New TFS ALM project using existing TFS source control project - tfs

I'm new to using TFS 2015 ALM with the integrated source control. Previously I've used the ALM with a non Microsoft SCM product.
I am used to creating the ALM project which has no linkto SCM.
Now, when creating a new TFS project I am prompted to create a new source control project. I cannot figure out how to use an existing source control project. surely the ALM is not directly linked to an SCM project of the same name, there must be a way of configuring the SCM project used.

A TFS project will always be created with one Source Control repository. You're free to use it or not.
It is possible to create a Process Template that doesn't initialize a Source Control repository, but none of the default process templates are configured this way. I'd not recommend removing this option from the Process Template as it makes upgrades and migration harder.

Related

TFS 2017 move TFS source code repository to new instance of TFS

We installed the free version of TFS 2017 and created a new project. We now have source code with history. The PM decided they wanted to switch from Agile to Scrum so a lot of commands were run to try to do this. These commands came from a blog found on the internet. The supervisor then decided that it should NOT have been switched to scrum and said we needed to switch back to Agile. So similar commands were run to try to do that. Now the Project Management portion of our project is broken. We can't run queries and the work items are corrupted. I want to try to just install a new instance of free TFS 2017 and copy/move the source code (TFS, NOT GIT) to the new instance and start over with the PM stuff. Can we do this or is it a lost cause.
Actually we do not suggest OPs to do the process template change in a single team project. Take a look at this MS documentation (here) ...
You can change the process a team project uses from a system process
or inherited process to an inherited process. You can only change team
projects to use another process that inherits from the same system
process. That is, you can change an Agile-based team project to any
process you created from the Agile system process as well as to the
Agile process. Whereas, you can't change a Scrum-based team project to
an Agile-derived inherited process.
There is no need to set up a totally new TFS instance, you could simply create a new team project based on Agile and then move your source code and workitems to that new team project.
Since you are not care about the history info about your original team project, it's more easier to achieve this, simply remove your old workspace mapping and map to the new team project.
To move workitems you can export them to Excel, create a new Excel connection to , that is connected to the new team project, and then copy the workitems and pushing them from the new Excel file into the new project.
If you insist on moving the code to new TFS server, you just need to back up your local code and directly check in them as pending changes in the newly created team project on new TFS server.
More details please refer the answer from Andrew Clear in this similar question: Visual Studio Team Services: How to migrate from Agile to Scrum process template
If you want to only move Source code from one Team Project Collection to another Team Project Collection, one of the crude workarounds is the following, when you are ONLY requiring SRC code moves.
Create a workspace and check out all SRC from the source Team Project in the source TPC.
Create a new Team Project in the new TFS instance.
Remove the binding files from the SRC dumped out in (1), or better yet just move it on the disk to a new directory and remove all SRC binding files.
Then add the source (from the above step 3) into the new Team Project you created in the target TPC you created in (2) above (or it could also be into an existing Team Project you already had in the target TPC).
Once again this is ONLY if you don’t care about the other things such as WITs and Reports from the older Team Project, and you only care about the Source Code.
In addition, you can use the following tool Timely Migration.

Merge TFVC repository into existing TFVC repo

I'm working on migrating a team project from an on-premise TFS server into an existing Team Project on VSTS. Both Team Projects use Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) as its source control system.
First I looked into Microsofts TfsMigrator tool, but this require me to create a new VSTS account. Then I've been looking into VSTS Sync Migrator which will allow me to transfer work items, but not source code history.
So I'm now wondering:
Is there any way of migrating the source code to the existing TFVC repository without losing history?
Alternatively, can we create a new Team Project in VSTS and move the source code there, and still keep the history?
Been trying both, but can't figure out a way. Google only want me to migrate to Git, which is not what I want.
We decided to create a new GIT repository in our Team Project, and then migrate our code there using git-tfs.
An alternative would be to use OpsHub, but that would require a new Team Project.

How do I create a new build definition in TFS 2017 across projects

We just upgraded from TFS 2013 to TFS 2017 and I was excited to go in and create a new build definition, but I can't seem to do it at the collection level. I can only create a new build definition once I've selected a project and then when defining the Get Sources page I can't seem to access other projects within the collection. The highest level it will allow me to get is the current project. In the Repository drop-down the only option is the current project. How can I create a new build definition across projects in TFS 2017?
The TFS build is project level for now, it's not able to create a build definition at collection level and across projects. For 2015 you could, instead of using the trigger path '$/{team project}', also insert just '$/', which would result in that the continuous integration build triggers on all check-ins in that team project collection. It's more like a backdoor.
However, In TFS 2017, it 's no longer possible to freely edit this field, and that you can only add a trigger for the team project that the build definition resides in.
There had been a uservoice and got started:
VSO build vnext: share build templates between projects
https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/330519-visual-studio-team-services/suggestions/8468566-vso-build-vnext-share-build-templates-between-pro
As a workaround you could export your existing build definition in the project to other project. However, this just avoid you manually duplicating the definition in another team project. It's not able to get source from another project which different with the build definition belongs to.
There is an Export/Import Build Definition extension in Visual Studio Marketplace you can use now. Also available from within the TFS2017 update1 Build Definitions web UI:
.

