the question I am referring to is this one: Can you queue Build-Deploy-Test workflows in TFS 2010?
It is stated, that with TFS 2010 it's not possible to do it (other than by hand). But what about TFS 2012/2015? Is there anything new that one can use to queue such a workflow as of today?
Thanks for your help
You can queue multiple Build-Deploy-Test build workflows on the same lab environment all the time, but you have to wait for the previous build-deploy-test completes, then queue the next one.
The referred case gives out a solution to automatically start the build until the configured lab environment becomes available when he queued multiple builds, by customizing the lab process template.
In a word, no matter which version of TFS you are using, you can queue multiple Build-Deploy-Test build workflows on the same lab environment, but it's better not to queue them at same time.
Related
I currently have a ETL system running on SQL Server 2014, it used to be using individual package deployment method. We recently changed it to use the new SSISDB project deployment method.
The issue is these same packages with no other changes take roughly twice as long as the old deployment method. I understand a lot of overhead may have been from the logging that is set to 'Basic' by default for project deployments. I changed that to none with some improvement, but still far slower than our old deployment model, or even running the packages locally in visual studio.
Based on my research this is because 'None' still logs quite a bit of information to SSISDB which is causing a huge overhead. Previously we only logged errors by email with the Package Deployment Model, but with the Project Deployment Model that is not the case, and as I understand I cannot log less information in Sql Server 2014 when using this deployment model, as custom logging was only introduced in 2016.
Has anyone else had this issue and come up with any solution? Preferably a solution that isn't "switch back to Package Deployment Model" or to upgrade to 2016 which will not be in the near future. Currently I have tried and index on internal.executables from the SSISDB database. referencing this article http://www.argento-it.co.uk/ssis/ssisdb-slow/
This did not improve the situation at all, with the run time remaining the same
My team has several Selenium Unit Tests that we run locally. Selenium opens a browser and runs through our application. This works fine locally. Now, management wants to run the tests, on demand, via TFS. Should be easy, right? WRONG!
I am having trouble setting up our TFS 2015 server to run these Selenium UI tests.
Everything I read tells me to run the "Test Agent for Visual Studio 2015" tool. Problem is, the tool does not exist on my machine and I cannot understand why. I have tried many things, like installing the MS Visual Studio "Agents", with no luck.
When I try to open the freshly installed "Agents" I get a message saying: "Test Agent for Visual Studio 2015 has no configuration tool".
So the VS.NET "Agents" panel never opens. Seems bizarre to me that I installed something that needs further configuration, with no way to perform that configuration.
From further reading, I think I need to provision a group machine in the TFS web administration page, but am totally unsure if that's required for my situation, as I cannot even get past the basics here.
I see other people have had this problem, with very little response or help from Microsoft. I am a little baffled at why this seems so very difficult to do on a TFS server? It runs locally just fine, like a breeze. But TFS? It's like a giant puzzle.
Once this is working, I need to configure the test agent to run in "interactive mode" so it can run the browser but I cannot even begin to figure that out yet. Where do you set it to "run interactive" because I dont see any of those options. Am I missing TFS installation components? Do I have the wrong Visual Studio? Do I need the Ultimate edition of Visual Studio to be able to perform UI tests with the browser? We have the Professional edition.
Here is someone with the same problem:
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/1712725/test-agent-for-visual-studio-2015-has-no-configuration-tool
Does anyone have any ideas or instructions on how to setup the "Test Agent" I need to run my team's existing Selenium UI tests in TFS2015? Seems very difficult when it should not be.
In the link you provided, Allen has explained that "There is no configuration UI with the test agent anymore. This is because we have simplified the existing remote testing scenario by doing the install and configuration for you when running via the build pipeline."
TFS 2015 Update2 now have a "Run Functional Test" task that you can use to run tests (included Coded UI Tests) against machine groups. So, first you have to upgrade your TFS 2015 to TFS 2015 Update2 if you haven't.
The tasks you need for test scenarios using Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) or Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2015:
Create environments from physical or virtual machines that you've already set up.
Set up your build to run your app and tests in the environments that you created.
After your build finishes, review your test results to start resolving problems that you found.
So, your build process template should look like the screenshot below. You need to specify every task to meet the requirement of your project. All TFS tasks can be found at this website, you can get more information for each task from it. Coded UI or Selenium tests that are running on full fidelity browsers would need Interactive Process checked.:
Just to make it clear, my objective is to reproduce an environment similar to a TFS 2013 that someone backup from.
