Which account should a TFS Build Agent service run under? - tfs

Background information
I need our TFS build agents to run under a specific account so that our ClickOnce certificates are authorised.
However if I run under the account X, which also is the user account of the build controller that has the correct certificates. I get the error: "Source is already in use". Even if I restart the service and/or the virtual machine.
Originally rightly/wrongly our build agents were running under the Network Service account, however this account cannot verify the certificates.
Using the Local System account does not give access to the build controller from a developer box.
So I guess my question is: What account should the service 'Visual Studio Team Foundation Build Service Host' run under?

It turned out that the account X was the correct choice (our build controller user account, that has few privileges).
It was that the account needed adding to the builders group TFS Admin.

My personal suggestion would be: a specifically-created, minimum-privelige account that is only authorised as far as is necessary to build the code on your build machines, and no more.
I'm not aware of any restriction around the user for the build agent vs the build controller, though - in fact I'm sure I've used a similar setup before. Is it possible that your error is misleading? Changing users might be a workaround, but perhaps there's something else fixable going on.

Related

Nuget prompting credentials

I am using Visual Studio 2019. While building a solution its asking for credentials and build is getting failed. api.nuget.org asking username and password.
Note: I am using public default nuget package
ZScalar is installed in my system. This was blocking the nuget uri. Hence, the nuget was prompting for credentials. If i use proxy, it didn't prompt for credentials.
From the official thread of Visual Studio's developer community, you should consider signing out from all accounts (located on the top-right corner of Visual Studio). This should solve your issue.
After clicking on your profile, go to Account settings... and you'll be prompted this:
Simply remove all the accounts & enjoy!
Note that this problem has a good chance to be related wtih NuGet packages installation permission.
The answer here, for me, was the blocking of downloadable executable files by group policy.
.nupkg was classified as executable or just not whitelisted - so a group policy (company enforced internet setting) is what was causing the 403 error (on the command line) and this password prompt to nuget.api.org
The password prompt doesn't really make any sense, in my context, but I suppose if I was a network admin and I entered my network password, it might have worked.

Link or alias user account in Jenkins to TFS user account

Jenkin shows two accounts for the same person, one from Active Directory and one from Team Foundation Server (TFS).
When I checkin code, a build is triggered (in this case Main - Build config) and the changes show user windows live id_steven#example.com with email address Windows Live ID\steven#example.com
When I click Build Now in Jenkins, it shows the changes came from user ssteven with email address Steven#Example.com
How can I link these two accounts since they are both the same person?
It should be possible with the Additional Identities Plugin to merge accounts by matching various properties, e.g. TFS account ID.
However, this may not work in all cases and is generally a long-outstanding issue in Jenkins:
https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-10258

Force password expiry has screwed Team System 2008 - how do I fix it?

Ok, once again a forced password expiry has inadvertently screwed with our TFSSERVICE and other TFS accounts, so Team System (2008) no longer works. I've picked my way through all the steps I can think of to fix the issue, and I have one issue remaining:
Here are my steps so far:
On any machine on the domain change the password for domain accounts TFSSERVICE and DEVBUILDSERVER. Note the new passwords.
On the Team Foundation Server
• Update the login password for Team Foundation Server Task Scheduler service and restart the service. (TFSSERVICE account)
• Update identity password for the application pool Microsoft Team Foundation Server Application Tool, and restart it. (TFSSERVICE account)
• Execute the command "TFSADMINUTIL changepassword domain\TFSSERVICE newpassword".
• Via a browser connect to the reporting services website (http://<TFSxx>/reports) and update the password for the TfsReportDS and the TfsOlapReportDS data sources.
On the build agent update the password for the TFSBUILD service, update the login password for the SQLEXPRESS service, and restart both services. (DEVBUILDSERVER account).
However although source control and CI builds now work, when I look at a project portal I see the following:
Remaining Work
Report Generated: 12/01/2015 13:34:32 by AS\neil; Last Warehouse Update: 28/10/2014 13:59:48
How much work is left and when will it be done?
No data matches the parameters specified.
whereas I should be seeing a graph.
What vital step have I overlooked?
TIA

Granting ManageBuildResources permission to a TFS user

so this is the issue:
I have a TFS 2012 installed on a server A and I want to install a TFS Build Service on server B. The TFS on server A has a DefaultCollection which I want to link it to a Team Build. When I try to configure the build server it shows a failure message: User1 needs "ManageBuildResources" permission set to allowed. User1 is NOT in any group, its a single lonely user, then I ask a coworker about the permissions. Now in the security settings of Team Explorer it shows that User1 has "ManageBuildResources" set to allowed on DefaultCollection. Still, when I try to configure it, it shows again the same failure message.
So I read in the Microsoft website that User1 must be in Project Collection Administrators group in order to configure a build server, do I need to make User1 a member of this group, even if User1 has all the privileges? Because I don't understand why it shows that User1 doesn't have privileges.
Thanks in advance!
Yes, you currently need to make a user part of Project Collection Administrators in order to be able to add a build server to your collection.

