Question

Our current environment has TFS on a single server installation:

• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP2 (32-bit)
• TFS 2005
• SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition

Due to an ongoing drive towards virtualisation in our organisation, we are required to move TFS to new hardware. As we have a licence for TFS 2008 we would like to end up with the following, again on a single server installation:

• Windows Server 2008 32-bit
• TFS 2008
• SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (we need this licence level to be able to move machines around on the virtual envionrment)

Most importantly, we must retain our code check-in history. Ideally, we would like to retain all our check-in dates and notes too.

I have found a couple of questions on SO that are similar:

Attach and upgrade TFS 2005 databases to a TFS 2008 installation

Import from Team Foundation Server 2005 into 2008

However the first answer says to just read the manual, and having looked through it I can’t find guidance on this specific scenario. The second question is a slightly different scenario as we don’t already have any projects on the new TFS environment – we haven’t even built it yet! We have the benefit of starting with a brand new TFS 2008 installation.

The question is then, what is the best way of doing this, if any? We can set up the new environment and use the TFS Integration Tools but due to the limitations we will lose some information (e.g. check-in notes).

I’m thinking that there must surely be a way of upgrading the TFS 2005 databases to the 2008 version and attaching them to the new SQL Server?

If anyone can advise I’ll be extremely grateful.

Update
Would it be possible to backup and then upgrade the existing TFS 2005 installation to 2008, and then perform a migration as per these instructions?

Answer 1

Thanks to @Edward for his advice which made complete sense. Unfortunately on looking into doing this, I discovered that TFS 2005 is not supported on Windows Server 2008 so I couldn’t do it that way round.

I ended up doing what I initially suggested (in place upgrade and then migration). I have listed the steps below in case anyone else ever wants to do this. Please note that these steps are in no way exhaustive but they are the general process you need to follow with pointers to the correct documentation.

New server:

1. Set up Windows Server 2008
2. Install prerequisites (IIS, SQL
   2008) according to the TFS 2008
   installation guide
3. Merge the TFS 2008 installation
   files with TFS 2008 SP1 in order to
   support SQL 2008 (same installation guide)
4. Install TFS 2008 SP1
   (same installation guide)
5. Upgrade SQL 2008 to SP2 to fix a bug
   which prevented maintenance plans
   from running without SSIS
6. Back up TFS and SharePoint databases
7. Back up the SSRS encryption key

Old server:

1. Take image of server for backup
2. Stop TFS/IIS services for robust
   database backup
3. Back up TFS and SharePoint databases
4. Back up the SSRS encryption key
5. Verify SQL 2005 SP1 is installed to
   support TFS 2008
6. Upgrade TFS 2005 > TFS 2008 as per
   TFS 2008 installation guide
7. Install TFS 2008 SP1 to support SQL
   2008
8. Back up TFS and SharePoint
   databases
9. Back up the SSRS encryption key
10. Upgrade SQL 2005 > SQL 2008 as per
    MSDN guide
11. Back up TFS and SharePoint
    databases
12. Back up the SSRS encryption key
13. Upgrade Windows SharePoint Services
    2.0 > WSS 3.0 (new server is Windows Server 2008 which only
    supports 3.0) as per MSDN guide
14. Install SQL 2008 SP2
15. Perform TFS migration as per MSDN
    guide

I tried this all out first on some disposable virtual servers which was very worthwhile. The whole process (including testing, communicating to users, etc.) has taken well over a week!