Installing and Configuring a Build Service, Build Controller and Build Agent for VS2010 and TFS2010

Install Team Foundation Build Service

This procedure describes how to install Team Foundation Build Service.

If you're installing this build service as a part of Lab Management, choose the "tfsadmin" account that you used while configuring TFS2010 for Lab Management. (Have a look at the "Prerequisites" http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd380687.aspx).

From the installation DVD/ISO for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, start either the 32-bit or the 64-bit setup.exe to match the operating system that you are running.

On the Welcome page, click Next.

On the License Terms page, read the terms of the license. Click I have read and accept the license terms, and then click Next.

Click Build Service, and click Install.

If the installation wizard prompts you to restart your server, click Restart Now. After the server is restarted, installation resumes. Click Finish. ( I got an error with my installation, you shouldn't. )

Configuring the Build Service

Now that you have installed the build service components, you should be able to see Team Foundation Server Admin Console in your start menu. To open the Team Foundation Server Configuration tool from the Start menu

• Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010, and then click Team Foundation Administration Console.
• The Team Foundation Administration Console appears.
• Click Build Configuration, and then click Configure Installed Features.
• The Team Foundation Server Configuration tool appears.

Note: If you can't see "Build Configuration" it may be because TFS Power Tools at some point was installed on the system. There was a problem with the backup power tool that caused some nodes not to show up. If that’s the case, under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\TeamFoundationServer\10.0\Plugins there will probably be two nodes – one for backup and one for TeamBuild – removing the backup plug-in node would probably resolve the problem. You could also check the admin log to see if there are exceptions in there, and perhaps export the TFS registry key above. 

Under the build configuration navigation tab, you should see a link to "Configure Installed Features". Clicking the link should start the wizard.

Choose your team project collection.

Ensure that you configure the build service later.

Choose the "tfsadmin" account that you used while configuring TFS2010 for Lab Management.

Now that you've finished the configuration, you should see the build service in the build configuration tab.

You can now use the links to create a build controller & a build agent.

Build Status Notification Lamp - TFS2010

Web Mail Notifier Sillyness

We have a dedicated build wall which is pretty efficient in displaying the build information. It really is!

BUT, ever since I moved my desk away from the big screen TV's that display the build notifications, it makes it difficult to tell what's the status of the builds at our morning stand-up.

This was until a couple of days ago a friend got me hooked on to the "USB Web Mail Notifier" available here. (Although, I bought mine off some random dude on EBay (from the UK).

All I really needed was to know if our Nightly Builds that run our Unit and Integrations Tests failed.

Now I know that there are heaps of other ways to get this information but the one I went with appealed to my inner nerd :)

By using a simple powershell script I am able to query our Team Foundation Server (TFS-2010) to see if the latest Nightly Build has been successful.

The powershell script and the binaries required to use the USB light are available here at http://tiny.cc/BuildNotification.

You need to customise the powershell script by entering your details in the  "Set user variables" section of the script:

This is what it looks like.

When developers have been naughty (and not run integration tests locally before checking in) ...

But after you fix it, all is good ..