TFS Build drop location not accessible outside the network

Question

I have a few builds running on TFS Build 2010 RC. The build definition requires the drop location to be a UNC path or network share so I am using something like \\tfs\builds. I've exposed port 8080 so while I'm not on the network, I can still access it, primarily for source control but I also check the completed builds. However, the build report gives me \\tfs\builds for the drop location, and that doesn't do me any good when I'm not on the network.

How can I access my build artifacts outside the network? Can I modify the build template to point to a different location?

Answer 1

The easiest (and most secure) way I can come up with off the top of my head would be to establish a VPN connection with your workplace network.

Answer 2

What we did is modify the underlying .proj file for the TFS build to copy compiled assemblies to a different drop location from the UNC share that we originally specified in the wizard. There's a build-in task in Team Build for <copy> that will allow you to do exactly that.

Unfortunately, the correct location still won't be reflected in the build report, but at least it should be accessible outside of the network should you so choose, at that point it all depends on the destination you copy it to. For our purposes, that destination location happens to be a location accessible outside of the network.