Converting TFS 2008 servers to 2012 and 2013

As you know, Team Foundation Server 2008 had several limitations which prevents a direct migration to 2012 or 2013. It is a legacy release, good at its times but definitely not adequate anymore.
Migrating it through an in-place upgrade to 2010 and then a move to 2012/2013 version (from now on modern) is feasible, but often the server where the legacy version runs is old as well – 32 bit only CPU overall – making the migration path harder because of the move.
There is a very handy tool for dealing with this scenario: TFSConfig Import.
It is meant to convert the legacy server into a new Team Project Collection in the modern instance. It won’t migrate reports or SharePoint, but it is worth using it as it saves a ton of time in the process.
It is needed to move the databases onto the current Team Foundation Server – or upgrade the legacy one to a supported version by the modern release you are using – and then launching the command as an administrator:
TFSConfig Import /SQLInstance:<servername> /CollectionName:<MigratedCollectionName> /confirmed
The /confirmed switch is meant to confirm you have backups of the databases you are converting, as after the process they won’t be compatible with the old TFS.

Visual Studio ALM 2013 is RTM: is it just Visual Studio and TFS?

As we know, Visual Studio ALM 2013 has been RTM’d and released. But is it just a new Visual Studio and a new Team Foundation Server?

Obviously not. Apart from these, we are talking about:

• the new Monitoring Agent 2013, which contains a newer and enhanced version of the Standalone IntelliTrace Collector
• the new MSSCCI 2013 provider, which enables legacy clients to connect to Team Foundation Server 2013
• the latest Team Foundation Server Power Tools 2013
• the latest Team Foundation Server Build Extensions

And – as usual - there is more on the Team Foundation Service side every three weeks, with their agile release cadence.

Fix the “Cannot perform 'SetProperty of Text with value “” on the hidden control.” error

If you are trying to use Test Manager to record a manual test with a web application and then play it back, you might find a nasty issue while inputting stuff: the error “Cannot perform 'SetProperty of Text with value "value"' on the hidden control.”.

It is caused by the Microsoft Security Update MS13-069 (KB2870699), which introduces several security fixes as well as this strange behaviour.

To fix it and correctly playback the test, you would need to install the latest Update of Visual Studio 2012 or use Visual Studio 2013 which is not affected.

Microsoft Monitoring Agent 2013 overview

A couple of weeks ago Microsoft released the Microsoft Monitoring Agent 2013, the next generation of the very useful Standalone IntelliTrace Collector.

It is a very interesting tool – as I mentioned at DevReach – because it can be used as a standalone collector or integrated with System Center Operations Manager, being then the foundation of the bridge connecting IT Operations teams and Development teams.

If you want to run it, it is absolutely easy:

What’s next?

A wonderful IntelliTrace file