Setup of TFS 2008 for automated testing.

Question

I'm confused.

I have TFS installed on my development server, which also doubles as the build machine. The builds work fine when I check-in code, but when the build attempts to run the tests I get an error:

MSBUILD : warning MSB6004: The specified task executable location "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe" is invalid. The previous error was converted to a warning because the task was called with ContinueOnError=true. Build continuing because "ContinueOnError" on the task "TestToolsTask" is set to "true". Done executing task "TestToolsTask" -- FAILED.

I have searched various forums and several people have suggested that visual studio 2008 test edition has to be installed on the build server. Can anyone confirm that this is true and more importantly whether it will solve me problem? Or can I merely install professional edition?

Thanks, Confused.

Answer 1

Did you install Team Build on that machine?

Also, you will need to install everything that needs to build. For instance, in order to run Web tests, a developer would have to have Team Test installed on his workstation. That means that you need to install it on the build server.

Answer 2

Yes - you need either the Developer or the Test edition of VSTS 2008 (Or the Team Suite Edition installed). This is so that the version of MSTest.exe that is able to publish the unit test results back into TFS is installed on the build server.

So long as the people who check in stuff have a license to the appropriate version of Visual Studio Team System for the artifact that they are checking in then you are covered in terms of licensing for it being built on the build server AFAIK. (Though I only have a degree in Physics so I am woefully under-qualified for figuring out Microsoft licensing terms :-) )

Hope that helps,

Martin.

Answer 3

Microsoft doen't recommend installing Team Build on the same machine as the main TFS server.

And believe me I agree with them.

TFS is made of 6-7 database and an OLAP cube (TFS Warehouse) these are literally acting like pack rats.

Are the sources, work items, users and projects increases, the load on that server increases as well!

I went through a point where I had to wait for the scheduled data warehouse processing to be completed to do a check-in!

Why don't you create a vurtual server for your build, you'll be set for "virtualization" that are coming in TFS2010!