We installed the newest TFS Server (TFS 2018 Update 2) which should run xaml builds.
After the update, we started our agent, but our xaml-controller is still offline and I don't know how I start this again..
Any ideas what we can do?
Yes, you can now upgrade to TFS 2018 Update 2 and continue to connect
your XAML controllers and run XAML builds. When we removed support for
XAML build in TFS 2018 RTW and Update 1, some of you could not upgrade
due to having legacy XAML builds, and we want to unblock you. Although
TFS 2018 Update 2 supports XAML builds for your legacy builds, XAML
build is deprecated and there will be no further investment, so we
highly recommend converting to a newer build definition format. See
the Evolving TFS/Team Services build automation capabilities blog
for more information about XAML build deprecation.
When you upgrade to TFS 2018 Update 2:
If you have any XAML build data in your team project collection,
you'll get a warning about the deprecation of XAML build features.
You will need to use VS or Team Explorer 2017 to edit XAML build
definitions or to queue new XAML builds.
If you need to create new XAML build agents, you’ll need to install
them using the TFS 2015 build agent installer.
XAML Build Controller/Agent info is now under Additional Tools and Components > XAML Build Configuration in the TFS Administration Console. Make sure your build services on the same server as your application tier. You possibly didn't re-configure your XAML build services after the upgrade. Try this and then check again.
Thanks #PatrickLu-MSFT!! through your help, we found a workaround.
Now we use one server for the Source Control etc. (TFS 2018) and another server only for the xaml-app-controller with TFS 2015.
So we can build our projects, and have time to create new build definitions.
Related
I recently upgraded from Team Foundation Server 2017 to Team Foundation Server 2018. I have a couple of questions about the build portion of the install. Our current TFS build agents live on a different server than the TFS Web application.
I believe in previous upgrades and installs there was an option on the install media to just install the build portion of TFS.
Do I have to do any type of upgrade on the build server or just update all of the agents from the web application as seen in this image 1?
Although my upgrade was from TFS 2017 to TFS 2018 the build server has an administration console that shows it's version as 2015 (see image 2). Do I need to uninstall this 2015 application?
Image 1
Image 2
There are two flavors of Build agents with TFS ever since 2015.
"Team Build"/"XAML Build"
This is the Controller+Agent based infrastructure that has been around since 2010 and which has been deprecated with TFS 2017. The agents that are supported are the 2010 (on XP and framework 4) and 2015 agents. There is an unsupported 2017 version of the XAML agent which is purely meant for single machine installations where the TFS application Tier and the Build agent are running on the same server.
2015 is the preferred version to be on for as long as you still need these. You should be planning to remove your dependency on these agents as soon as possible.
*2018u2** reintroduce the XAML agent, purely for clients who're too heavily invested in the XAML infrastructure to upgrade directly to the new build system. If you're one of these I sincerely hope you have a plan in place to break this dependency. This reintroduced agent comes pre-deprecated and will be removed again in a future version.
VSO/VSTS/vNext/2015 agents
These have had many names, but are essentially the new agents that shipped first with 2015. There are two versions of these 1.x and 2.x. While the new agents auto-upgrade, they only auto-upgrade to highest available build of their major version. To upgrade from 1.x to 2.x you will need to uninstall the old agent and install the new one.
As with the XAML builds, the 1.x agent is now considered deprecated and if you're still relying on these you should plan to upgrade to 2.x as soon as possible.
Concluding
If you're still using XAML builds, you should be using the Team Foundation Server 2015 Build Agent+Controller. And plan to move away from these. This will require re-authoring the build process to the new build+release infrastructure
If you're still using the 1.x VSTS build agents, you should be upgraded to the highest version of those. And plan to move away from these by uninstalling the 1.x agent and installing the 2.x agent that matches your TFS version.
If you're using the 2.x VSTS build agents, you can upgrade them from the TFS web based admin console. These are the preferred agents for both Build and Release.
The agents should auto-update.
That's XAML build. If you're not using XAML build, you can ignore it or even uninstall it entirely.
I have installed Team Foundation Server 2018 Update 1 and I want to install and configure automated generated builds for the team.
In Team Foundation Management Console, there is an entry "Build and release" but there a only informations and links that are not clickable.
