Visual Guide to Setting Up and Using Team Foundation Server 2010 (Part 2 – Team Project Collection)

This is the Part 2 of the 4 post regarding setup and installation of Team Foundation Server.  This is a visual guide that might help you in you own setup of a Team Foundation Server, please be aware that this will not cover all scenarios of the setup but I will show you my experience in setting up our own Team Foundation Server.

Here are the other parts of the post

Part 1 – Setup and Configuration
Part 2 – Team Project Collection
Part 3 – Creating a Team Project
Part 4 – Trying out your Set Up

Now you have configured your TFS, its time now to create your first Project Collection.  So whats a team project collection?

According to MSDN – it is an organizing structure that you can use to define and control a group of team projects within Team Foundation Server. When you create a collection, you specify the logical and physical resources that team projects within that collection can use. All the artifacts and data that those projects use is stored in the single database of the collection.

Team project collections provide server administrators with the following advantages:

• A single database that stores all the data for every project in each collection. Administrators can back up and restore this database independently of other collections.
• A scalable method that administrators can use to manage the resources that development efforts require. Administrators can reassign resources to better meet the demands of the projects within a collection.

Team project collections provide project administrators with the following advantages:

• A grouping of related projects that can share reports, work items, and process guidance, as well as a code base.
• An autonomous code base that can be built, branched, merged, and iterated according to the needs of the projects within the collection. Code dependencies outside the collection can be formally managed.

To start press the create collection button.

Step 1 – Project Collection

It will now ask you for a Name and Description for you collection.  Click Next.

Step 2 – Project Collection Properties

You are now asked to provide a SQL Server instance.  You can create a new database or use a User Defined existing empty database (you can use this if you maintain a naming convention for you SQL Server Databases).

Step 3 – SQL Server Instance

Now you are asked for s Sharpoint Site Instance.  You have options of creating a sharepoint site in a default location, you can specify a path (this is good if you already have an instance of Sharepoint on your organization), and do not create a sharepoint site.

Step 4 – Sharepoint Instance

Now it will ask for the Reporting Server Instance same as the sharepoint it has 3 options.  Create a new folder on a default location, specify a path or do not create a report folder.

Step 5 – Reporting Server Instance

Now you can review what you had configured press next if you are satisfied otherwise you can always go back and reconfigure.

Step 6 – Review Configuration

Again it validates the configuration, once all passed you can press create.

Step 7 – Start Creation

Creation of the Collection Starts.  Once done press Next.

Step 8 – Project Colelction Created

Now you have finished your Project Collection.

Step 9 – The New Team Collection

You can now proceed to Part 3 – Creating a Team Project