Windows Service user account trouble for TFSBuildServiceHost.exe

Experienced a very strange problem today on our TFS2010 build server. Suddenly the build service failed for no apparent reason. We´re been trouble shooting it all day, but still haven´t found the reason yet.
One of the problems is that the build service is (or should!) running under an AD user called tfs2010build. However when I try to start the service, i get the following error
Service cannot be started. Microsoft.TeamFoundation.TeamFoundationServerUnauthorizedException: TF30063: You are not authorized to access http://tfs2010:8080/tfs/default. ---> System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.
When I look in the event log on the TFS2010 server, I see that the failed authentication is registered for a user called TFS2010Install, which was used to install everything. I´ve tripple checked and the service is specified as to be running under TFS2010Build.
Log from TFS2010 server:
Account For Which Logon Failed:
Security ID: NULL SID
Account Name: TFS2010INSTALL
Account Domain: LC
So my question is how is this possible. COuld the user TFS2010Build some how be impersonated by TFS2010Install? I
ve tried to install an additional build server and here there´s no problem starting the service under the user TFS2010Build - hence it is not a problem with AD or TFS user rights.
Hope you guys can help out!
/Jasper
!! Updated with some screen shots. Build server is TFS2010BIULD and the TFS server is TFS2010
Link to full size
Screen shot of non working build server TFS2010Build
Screen shot of working build server TFS2010Build1
!!New Update
I've managed to get the Build service to run under the TFS2010Build user account (which was actually the initial state, when the problem started). When I queue builds to this controller and agent, i get the follwing in the build log:
TF215097: An error occurred while initializing a build for build definition \PlanteIT_MarkOnline_Scrum\CI_Main_FieldOnlineClient: TF215106: Access denied. LC\TFS2010INSTALL needs Update build information permissions for build definition CI_Main_FieldOnlineClient in team project PlanteIT_MarkOnline_Scrum to perform the action. For more information, contact the Team Foundation Server administrator.
It still insist that TFS2010Install user account is running the service, despite that TFS2010Build is used for the build service. Any ideas?
This is a stab in the dark, can you try clear the TFS client cache and your internet cache on your troubled build machine under the Tfs2010Build account? I've never seen this issue before but maybe some stale cached TfsProjectCollection object with TFS2010Install authentication stayed around and caused problems.
Have you also tried reconfigure your build machine?
To unconfigure:
tfsconfig.exe setup /uninstall:TeamBuild
and reconfigure through the wizard.
I will try once more ..., step by step :-)
FACT: When you register your build controller to a TFS project collection, being logged-in as TFS2010Build, an authentication dialog pops-up. This means that the TFS server does not accept TFS2010Build as an account that can be used to connect to your default collection on the TFS server.
FACT: When you register your build controller to a TFS project collection, being logged-in as TFS2010Install, no authentication dialog pops-up. This means that the TFS server does accept TFS2010Install as an account that can be used to connect to your default collection on the TFS server.
Apparently, because in both 1 and 2 your build controller is registered using the TFS2010Install account to the TFS server, either the controller or the server remembers these credentials and uses them to connect to the TFS server collection when the build controller is started, despite the fact that the service itself is running under the TFS2010Build account. This is a plausible situation and impersonation happens often this way for services. Maybe some TFS techie can either confirm or deny this behavior.
The question that remains for me: Why does the the default collection on the TFS server not accept the TFS2010Build account as a valid administrator?
Potential causes:
Read Jim Lamb's answer.
Something is wrong with the domain registration of the system or user used to connect the controller to the collection on the TFS server.
Fastest way to rid of the problem: Continue to install the secondary server that does not seem to have the problem, potentially experiment with using the TFS2010Build from this secondary server to see if the problem also occurs there.
A long aswer, but hopefully it gives you a big push in the right direction.
Sorry to hear that you're having problems getting this to work. Here are a couple of things you can check/try:
Make sure that the TFS2010Build user account is a member of the "Build Services" group in the TFS project collection you've associated it with.
If you install and configure the build service while logged in as a user who is a member of the Project Collection Administrators group on the associated project collection and is also a member of the local Administrators group on the build machine, all of the requisite permissions and other configuration will generally be set for you.
So, to summarize, the user configuring the build machine should be a member of the project collection administrators group and a member of the local administrators group. And, the user account the build machine is running as should be a member of the project collection's "build services" group.

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