Team Foundation Server Permissions

Permissions determine the authorization for user actions such as workspace administration and project creation. When you create a project in Team Foundation Server, four default groups are created for that project regardless of your choice of process template. By default, each of these groups has a set of permissions defined for them that govern what members of those groups are authorized to do.

• Project Administrator

• Contributor

• Reader

• Build Services

To manage default groups and to create custom groups, administrators must understand the meaning of the permissions and the security implications for explicitly setting permissions.

Permission Settings

There are two explicit authorization settings for permissions in Team Foundation Server: Deny and Allow. There is also an implicit authorization available which neither sets the permission to Allow nor sets the permission to Deny. This authorization is an implicit Deny setting that is referred to as Unset.

Deny

Deny denies authorization for the user or group to perform the actions stated in the permission description. Deny is the most powerful permission setting in Team Foundation Server. If a user belongs to a Team Foundation Server group that has a specific permission set to Deny, that user cannot perform that function, even if he or she belongs to another group that has that permission set to Allow. The only exception to this rule occurs when the user is a member of either the Project Administrators group for a project or the Team Foundation Administrators group. If a user is a member of the Project Administrators group for a project, the privileges of that group override an explicit Deny for that user in a project. Similarly, if a user is a member of the Team Foundation Administrators group, the privileges of that group override an explicit Deny for that user in Team Foundation Server.

Allow

Allow grants authorization for the user or group to perform the actions stated in the permission description. Allow is the second-most powerful permission setting in Team Foundation Server. It is the one that is set most frequently. If you do not explicitly set a permission to Allow, a user or group cannot perform that action in Team Foundation Server.

Unset

By default, most permissions in Team Foundation Server are not set to either Deny or Allow. The permissions are left unset, which implicitly denies both users and groups authorization to perform the actions specified in the permission description. However, because the permission is neither explicitly set to Deny nor explicitly set to Allow, authorization for that permission can be inherited from other groups of which the user or group is a member.

Inheritance

When permission is unset for a user or group, the user or group can be affected by the explicit setting for the permission for groups to which they belong because permissions in Team Foundation Server are inherited. For example, if a user belongs to two custom groups in a project, and one of those groups has a permission that is explicitly set to Deny and the other group has the same permission unset, the user will not have permission to perform the actions controlled by that permission (the user inherits permissions from both groups, and the Deny takes precedence over the unset permission).

Certain authorization settings take precedence over other authorization settings. In Team Foundation Server, the Deny permission takes precedence over all other permission settings, including Allow and Unset. For example, a user might belong to two groups in a project. For one group, the Publish test results permission is set to Deny; the other group has that permission set to Allow. The Deny setting takes precedence, and the user is not authorized to publish test results. In other words, the general rule for precedence in inheritance is Deny, Allow, Unset.

The only exception to this rule occurs when the user is a member of either the Project Administrators group for a project or the Team Foundation Administrators group. If a user is a member of the Project Administrators group for a project, the permissions of that group override an explicit Deny or an implicit Unset for that user in a project. Similarly, if a user is a member of the Team Foundation Administrators group, the permissions of that group override an explicit Deny or an implicit Unset for that user in Team Foundation Server.

Permissions Set Through the Team Foundation Server User Interface and Through the Command Line

Many of the permissions you might want to set for Team Foundation Server are controlled through the Team Foundation Server user interface. You can set these permissions on a server basis (server-level permissions) or on a project basis (project-level permissions). You can also set area-level permissions for viewing and interacting with work items on a project basis. For more information about which permissions are set for what users by default, and for what permissions to set for MSF for Agile Software Development or MSF CMMI Process Improvement groups, see Team Foundation Server Default Groups, Permissions, and Roles. For more information about how to set permissions for users and groups, see Managing Users and Groups and Managing Permissions. For more information about managing work items, see Working with Team Foundation Work Items.

Server-Level Permissions

Server-level permissions are not specific to a single project. Instead, they are set on a server-wide basis. You can set these permissions only for three categories of users:

• Server-level users and groups, such as Team Foundation Administrators

• Project-level groups that have been added to the server-level on your Team Foundation server

• Custom groups you create and add to the server level

You can set these permissions in Team Foundation Server by right-clicking the server in Team Explorer, and then clicking Security. You can set these permissions by using the TFSSecurity command-line utility, except for those command-line utilities with a tf: designation. For those with the tf: designation, use the Permission command of the tf command-line utility for source control to set the permissions. For more information, see TFSSecurity Command-Line Utility Commands and Permission Command.

