TFS 2008 - Installing SP1

Here's what i did:

1) Installed Visual Studio 2008 SP1 first, as we have team explorer on the TFS server (useful for admin use). Remember for our relatively small setup we've put both the app tier and data tier on the same VM. SP1 install time 1hr 15mins (Oooh!). Reboot required.

2) then installed Team Foundation Server SP1. Install time 15 mins. No reboot needed but I did one anyway, just to see those services start up nice and cleanly :-)

If you do it in this order you should be assured of a pain free installation. Well OK then... at least a 'reduced risk' one anyway.

What do you gain by installing SP1?

Here's two useful links showing what you get with this upgrade:

• List of the 227 bug fixes in SP1. Also provides an interesting account of how the bugs were discovered.
• New features in SP1.

If I come across any issues I'll post them here.

Useful Links

Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Team Foundation Server SP1

Upgrading TFS 2008 Workgroup Edition to the full version

We've been evaluating TFS 2008 workgroup edition the last couple of months, are pretty happy with it and have hence now purchased a license for the full version (thus unlocking the 5 user limit).

Upgrading is pretty straightforward, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404848.aspx

Basically you run the TFS installer in maintenance mode by going to add/remove programs, locating TFS and selecting Change/Remove:

 

You should then get the maintenance mode page. Great I thought, I simply need to copy/paste in the sparkling new product key I'd been given... umm, wait a minute, the boxes appear to be disabled...

 

My heart sank... so much for the 5 mins upgrade then. Of course, after digging around on various forums, there was a workaround. The problem is down to the fact that the MSDN version I'd downloaded and originally installed, pre-fills the key with a work group ed key and makes them read only. Nice, thanks, a great feature. The solution is to find where the key is stored in setup.stb and remove it. Go to:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server - ENU\Setup.stb

edit it in notepad (backup up the file first) and remove the offending lines:

Save it. Re-run maintenance mode via "change/remove" and the fields are enabled:

 

Paste in your full product key, click next, some services are restarted and hey presto, you have now transformed workgroup edition into the full version.

Clarkey