ActivateAt Command

Use ActivateAT to activate local computer as application-tier server.

Required Permissions

To use the ActivateAT command, you must be a member of the Team Foundation Administrators group on the Team Foundation application-tier server and a member of the sysadmin group on the SQL Server on the Team Foundation data-tier server. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

Note

Even if you are logged on with administrative credentials, you must open an elevated Command Prompt to perform this function on a server that is running Windows Server 2008. To open an elevated Command Prompt, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and click Run as Administrator. For more information, see the Microsoft Web site.

TFSAdminUtil [/noprompt | /i] ActivateAT [serverName]

Parameters

Argument

Description

serverName

Optional. The application-tier server name.

If the server name is omitted, the default server name will be the NETBIOS name of the current computer.

Remarks

Important noteImportant Note:

We recommend that you back up the databases in the Team Foundation Server data tier server.

You must prevent multiple application tiers from getting connected to the same data tier. The ActivateAT command of the TFSAdminUtil command-line utility is used to activate the appropriate application tier and bind it to the data tier server.

If you are activating a standby application-tier server, make sure that you verify that the Reporting Services are online. For more information, see How to: Activate a Fail-Over Application-Tier Server.

Example Usage Scenarios

The ActivateAT command can be used by the administrator in various scenarios. The following is a list of example scenarios:

  • Application tier maintenance or fixing:

    The administrator configures a new application tier and must activate it instead of the current application tier. The current (old) application tier is shut down. The administrator runs the command-line utility TFSAdminUtil activateAT to bind the new application tier to the data-tier server.

  • Active application tier failure:

    As the application tier is a single point of failure in the system, the administrator might want to introduce a standby application-tier server. The active application tier is connected to the network and pointing to the correct data-tier server. The data tier should sustain the active application tier and should not perform transactions with the standby application-tier server. ActivateAT command is used to switch between the two application-tier servers as needed.

    If the active application-tier server fails, the administrator must switch to the standby application-tier server. First, the administrator shuts down, or resets Internet Information Services (IIS) on the failed application-tier server. The administrator then runs the command-line utility TFSAdminUtil ActivateAT to bind the standby application tier to the data-tier server.

Example

The following example activates the local computer as the application tier.

>TFSAdminUtil.exe activateAT

See Also

Tasks

How to: Activate a Fail-Over Application-Tier Server

Concepts

Activating a Fail-Over Application-Tier Server

Other Resources

TFSAdminUtil Command-Line Commands

Using Team Foundation Server Command-Line Tools

Administering Team Foundation Server

Managing Team Foundation Server Services and Service Accounts

Managing Data-Tier Servers for Team Foundation Server