VSTS.TFS.Quick.Guide

Finally got all my Visual Studio 2005 and Team System installations done. I made a silly mistake yesterday, by uninstalling Windows Sharepoint Services from one of my test machines and it screwed up the entire installation. Well, after removing it, I can no longer reinstall it. The setup application just can't launch. It turns out that, I just need to patch it with Windows Sharepoint Services SP2 to get it working instead of uninstalling. So, I spent the whole morning today, rebuilding my test partition. Now that everything is up and running, I should be ready to go Go GO!

If you are planning to install VSTS, here's a quick step-by-step guide on setting it up on a Single-Server Installation:

1) Install Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1.

2) Install Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0. Install SMTP if you want e-mail alerts. Do not install Front-Page Server Extensions.

3) Install Windows Sharepoint Services with Service Pack 2 in Server Farm mode. Leave the configuration alone and close the browser after the installation.

4) Install Microsoft Office Word 2003, Excel 2003 and Project Professional 2003. Install InfoPath 2003 if you want to toy around with the VSTS templates.

5) Install Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2 and Project 2003 Service Pack 2.

6) Install Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite.

7) Install the MSDN documentation for Visual Studio 2005.

8) Install SQL Server 2005 Developer or Enterprise Edition. Make sure everything is selected i.e. Analysis Services, Reporting Services and the rest.

9) If you installed SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition, you need to enable Remote Connections.
a) Goto Start > All Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2005 > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.
b) Select Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.
c) Under Database Engine select Remote Connections.
d) Select Local and Remote connections and choose Using both TCP/IP and named pipes.

10) Create two new user accounts. Name them TFSSERVICE and TFSREPORTS (or whatever creative names you can think off).

11) Make sure the following services are started and configured to startup automatically: SQL Server, SQL Server Agent, SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Browser and SQL Server Reporting Services.

12) Install Team Foundation Server Beta 3 Refresh. Ignore the CoverAn.exe crash alert at the end of the installation if you encounter it.

13) Install Team Foundation Client.

And if all else fails, read the official Installation Guide.