The backup (full) was made manually from SQL cause TFS is reproducing an error in the attempt of it and I'm trying to fix this error in a test environment.
Which way should I use SQL to backup it?
How should i restore and map TFS in the new server to understand it?
Note: The backup was created by an user that does not exist on the test machine;
Note²: I have the .bak's files (Tfs_configuration, Tfs_DefaultCollection and Tfs_Warehouse).
I can paste the error log of TFS if needed.
The whole process is well documented, it's easiest when you have a Full TFS backup from the Administration Console, that way you're sure to have all the databases in their right state.
The process to follow is quite extensive, make sure you follow each of the steps. If the environment you're restoring from didn't have the backup feature built-in (it was added in one of the update packs), then you can get it by installing the Team Foundation Server Power Tools on the Application Tier server.
To update the accounts use:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404869(v=vs.120).aspx#UpdateNetworkService
It looks like you may have all the databases required, though it's possible there are more. To restore TFS to a new environment, you need all the databases that belong to the installation.
I am testing web based products, and I am new to Microsoft tools. I am trying to figure out how test plan creation works, or can work depending on what configuration of Visual Studio tools I am using. I find a lot of conflicting info online.
I have the three tools below installed right now, but I can request something different if I need it. (Feel free to suggest). Any advice from pros more experienced with this tool set would be GREAT.
I access Team Foundation Server 2012 via my browser, where I can view and add product backlog items, bugs, sprints, the board etc. I cannot add test plans here, but I can add test cases to them.
I have Visual Studio 2013 installed on my PC. This seems like pretty much the same thing as the browser accessible tool, and I don't use it much because I find it easier to work from the browser for testing web.
I have Microsoft Test Manager 2012 installed on my PC. This appears to be the only place where I can create test plans, cases, and can create and utilize shared test case steps.
Questions:
How can I create test plans using the browser tool?
Is it possible to update the TFS 2012 Browser Tool to 2013, and how is that done?
Additionally to the #jessehouwing answer I would highly recommend you this free ebook:Testing for Continuous Delivery with Visual Studio 2012
Team Foundation Server 2012 update 2 adds Web Based test Case Management to TFS 2012, this is a smaller step than an upgrade to TFS 2013 all the way. You cannot just upgrade the Web Access part of a TFS installation, it would require a complete upgrade of the cluster. You also cannot just install this to your machine, it has to be installed on all the TFS servers in the cluster.
Traditionally Test Manager is the place to go to to do Test Suite Management and to view the results of a test run. Microsoft has started to move the functionality traditionally found in Test manager to the Web portal, It seems you're not the only person who found that easier to use. This transition started with TFS 2012 update 3 and was further expanded with TFS 2013.
So your options are:
Use Test Manager (you'll have to use it to manage certain things you cannot yet do on the web anyway).
Ask your Server Administrator to upgrade TFS 2012 to at least Update 2 (I'd recommend he upgrades to TFS 2012 update 4 or TFS 2013 in any case).
Ask your Server Administrator to upgrade TFS 2012 to TFS 2013.
The following resources can be very helpful in understandign how to use the tools to their fullest potential:
Visual Studio ALM Rangers' Test Guidance
Patterns & Practices' Testing for Continuous Delivery with Visual Studio 2012 (as mentioned by #Elena)
Microsoft Virtual Academy Software Testing with Visual Studio 2012 (exam 70-497 jump start)
I noticed when Visual Studio 2012 RTM was closed, that many instances of MsBuild.exe are still in memory.
Why ?
The MSBuild processes are kept running for a period of time (fifteen minutes, I believe) after Visual Studio is closed. This is an attempt to improve performance, the idea being that idle MSBuild processes could be reused if another build is kicked off soon and the overhead of spawning a new process can be eliminated.
You can disable this by setting an environment variable MSBUILDDISABLENODEREUSE=1 (before starting VS) or specifying /nodeReuse:false (or /nr:false) if building from the command line.
Related issues filed on MSConnect:
MSbuild proliferate
Ghost MSBuild.exe in VS11
You can turn off the parallel build feature in visual studio. How to: Set the Number of Concurrent Builds for Multiprocessor Builds