If I click a link, another windows opens, but the ok button stays disabled, so I do not get additional information:
In earlier releases of TFS I could install and configure the tfs build system on this place.
How I can do now in tfs2018. Do I have to install additional software and where I can download.
For one reason, we are using Visual Studio 2015 (we want upgrade later to 2017).
Go to the TFS Web interface, in the settings panel find the Agent Pool and hit the "Download Agent" link.
TFS 2018 is the first TFS version that no longer supports the XAML agent infrastructure.
You need to deploy an agent first as jessehouwing mentiond above, you can also refer to this link for detials : Deploy an agent on Windows
Then create a build definition and Enable continuous integration (CI) to automate builds. Refer to this link for details： https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts/build-release/actions/ci-cd-part-1
Below articles may also helps for you:
Build and Release in VSTS and TFS
Build and release tasks
Build and release quickstarts
Thanks for the answers. No I have found the page, where I can download the build-agent.
For TFS2018 you can download the build agent by using the following url:
https://{your_server}/DefaultCollection/_admin/_AgentPool
Like provided from Microsoft you can find it for other TFS versions:
VSTS: https://{your_account}.visualstudio.com/_admin/_AgentPool
TFS 2017: https://{your_server}/tfs/DefaultCollection/_admin/_AgentPool
TFS 2015: http://{your_server}:8080/tfs/_admin/_AgentPool
We are trying to upgrade to TFS2015 and have done a test configuration for TFS 2015.
I have noticed that if we create a new project in TFS2015 the project is all empty, it does not even have the BuildProcessTemplates folder.
Can anyone guide me on how to get the Default build definition?
You are right that there is no BuildProcess Template folder created when you create a team project in TFS 2015.
If you have configure XAML build, you can download the build process template by creating a XAML build definition:
By the way, you can also check the new build system in TFS 2015, which is based on windows services, and doesn't need build process template. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vs/alm/build/feature-overview
I've searched for answers to my question on this forum and elsewhere, but so far unsuccessfully.
We are upgrading our toolset from VS2008/TFS2008 to VS2013/TFS2013. We now have TFS upgraded (phew!) but the big questions remaining are:
We have a single build agent using Team Build 2008 running on a Windows 7 x64 SP1 machine, with build results published to an old XP machine. Will the new TFS2013 server be able to work with it fully, or are we compelled to upgrade the build agent to Team Build as well? if so, does Team Build 2013 run on Windows 7 x64 SP1 or will we need a complete new server platform?
If we are compelled to upgrade the build agent to Team Build 2013, will/should our existing build scripts continue to work?
Can anyone advise?
The answer to your question is, "It depends."
The build system was totally redesigned in TFS 2010 to be based on Windows Workflow build process templates instead of MSBuild files. TFS 2010/2012/2013/2015 can all run old-style MSBuild files by using a build process template called "Upgrade Template". Whether they'll work immediately out of the box depends on how customized your MSBuild files are and what (if any) custom assemblies you're using. Custom assemblies may need to be recompiled, or may need code changes to continue to work.
TFS 2008 build agents do not work with TFS 2013. You will need to upgrade your build agents. However, TFS 2013 and 2015 build agents will both run on Windows 7 SP1, so you're good to go there.
The build system was revamped again in TFS 2015. My recommendation would be to get on TFS 2015 ASAP and skip the XAML build system entirely. The new build system is much easier to work with and can be extended with far less pain.
You are in a scenario with a fair amount of risk, especially if your business depends on your CI builds running regularly. Your best bet will be to do a test upgrade of your environment and validate what steps will have to be taken to ensure your builds continue to run against the Upgrade Template, or how much effort it will take to retire your MSBuild-based build templates and switch over to a newer build paradigm.
Regardless, I would strongly recommend making the move to TFS 2015 over 2013. Why go through the effort of upgrading from 2008 to 2013, only to still be a major version behind?
I have ported over all of my build customizations from TFS 2010 to the new TFS 2013 build process template. What would be the best approach to upgrade the old build definitions to the new template while retaining the settings (i.e. configurations to build, project, ect.) from the old one?
If your arguments are still the same, you should be able to open your existing definition and just apply the new template. All of your original settings should remain intact