Last week I upgraded my TFS 2012 test environment to CTP4 to try out the new features rolled out in preview as part of the Visual Studio 2012 Upgrade 2. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the steps required to upgrade, you may find the quick notes section useful if you don’t have the time to read through the complete blog post.
What is Visual Studio 2012 Upgrade 2 CTP 3 and where can I get it?
- Read about the new features included in Upgrade 2 CTP 4.
- Download the Visual Studio 2012 Upgrade 2 CTP 4.
Quick Notes
| Type | Restart Required | Estimated Time to completion | Notes |
| TFS Application Tier | No | 20 minutes | - Upgrade remembers all settings
- Database Backup and Restore build into the product, no separate power tool install required
- SQL 2012 Always On
- Consistent naming convention
- You will be required to enter the password of the TFS Service account
- You will be required to enter the password of the TFS Reports account
- If you are upgrading from CTP3 - CTP 4, the analysis and warehouse database schema will not be auto upgraded, you will have to delete and recreate the database.
|
| Database Tier | - | - | - There is no separate install required for upgrading TFS 2012 Database Tier to QU2
|
| Build Server | Yes | 15 minutes | - Upgrade requires reconfiguration, existing settings are not remembered
- Keep the service account credentials handy
|
| Test Server | Yes | 15 minutes | - Upgrade requires reconfiguration, existing settings are not remembered
- Keep the service account credentials handy
|
| SharePoint Server | - | - | - |
| VS 2012 (Dev Machine) | Yes | 30 minutes | |
My TFS 2012 Topology
Figure 1 - My TFS 2012 Environment
- TFS 2012 Application Tier – Windows Server 2012, current patch version Dev11.Update2 CTP3
- TFS 2012 Build Controller/Agent – Windows Server 2012, current patch version Dev11.Update2 CTP3
- TFS 2012 Test Controller/Agent – Windows Server 2012, current patch version Dev11.Update2 CTP3
- SharePoint 2010 – Windows Server 2012, current patch version Dev11
- SQL Server 2012, SQL Server Analysis Server 2012 – Windows Server 2012, current patch version Dev112 CTP3
Upgrading TFS 2012 Application Tier to Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 CTP 4
1. The previous upgrade path of my test environment has been Team Foundation Server 2012 RTM => Team Foundation Server 2012 Update 1 => Team Foundation Server 2012 Update 2 CTP 3
2. Navigate to the Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 official download page and download ‘VS2012_2_CTP_TFS_Full_ENU.iso’
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36833
3. Once the download has completed, mount the iso and double click tfs_server.exe
4. Accept the License terms and start the upgrade
5. The upgrade takes roughly 10 minutes
6. Once the installation is complete, you will be taken to the upgrade wizard.
Beautifully - The upgrade wizard remembers the configuration & settings from your existing installation
7. Team Foundation Server Upgrade Wizard
8. The database tier will be pre-populated from the existing configuration for you,
Notice the check box at the bottom asking for your confirmation that you have a backup available before the upgrade.
9. You can launch the database backup tool from the installation wizard without having to worry about installing the TFS powertools. This can be done by clicking the ‘Click here to Launch the Database Backup Tool’ link.
10. Select the database that you want to backup, I usually back up both the TFS and SharePoint databases
11. The database backup wizard, shows update of the backup operation
12. You would be required to enter the credentials of the TFS Service account.
13. Validate the credentials
14. Choose to configure the reporting services for Team Foundation Server
15. The Wizard will pick up the existing report server URLs.
16. The existing Warehouse settings will also be picked up
17. Validate the existing SQL Server Analysis Service Instance
18. Specify the password for the TFS Reports service account
19. Validate the credentials
20. The existing SharePoint settings will also be picked up, these can be validated by you using the Test link.
21. Review the configuration settings
22. Validate the configuration settings
23. Click Next to apply the settings
24. Once the configuration has been applied and passed
25. Update complete
26. Read the information items and close the wizard.
27. Open up TFS Administration console, you can see that the version details have been correctly updated to reflect Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 CTP4.
28. Installed updates section updated
Upgrade of other components
There is no difference in the upgrade process or steps of other components namely TFS Build Server, Test Controller & Agent, Developer machine. Follow the instructions of QU 2 CTP 3.