Permission Name	Name at command line	Description
Administer shelved changes	tf: AdminShelvesets	Users who have this permission can delete shelvesets created by other users.
Administer warehouse	ADMINISTER_WAREHOUSE	Users who have this permission can change warehouse settings by using the ChangeSetting Web method of the WarehouseController.asmx Web service. For example, you could allow users to set the update interval for calculating the OLAP cubes.
Administer workspaces	tf: AdminWorkspaces	Users who have this permission can create workspaces for other users and delete workspaces created by other users.
Create a workspace	tf: CreateWorkspace	Users who have this permission can create a source control workspace.
Create new projects	CREATE_PROJECTS	Users who have this permission can create new projects in Team Foundation Server. In order to successfully create new projects, these users must be members of the correct groups in SharePoint Products and Technologies and SQL Server. These groups vary depending on the version of the product being used. For more information, see How to: Set Team Foundation Server Administrator Permissions.
Edit server-level information	GENERIC_WRITE tf: AdminConfiguration tf: AdminConnections	Users who have this permission can edit server-level permissions for users and groups on Team Foundation Server. They can add or remove server-level Team Foundation Server application groups from Team Foundation Server. When set through the menus, the Edit server-level information permission also implicitly allows the user to modify source control permissions. To grant all the above permissions from the command line, you must use the tf.exe Permission command to grant the AdminConfiguration and AdminConnections permissions as well as GENERIC_WRITE. Note: Default server groups such as Team Foundation Administrators cannot be removed.
Alter trace settings	DIAGNOSTIC_TRACE	Users who have this permission can change the trace settings for gathering more detailed diagnostic information about Team Foundation Server Web services. For more information about tracing, see Trace Settings for Team Foundation Server.
Trigger Events	TRIGGER_EVENT	Users who have this permission can trigger project alert events within Team Foundation Server. This permission should only be assigned to service accounts.
Manage process template	MANAGE_TEMPLATE	Users who have this permission can download, create, edit, and upload process templates to Team Foundation Server.
View server-level information	GENERIC_READ	Users who have this permission can view server-level group membership and the permissions of those users.
View system synchronization information	SYNCHRONIZE_READ	Users who have this permission can trigger synchronization events. This permission should only be assigned to service accounts.

Project-Level Permissions

Project-level permissions are specific to a single project's users and groups. You can set these permissions in Team Foundation Server by right-clicking the project in Team Explorer, clicking Team Project Settings, and then clicking Security. You can also set these permissions by using the TFSSecurity command-line utility.

Build-Level Permissions

Build-level permissions are specific to a single project's users and groups. You can set these permissions by right-clicking the project in Team Explorer, clicking Team Project Settings, and then clicking Security. Additionally, you can set these permissions by using the TFSSecurity command-line utility.

Work Item Tracking Area-Level Permissions

Area-level permissions are specific to a single project's users and groups. You can set these permissions by right-clicking the project in Team Explorer, clicking Areas and Iterations, and on the Area tab, clicking Security. Additionally, you can set these permissions by using the TFSSecurity command-line utility.

Work Item Tracking Iteration-Level Permissions

Iteration-level permissions are specific to a single project's users and groups. You can set these permissions by right-clicking the project in Team Explorer, clicking Areas and Iterations, and on the Iterations tab, clicking Security. Additionally, you can set these permissions by using the TFSSecurity command-line utility.

Source Control Permissions

Source control permissions are specific to source code files and folders. You can set these permissions by right-clicking the folder or file in Source Control Explorer, clicking Properties, and on the Security tab, selecting the user or group for which you want to change permissions, and then editing the permissions listed in Permissions. You can set these permissions by using the tf command-line utility for source control.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Set Team Foundation Server Administrator Permissions

How to: Set Team Foundation Server Project Lead Permissions

How to: Set Team Foundation Server Contributor Permissions

How to: Set Team Foundation Server Reader Permissions

Concepts

Team Foundation Server Default Groups, Permissions, and Roles

Working with Team Foundation Work Items

Other Resources

TFSSecurity Command-Line Utility Commands

Team Foundation Version Control Command-Line Reference

Managing Users and Groups

Managing Permissions

Change History