TFS 2010: A quick peek on TFS 2008 to TFS 2010 upgrade (Migration upgrade)

Upgrade: TFS 2008 to TFS 2010

The TFS install guide has instructions to both (in place and migration) types of upgrades possible in TFS 2010. While most of you would like to go for a Migration upgrade, simply for the reason that you can have both the TFS 2008 and upgraded TFS 2010 environments available while stage the upgraded TFS 2010 server in the test environment before adopting.

This document has screen shots of the upgrade process (Migration upgrade) along with some pointers that might help during the upgrade procedure.

Before beginning with the actual upgrade we have to set up the environment for TFS2010 and depending on the requirement (to use or not) Reports and SharePoint should also be installed and configured (see point 11 to know more on reporting services configuration).

1) Install default /named instance of SQL

2) SQL server analysis services are needed only if Reports are going to be used.

3) SharePoint 3.0 (SP1 if hosted on Win 2008) has to be installed and a web application with the old content database should be provisioned before starting the upgrade.

4) If the old instance of TFS 2008 uses WSS 2.0, then it should be upgraded to WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 before proceeding with TFS 2010 upgrade. WSS 2.0 is not supported on TFS 2010.

Getting ready for the upgrade:

1) Take a full back up of all the 7 TFS 2008 databases and the SharePoint project portal content database from the source server. The reports databases are not required for the upgrade. TFS 2010 upgrade process will create the reports in the new format/hierarchy.

2) Restore the 7 TFS 2008 databases and the SharePoint content database to the SQL instance that will be used with TFS 2010.

3) Install the TFS 2010 bits on the server and launch the “Team Foundation Server administration console” to start the upgrade

4) As you launch the “Team Foundation Server administration console”, the application tier node on the left pane gives you the option to launch the “Configuration Center”

5) Launch the “Configuration Center” by clicking ‘Configure installed features’

6) Select “Upgrade” to start the ‘Upgrade wizard’

7) In the Upgrade Wizard, enter the SQL instance that has the restored TFS 2008 databases (as point 2) and select the option ‘List available databases’. The TFSIntegration database will be detected and the production version would be mentioned. Note: The checkbox at the bottom need to be checked for the upgrade to complete successfully, if unchecked the upgrade would fail during the verification phase. Click Next.

8) Enter the service account and the Authentication type. If Negotiate has to be selected, then SPNs have to be created for the accounts.

9) In the Website section, accept the defaults or enter the site name and port number that you wish to have TFS web service run.

10) Reports configuration: If reports are required, then proceed with the configuration by selecting the check box

11) SSRS should be pre installed and configured for the TFS reports configuration to succeed. Enter the SSRS instance name that will host the reports for the TFS 2010 instance. You need not restore the old Reports and Reportservertempdb databases. After entering the SSRS instance name, click the “populate URLs” link, the Report server and Report manager links would be verified and populated.

12) Enter the SSAS instance name and click Next.

13) Select the checkbox if a different account other than the TFSservice account is going to be used.

14) Select the checkbox for SharePoint configuration, if SharePoint project portals are going to be used.

15) The SharePoint web application should be created and provisioned with the old Content database. If not, you would see this error:

16) Once SharePoint is installed and configured, the urls would resolve properly

17) Enter the Project collection name

18) Confirm the settings and click “verify”

19) The readiness check is run and if the check was successful (without any errors) proceed with configure.

20) The Configuration wizard starts

21) As the Configuration process completes, you could see the new databases are created (TFS_Configuration , TFS_Warehouse and TFS_<TPC name>) but all the old TFS databases are still not deleted.

22) Once the configuration part completes, the Upgrade process starts

Note: While this process happens, the reports are created for the existing projects. You could see the screen shots below taken while the upgrade process is happening and after it is completed. Note that a folder by the name of the project collection is created at the root and inside the project collection folder, the individual project folders are created with the reports for that particular project inside them.

23) Once the Upgrade Process is completed, the upgrade Wizard shows the completing screen.

Content By: Arun Rama

Reviewed by: Lucky

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 06, 2010
  We keep getting an error during the setup of the SQL Server Analysis Services.  "TF255048: A connection cannot be made to the server that is running SSAS......"  We've attempted disabling the firewall on both servers that didn't work either. We're setting up TFS 2010 as we have with TFS 2008 on 2 servers.  Do we have to setup something with SQL as we did before getting the Reporting Services working?  The SQL database is up and running but our app server doesn't want to work for the SSAS, that is the only thing from stopping us from being able to complete the install/configuration. Hello Brian, Thanks for the post. If you have SSAS installed on a remote server thatn TFS 2010, you will need "SQL server client tools connectivity" installed. This is part of the SQL 2008 installation media and can be enabled from the feature selection section of the Installation wizard. Hope this Helps! Arunrama.  

