How to prevent TFS from moving vstest.console runsettings file - tfs

Question

I'm testing an upgrade from TFS2015 to TFS2017 and ran into a problem when running my unit tests.
The test needs a runsettings file:
The runsettings file is physically at C:\TFS\1\s but for some reason TFS2017 is copying it to C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpA03 as can be seen in the log:
2017-02-01T21:04:44.9728814Z Working folder: C:\TFS\1\s
2017-02-01T21:04:44.9728814Z Executing C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TestWindow\vstest.console.exe "C:\TFS\1\s\SpecFlow2\bin\Debug\SpecFlowTests.dll" "C:\TFS\1\s\UnitTests\bin\Debug\UnitTests.dll" "C:\TFS\1\s\UnitTests-Analytics\bin\Debug\UnitTests-Analytics.dll" /TestCaseFilter:"TestCategory!=MultiThreadedTests&TestCategory!=Purgatory" /Settings:"C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpA03.tmp" /logger:trx
My runsettings however, contains a reference to a testsettings:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RunSettings>
<RunConfiguration>
<!-- 0 = As many processes as possible, limited by number of cores on machine, 1 = Sequential (1 process), 2-> Given number of processes up to limit by number of cores on machine-->
<ResultsDirectory>.\TestResults</ResultsDirectory>
<MaxCpuCount>3</MaxCpuCount>
<TargetPlatform>x64</TargetPlatform>
</RunConfiguration>
<MSTest>
<SettingsFile>SingleThreaded.testsettings</SettingsFile>
<ForcedLegacyMode>true</ForcedLegacyMode>
</MSTest>
</RunSettings>
Because SingleThreaded.testsettings remains in C:\TFS\1\s, the test run fails, and even if I manually copy the file, the test still fails because some of the tests relied on the test's working directory.
How can I prevent TFS from moving my runsettings file to the temp folder and execute from the correct directory?

Answer 1

I couldn't reproduce your issue on my side in TFS 2017 with the setting below:
In the log, the runsetting file is gotten from C:\Agent\_work\10\s\Parallel.runsettings, so TFS won't move the setting file automatically:
2017-02-03T06:08:37.8352139Z Working folder: C:\Agent\_work\10\s
2017-02-03T06:08:37.8352139Z Executing C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TestWindow\vstest.console.exe "C:\Agent\_work\10\s\ClassLibrary1\bin\Release\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.TestManagement.Client.dll" "C:\Agent\_work\10\s\TestCaseProject\bin\Release\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Test.WebApi.dll" "C:\Agent\_work\10\s\TestCaseProject\bin\Release\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.TestManagement.Client.dll" "C:\Agent\_work\10\s\TestCaseProject\bin\Release\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.TestManagement.WebApi.dll" "C:\Agent\_work\10\s\UnitTestProject1\bin\Release\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.TestManagement.Client.dll" "C:\Agent\_work\10\s\UnitTestProject1\bin\Release\UnitTestProject1.dll" /Settings:"C:\Agent\_work\10\s\Parallel.runsettings" /logger:trx
Please check whether you have mapped the runsetting file in Repository tab of the build definition. And try to clean the cache file on your build agent: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Team Foundation\7.0\Cache.
If issue persists, try to deploy a new build agent to see how it works.