s not going to um install any of the third party tools it’s not going to configure anything yet we’re going to do that in a minute there we go in just a few minutes it’s installed TFS I’m just going to do a trial install just now let me activate that there we go and I get my standard installation wizard now there’s a number of options here um the standard server and if you want to use default instance of SQL Server um but this will not work for uh um SQL Express and won’t configure reporting services and the reporting pieces for you we have a advanced where you can configure um all of the the SQL Server databases SharePoint um SQL server and ala Services Services all those pieces very easily and I’m actually just going to take a basic install so this is going to install Express it’s going to um configure work atem tracking build Services Source control all of those things are going to be configured for us and up and running at the end and but we won’t have um anything else we won’t have SharePoint integration we won’t have reporting Services integration and and we can’t do any kind of nonstandard configurations with this mode so let me just start
Wizard and the first thing it’s going to do is going to install Express and it’s going to go in away and check my system and make sure everything’s running okay so this is going to check for prerequisites it’s going to check to make sure that it can install stuff there can always be something extra that goes wrong but it does a pretty good job of checking the system requirements so you can see everything’s okay it’s also going to install uh IIs fancy name for I um and make sure everything’s good so if I click configure it’s going to go off and do that it will take a few minutes specifically for cons configuring IIs installing um SQL Express will take a little bit longer than everything else um but it should only take a few minutes awesome so we’ve got an install it’s complete and we can just go to hopefully I like we need to log in a tap
there we go connected to TFS I currently have one collection with no team projects so I will need to set that up but I don’t have real to do on here so I will do that later and there you go installing configuring TFS very straightforward um on a basic server configuration