• Anonymous
  August 02, 2010
  Thanks for this procedure note, its a lot more clearer than the Migration section of the TFSInstall document.Even so I still have a few questions on the overall process:

1. In the preamble you mention that 'Reports' should be installed. This creates two new databases 'ReportServer' and 'ReportServerTempDB'. Step 11 indicates that these databases should NOT be overwritten by the old TFS2008 Report databases of the same names. Does this mean that the TFS2008 Reports are not migrated to the TFS2010 server?
2. Preamble Step 3 - The installation of WSS 3.0, creates a database called 'Sharepoint_AdminContent_<guid?>', should the 'web application' be provisioned against this content database or the old TFS2008 'WSS_AdminContent' database?
3. Ready for upgrade Step 1 - Take a backup of the 7 TFS2008, 'TFS_xxxx' databases and the Sharepoint content database. Is this  'WSS_AdminContent' or 'WSS_Content'? What about the 'WSS_Config' database?
4. Ready for upgrade Step 15 - The Sharepoint web application should be provisioned with the 'old Content database'. Is this database  the original TFS2008 db or the newly created 'Sharepoint_AdminContent' db?
5. Ready for upgrade Step 21 - Can you provide a pedigree of the final databases i.e. which are the ones automatically generated by the Reporting Services, which have been copied across from TFS2008, which have been created by TFS migration tool, etc.   Hello Haydn, Thanks for the comments. Find the answers for the questions below.
6. In the preamble you mention that 'Reports' should be installed. This creates two new databases 'ReportServer' and 'ReportServerTempDB'. Step 11 indicates that these databases should NOT be overwritten by the old TFS2008 Report databases of the same names. Does this mean that the TFS2008 Reports are not migrated to the TFS2010 server? ANS: TFS 2010 will recreate the reports for the 2008/2005 instances. Since TFS 2010 introduces a new concept of  Project collections, each project collections creats a seperate folder under a common folder names "TFSReports" at the root of the reports home page. If you are restoring the old reports databases, you will end up with a messy looking reports structure (a whole set of old reports at teh root which  will no more update and another set of reports inside a folder "TFSReports". To avoid this, dont overwrite the reports database, just have an empty reports database and the upgrade will create a new set of reports will old data.
7. Preamble Step 3 - The installation of WSS 3.0, creates a database called 'Sharepoint_AdminContent_<guid?>', should the 'web application' be provisioned against this content database or the old TFS2008 'WSS_AdminContent' database? ANS: The new web application should be provisioned with the WSS_CONTENT database (or STS_CONTENT_TFS if the old version of TFS was 2005). The WSS_AdminContent database is the content database for the "Central administration" site and this database and the WSS_Config databases are WSS instance specific (not advisable to be moved between machines)
8. Ready for upgrade Step 1 - Take a backup of the 7 TFS2008, 'TFS_xxxx' databases and the Sharepoint content database. Is this  'WSS_AdminContent' or 'WSS_Content'? What about the 'WSS_Config' database? ANS: Backup the WSS_Content database. the other two database related to sharepoint (WSS_AdminContent and WSS_Config) are not required as these databases are WSS instance specific and are not recommended to be moved between machines.
9. Ready for upgrade Step 15 - The Sharepoint web application should be provisioned with the 'old Content database'. Is this database  the original TFS2008 db or the newly created 'Sharepoint_AdminContent' db? ANS: Provision the new web application with WSS_Content or STS_Content_TFS database from the earlier version of TFS that you are upgrading from. WSS_Content is the name of the database in TFS 2008 and STS_Content_TFS is the name of the database if you had been progressivly upgrading from TFS 2005 > TFS2008 > TFS 2010
10. Ready for upgrade Step 21 - Can you provide a pedigree of the final databases i.e. which are the ones automatically generated by the Reporting Services, which have been copied across from TFS2008, which have been created by TFS migration tool, etc. ANS: From the snaoshot on step 21: 1) ReportServer$New and ReportServer$NewTEMPDB are the new Reports databases 2) SharePoint_AdminContent_<guid>, WSS_Config and WSS_Content_Temp are the databases created with the new installation of WSS. 3) WSS_Content is the database that is restored from the old TFS 2008 instance. 4) TFS_Configuration, TFS_UpgradedFrom2008, TFS_Warehouse are the databses newly created by the Migration tool 5) TFSWarehosue is the databsae that is left behind from the 2008 restoreset. 6) The remaining databses that you restored over from TFS 2008/2005 will be dropped after the upgrade is completed. - ArunRama

