Cliff's Notes for a Team System Install
Evaluating Team System is easier than you think.
You can freely download everything you need to start working with Team System today:
All you need to provide is an existing install of
Visual Studio 2005* (Standard or better) on the client, and a suitable server (or virtual machine) running any flavor of
Windows Server 2003**.
Once you've obtained all the prerequisites, you can start the install.
The first thing to install is Team Foundation Server. It's a little involved, so take a quick look at the
Team Foundation Install Guide first. It's a lot of text. Okay, it's
too much text. Don't you wish you had the Cliff's Notes for the TFS install?
Now you do.
If, like me, you're
way too lazy to read the entire install guide, here is the absolute minimum you need to read to complete the
single-server install. And yes, you
do need to do it in this order. Note that, if I don't list a step here,
I implicitly mean take the default -- whatever that happens to be. And if there's any question about any of this, don't listen to me! I'm just Some Guy on the Internet(tm)! Refer to
the official install guide, man!
- Create the user accounts you will need for setup
domain\TFSSETUP
domain\TFSSERVICE
domain\TFSREPORTS
TFSSETUP must be an administrator. The other two are plain vanilla users, but you must grant them the Log on Locally permission.
These can be either local machine or domain accounts (all on the same domain), but if you want better integrated authentication support, make them domain accounts.
After creating the accounts, log in as domain\TFSSETUP to finish installing everything else.
- Make sure IIS 6 is enabled
ASP.NET must be installed. Be sure that the Frontpage Extensions aren't installed, but they typically aren't by default. Optionally, you may also want SMTP for the outgoing Team System email notifications.
- Install SQL Server 2005
On the "Components to Install" page, select everything except Notification services.
On the "Components to Install" page, click the Advanced button at the bottom. You'll do three things here:
- Turn off everything under Client Components except Management Tools
- Turn off the entire Documentation and Samples node.
On the "Service Account" page, select "Use the built in System account", and select "Local System".
On the "Service Account" page, check all the items under "Start services"
- Install required hotfixes and service packs
Stop the SQL Server Browser service. Install SQL Server Service Pack 1. Reboot if necessary.
Install .NET 2.0 Service Pack 1 (if available), otherwise install the .NET 2.0 hotfix from the \KB913393 folder of the TFS Server installation media.
- Install SharePoint Services
Select the "Server Farm" install. Don't make any changes to the install after it completes; leave it as-is.
- Install Team Foundation Server
Select the "Single Server" install type.
Use the appropriate accounts we created in step 1 for each account, as prompted.
- Verify your install
Launch a browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080/services/v1.0/Registration.asmx
Click the GetRegistrationEntries link
On the GetRegistrationEntries page, click Invoke.
Verify that you get XML back with the text vstfs in it.
- Install the Team Explorer add-in on the client
Mount the Team Foundation Server install CD on your client computer (the one with an existing install of VS 2005).
Click the "Install Team Explorer" link.
At this point you should have a fully functional install of Team System. Wasn't that easy?
Fire up Visual Studio, and use the new Team menu to get started.
* If you don't have Visual Studio 2005:
Get the 180-day trial edition. Snail mail only, sadly.
** If you don't have Windows Server 2003:
Get the 180-day trial edition. Ditto, snail mail.