Is it possible to migrate certain folders within project from TFS 2013 on-premise to online using OpsHub

In our current setup, we have a top level TFS project and all the projects within in as separate folders with their Dev and Main branch.
To start trying VS Team Services, I am looking into migrating just a folder(Project) from TFS 2013 on-premise project to Team Services. Can I do that?
The options I am getting are to choose the project collection but not the folders within it? Is there a workaround for that.
It is not. You need to migrate everything as is.
If you want that level of control you need to use the TFS Integration Tools. They are a lot more configurable, and complicated to boot.
I would recommend that you move with only the head/tip.

Steps for changing process template for an existing project in TFS 2010

I have an TFS server installation that through time has gone through upgrades from TFS 2005 to TFS 2008 and then to TFS 2010.
During the lifetime of the installation a lot of projects have been created and different project templates have been used. MSF Agile 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 and 5.0. and a few MSF CMMI ones.
What I would like to do is "replace" the project template used for all these projects to use a new one common one: Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0.
I am aware that TFS project templates are used as templates for creating new projects and cannot modify the tfs projects definitions after creation.
Uptil now only the version control and build server part of TFS have been used and there are no existing work item types.
Additionally all projects and build scripts are depending on the source code paths stay the same.
As I see it I have the following options:
Create new TFS projects using the correct project template and then move/branch the source code to the new project.
All code is moved to a temporary team project.
The old project is deleted
New project with the original name and correct process template is created
Code is moved to the new team project
Temporary team project is deleted
All the build definitions needs to be to recreated which is not an option.
The source code move/branch will "mess up" the versioning history
By messing up the versioning history I mean that when you move source code it will behind the scenes do a delete + source rename on the original location and the history will still be located in the old project. This will make searching in the history difficult and if I actually delete the old project I will loose all the history before the source code move.
This is really not an option for me since there is years of code change history that is needed to for supporting the different applications being built.
Use the TFS migration tools to migrate to another TFS project
This has the same downsides as the first solution
Replace/import work item types, install new reports, create new SharePoint sites
For each tfs project
Delete existing work item definitions using "witadmin deletewitd"
Import each work item definition from the new process template using "witadmin importwitd"
Import work item categories using "witadmin importcategories"
Delete old reports in project folder in report server
Upload the report definitions from the new process template
Modify data sources used for the reports using the report manager to point to the correct shared data sources (TfsReportDS and TfsOlapReportsDS)
Modify the report parameter ExplicitProject default value to "" (empty string) and disable prompt user option.
Export the documents in the old SharePoint site using stsadm
Delete the old SharePoint site
Recreate the sharepoint site using the TFS2010 Agile Dashboard site template
Activate site feature "Team Foundation Server Scrum dashboard"
In TFS Project Settings -> Project Portal Settings: Enable "team project portal" and ensure the url is correct. Enable "reports and dashboards refer to data for this team project"
And finally..
Process the Warehouse
Process the Analysis Database
Even though that this involves a lot of small steps this looks more appealing because
this option will not force me to move the source code and my existing build definitions will be intact.
My question:
Are there other ways to achieve the replacement of work item types that I haven't mentioned?
And/or am I missing any steps in last solution?
Given that you aren't using any existing work item types, your final proposal looks like the best option.
After deleting the old reports and exporting the SharePoint documents (you could also use Windows Explorer instead of stsadm), there are actually two commands in 'tfpt' that will help you. This will reduce it from 14 steps down to 5 or 6 steps.
tfpt addprojectreports Add or overwrite reports for an existing team project
tfpt addprojectportal Add or move portal for an existing team project
tfpt addprojectreports /collection:http://yourtfs:8080/tfs/YourCollection /teamproject:"Your Team Project" /processtemplate:"Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0" /verbose
tfpt addprojectreports /collection:http://yourtfs:8080/tfs/YourCollection /teamproject:"Your Team Project" /processtemplate:"Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0" /verbose
Your first option is IMHO your best shot.
You can branch the sources from the old team project to the new team project. With TFS 2010 you can see the history also from the branched location. So you don't loose functionality in here.
The Build is just an msbuild file which is stored in source control. The only thing you have to do is actually copy the build definitions. You can do that either manually, or you can create a little app that does that for you.

Resources