• Anonymous
  August 04, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 11, 2010
  Thanks for your help Arunrama, this was spot on. Viewing the tables I found that there was a slight difference of versions. From the version list link you provided I was able to identify the required patch. Downloaded and installed the patch and was then able to continue and complete the migration. Functionality was as expected with the exception of the migrated WSS sites, which I was unable to display. I suspect this was due to security issues as I had migrated a domain based TFS2008 installation onto a test Workgroup based TFS2010 installation. Anyway, thanks again for all of your help. Haydn

• Anonymous
  October 18, 2010
  Hi, Just curious if we need to delete the old databases or does the application still requires these databases ? Answer: Hi, Thanks for post. The TFS 2010 upgrade process will delete the old TFS databsaes except the TFSwarehouse database and the Cube. In some instances we have see that the TFSversion control databse is not deleted after an upgrade. You can drop/delete this database after an upgrade. Same with TFSwarehouse, you can delete the database. TFS 2010 works only with TFS_Configuration,TFS_Collection,TFS_Warehouse and TFS_Analysis databases. The TFS_Analysis is part of your SQL analysis services engine. Thanks, Arunrama

• Anonymous
  December 19, 2010
  Hi, I'm very new to TFS. Because of my project need, I have installed TFS in my machine. Now, i have no idea about how to start, where it is and how it is looks like ? Can you please give me the basic steps for starting TFS2008 Regards, Ela Hi Ela, Congrats on getting your TFS server up and running.  A good place to start for TFS would be Pattern & Practices http://tfsguide.codeplex.com/ Also, you might also want to look into TFS AdminGuide (it would cover all the usage topics). You can download latest Admin Guide for TFS 2008 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=2AED0ECC-1552-49F1-ABE7-4905155E210A&displaylang=en HTH, Romit

• Anonymous
  December 19, 2010
  Hi, Can you please tell me about how to start TFS as i'm new to this. I have no idea. For project related things, ihave to work on this. If you people helps me to...know about this means ..it will  be very grateful. I want to know, how to start TFS or how to work in TFS? Thanks, Rajesh Answer: Hi Rajesh, Great to hear that you are planning for using TFS. A good place to start for TFS would be Pattern & Practices http://tfsguide.codeplex.com/releases/view/6280  Also, you might also want to look into TFS InstallGuide (it would cover all the topics related to TFS installation) and TFS AdminGuide (it would cover all the usage topics). You can download latest Admin/Install Guide from microsoft download center. (we have different guides for TFS2005/TFS2008 or TFS 2010 editon) HTH, Romit

• Anonymous
  February 02, 2011
  Upgrading to WSS 3.0 seems to be real pain. We are doing a trial migration from TFS 2005 to TFS 2010. ~Backed up and restored all the database to the new instructure with SQL Server 2008 ~Installed Reporting services and WSS 3.0 But I am finding it difficult to provision the old STS_CONTENT_TFS before starting the upgrade. Where can i find clear steps to do this sharepoint configuration. I was able to skip this and complete the upgrade with all custom workitems and source code migrated successfully. I am planning to do one more trial migration upgrade to get the WSS 3.0 upgarde correct. Any help is appreciated.   Ans: (on 02/03/2011) Thanks for the comment SP. SharePoint upgrade is a tricky process as you mentioned. We are in the process of getting a post published in few days. In the mean time, you could visit this page: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lakhminder/archive/2008/07/08/upgrading-wss-2-0-to-wss-3-0-after-a-tfs-upgrade.aspx The content in above blog details the steps to upgrade wss 2.0 to wss3.0. Follow steps 1 till 10 (do not do step 11, this step is specific to TFS 2008). Once completed till step 10, you have to integrate the sharepoint web application with the TFS project collection. Feel free to post if you need more assistance. I will be posting a TFS2010 specific documentation in few days (may be within a week). Thanks, ArunRama

• Anonymous
  February 03, 2011
  Thanks ArunRama for the reply. We are actually trying to do a migration based trial upgrade of TFS 2005 to TFS 2010 on a new hardware. As I understand from link, for upgrading WSS 2.0 to WSS 3.0,  I need to first run the Prescan on existing TFS 2005 WSS 2.0 server and then correct the errors reported. Then take the backup of the STS_CONTENT_TFS database and restore to the new server. My concern is about running the Prescan against the existsing TFS 2005 production environment which is going to actually update the current production config/content database(if whatever i understood is correct).  The IT management is actually getting freaked out about this idea. This is just a trial migration and we dont intend to move TFS 2010 to production for another 5 months.

