| I Tried to Love You TFS 2008, But You Wouldn't Let Me |
| Sunday, February 24 2008 |
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I really liked TFS 2005. I know many people had issues with it, but I enjoyed the level of integration it brought to a project, and having used it heavily on a couple big projects, I saw its value everyday. Granted, it's install and configuration could be very frustrating, but once it was setup it just worked. And naturally I figured the install/configure process would be addressed with TFS 2008.
So when TFS 2008 was released I was really looking forward to its many improvements, especially the new Team Build because I wanted to see how well it fared against the de facto standard CruiseControl.NET, of which I've used and been a big fan of for a long time.
But a few weeks ago when I set aside a night to install TFS 2008 I ran into nothing but brick walls. Having the experience of several TFS 2005 installs under my belt, I knew to follow the TFS 2008 install guide to the letter, and I did exactly that. And it bought me nothing. Unless you count those brick walls.
First it was a Reporting Server error, then it was a permissions error, then the identity of the AppPool process needed changed, and then SharePoint decided to join the party. I scoured forums and blogs and tried every trick I knew from previous TFS 2005 installs, and nothing worked. I even started completely fresh a couple times just to make sure I didn't miss a step, but it didn't matter. Same crap over and over.
This went on for 3 straight nights, so it's not like I ran into a roadblock and gave up. But at some point you have to cut your losses, and so I did. I installed and configured Subversion using VisualSVN Server and had a source code repository in about 2 minutes. TortoiseSVN is already installed on all my machines, so there was nothing to do from that standpoint. And I already run CC.NET, so that's done too.
It's been a long time since I've been this disappointed in a product. What Microsoft needs to understand is that TFS 2008 itself is a huge barrier to entry within companies, and so to get its foot in the door they need to make it as easy as possible to get it up and running, because the sooner they do that the sooner they can show its value. But that's not the approach Microsoft took. It seems clear to me that Microsoft's stance was, "If you just bear with us through the install we promise it'll be worth it". Do you think an admin or developer would seriously recommend TFS 2008 after spending 3 days trying to install and configure it and having it still *not* work? I doubt it. This is especially troublesome because I know Microsoft *said* they were listening to feedback about all the install issues from TFS 2005. And yet, it only seemed to get worse with TFS 2008. WTF?
This experience was a real shame for me because I miss the integration TFS provides between my code, my bugs, and my work items. But there are other things I use for those, such as Ta-da and Unfuddle, and now I'll continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
6 comment(s) so far
For source control, I've found that VS + VisualSVN does everything I need it to. I've used it on my personal projects for quite awhile, along with a third party Subversion host so I don't have to worry about maintaining regular backups.
That's terribly disappointing. We're using TFS 2008 at my current client and things have been great. Only headache we had was moving the build machine from non-domain to domain. Had to Run a command line too to change the service accounts all over the place. In fact, I was pleasently surprised they included a utility for that - figured we'd end up doing it manually.
You really should check out TeamCity from JetBrains for continuous integration. It totally kills CC.NET. Really easy to setup, really nice interface, real-time build status using AJAX, nice client monitoring apps... it really is WAY better than CC.NET. And it's free.
Dave,
Having shared your second experience setting up TFS 2005, I think I share your disappointment. Microsoft is following their "Version 3" formula to the letter. Same with SSIS. Seems we'll be waiting for the "Post 2008" releases for a truly enterprise ETL tool AND app lifecycle management tool.
Too bad. SVN is great for source control, but doesn't offer the top down visibility of TFS.
I feel your pain with TFS 2008. Off the shelf, she is a beast.
But I have her running at JPMC for 500+ applications. She is a little high-maint at first, but there is some good stuff in there.
And it should be pointed out that TFS 2008 is actually a minor release, moving from 1.0 to 1.5.
I am writing an much improved install guide- I will kick it off to you when I am done.
I went through same nightmare with TFS with SP1 (hacked version) to work with SQL Server 2008. Every single time carp out at TFSRSconfig.exe with error 32000. I was so disappointed with M$ft trust with developer community. I tried four times and still crapped. WTF