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2011
  Still stuck with SharePoint Upgrade to WSS 3.0. it will be an understatement to say that the WSS 3.0 upgrade is a pain :) ...  I finally ran Prescan.exe /all on the existing production TFS 2005 server and it failed with the following error 02/05/2011 15:12:13 Error: Cannot determine server status for virtual server: http://server:8080/ 02/05/2011 15:12:13 Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: The virtual server that is referenced here is not in the config database. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x81070552): The virtual server that is referenced here is not in the config database.   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.GetVirtualServerProperty(Int32 lIISInstanceID, Boolean bInXMLFormat, String bstrName, String& pbstrValue, Int64& plVersion)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.a.a(Int32 A_0, Boolean A_1, String A_2, String& A_3, Int64& A_4)   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.a.a(Int32 A_0, Boolean A_1, String A_2, String& A_3, Int64& A_4)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPVirtualServerConfig.a(String A_0)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPVirtualServerConfig.a()   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPPropertyBag..ctor(b A_0, a A_1)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPVirtualServerConfig.get_Properties()   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPVirtualServerConfig.get_DefaultZoneOutgoingUrl()   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PreupgradeReport.Scan.ScanOneVirtualServer(SPVirtualServer curVS) 02/05/2011 15:12:13 Scan finished with failure.   Answer: (02/20/2011) Hi SP, The error yuo have reported looks to be related to a web application (site) that is not extended within WSS 2.0. Can you check this forum entry, this might be helpful. Thanks and regards, ArunRama

• Anonymous
  February 15, 2011
  Thank You for the Help..........................

• Anonymous
  March 30, 2011
  can someone help me with the steps to integrate two TFS 2008 servers and they both are seperate instances of TFS with different team projects. Reply (03/30/2011): Jagan, There is no supported scenario of integrating two instances of TFS 2008 into a single instance of TFS 2008. You can get the two instances integrated into a single instance of TFS 2010 by doing a Migration upgrade of one TFS 2008 instance to TFS 2010 and the other instance can be attached as another Project collection by performing a "Import upgrade" from TFS 2008 to TFS 2010. If you need assistance in performing an integration by upgrade process, please get in touch with Microsoft Support  (1 800 936 5800). Thanks, Arunrama

• Anonymous
  November 27, 2011
  Hi, Please any one let me know, do we need to restore the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB in the following cases?

1. If we had created a entirely new TFS 2008 Reports ?
2. Modified the existing TFS 2008 reports ? As metioned in the step 11, if we dont restore these report DB's from where the new created reports and modified reports of TFS 2008 will upgrade and displayed in TFSReports->Collection->Project folder? Please advice at the earliest. As i am planning to upgrade ASAP. Thanks in advice :)

• Anonymous
  November 28, 2011
  When performing an Migration/In-place/Import upgrade (any of the three types of upgrade), only the default reports are recreated. Any new or customized reports are not going to be re-created and provisioned. If you restore the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB databases, you will have access to the old reports, hence you will be able to revisit the RDL files for the custom/new reports that you have built. Remember, after the upgrade the old reports that came as part of the Report server database restore will not be updated any more. In stud , the new set of reports that were created under the TFSReports > CollectionNam > Project name will be the operational report. Thanks, Arunrama

• Anonymous
  November 28, 2011
  Thanks Arunrama for quick response. Once we can access the RDL files for custom/new reports after the upgrade process, Hope we need to rewrite each of these reports to work with TFS 2010 as the TFSwarehouse structure had changed (Collection)??? Please clarify the same. Answer: Yes, the RDL files have to be coded according to the new Schema. Thanks, Arunrama  

• Anonymous
  January 03, 2012
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2012
  Hi Hassen, To move TFS 2008 to another server (assuming it’s in same domain) then you can follow the MSDN article msdn.microsoft.com/.../ms404869(v=VS.90).aspx . As far as the Networking Server is concerned I am not sure what changes you have to make to make it work. But for TFS 2008 the MSDN article which I mentioned would cover all aspects (TFS, SQL, Reporting and WSS). Also, in case you want to keep old TFS Server also up and running then do follow blogs.msdn.com/.../creating-a-new-server-from-an-old-one-beware-of-the-instanceid.aspx also. Thanks for your feedback on  the comments not showing up we will look into it ASAP. Thanks, Romit