Team Foundation Server Requirements

Hardware and Software Requirements

Visual Studio Team System Team Foundation Server consists of two logical tiers: a Team Foundation application tier, made up primarily of Web services, and a Team Foundation data tier, made up primarily of a SQL Server 2005 database. You can deploy these logical tiers on one physical server or across multiple physical servers. This depends on how you install and configure your deployment. Your hardware and software requirements will depend on how many users you want to support, how many projects you want to support, and how you want to deploy the Team Foundation logical tiers across the physical servers in your infrastructure.

Hardware and Software Requirements

Hardware and software requirements for Team Foundation Server are documented in Application-Tier Server Requirements for Team Foundation, Data-Tier Server Requirements for Team Foundation, and in the Team Foundation Installation Guide. You can download the most recent version of this guide from the Microsoft Web site.

Team Foundation Server Planning Roadmap, Planning a Team Project, and Team Foundation Server Planning Checklist provide links and information that can help you plan for your specific requirements.

Operating System Requirements

All components of Team Foundation Server are fully supported on 32-bit server operating systems from Microsoft. Microsoft also provides 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003. You can install some, but not all, Team Foundation components on these 64-bit operating systems. The following sections describe what components are appropriate for each operating system. 

Installation on 32-bit Server Operating Systems

You can install Team Foundation Server on the 32-bit versions of the following operating systems, but you must first install any service packs listed. Service packs listed are the minimum level required and not an inclusive list of all supported service pack levels. Unsupported service packs, if any, are specifically called out.

• Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed

• Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, with SP1 installed

• Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, with SP1 installed

• Windows Server 2003 R2, Standard Edition

• Windows Server 2003 R2, Enterprise Edition

• Windows Server 2003 R2, Datacenter Edition

• Windows Server 2008

• Windows Server 2008 R2

Installation on 64-bit Server Operating Systems

Microsoft provides 64-bit versions of Windows for both workstation and server computers. A 64-bit system requires special design considerations that differ from the 32-bit operating system design. These considerations relate to firmware, hard disk partitions, device drivers, and other issues.

For more information about 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003, visit the Microsoft Web site. Team Foundation Server supports running the Team Foundation data-tier and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. Team Foundation Server requires that the application tier run in a native 32-bit environment. The application tier does not support WOW64 or native modes. The following table shows the components that you can install on specific 64-bit operating systems.

1 Team Foundation Server single-server deployment.

2 Team Foundation Server dual-server deployment.

Language Requirements

You can configure a logical deployment of Team Foundation Server, whether it is deployed on one physical server or many physical servers, to support only one language. If you deploy Team Foundation Server on many servers, all those servers require the same configuration for both the Team Foundation Server language and the operating system language. The only exception to this requirement is on English-language versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. You can install another language version of Team Foundation Server on an English-language server.

For example, you can install an English version of Team Foundation Server on an English or Japanese version of an operating system. However, you must install Team Foundation Server localized for another language on the same language operating system or on an English operating system. If you are deploying a Japanese version of Team Foundation Server, you can install it only on a Japanese version of the operating system or an English version of the operating system. You cannot, for example, install it on a French version of the operating system.

You must also install the SharePoint Products and Technologies language pack that matches the language version of Team Foundation Server. For example, if you deploy the English version of Team Foundation Server on an operating system that is localized for another language, you must install the English language pack for SharePoint Products and Technologies. If you deploy a Japanese version of Team Foundation Server on an English version of an operating system, you must install the Japanese language pack for SharePoint Products and Technologies.

Network Performance

During various operations, Team Foundation Server connects to the appropriate services and components on the data tier and the application tier. The speed with which Team Foundation Server transfers large amounts of data (for example, creating team projects, uploading large documents, or checking large files into source control) depends, in large part, on the speed of the computer network. If you are experiencing poor performance for such operations, network configuration problems might be artificially limiting the throughput of the system.

Domain and Workgroup Requirements

You can deploy Team Foundation Server in either Active Directory domains or in a workgroup. For more information, see Managing Team Foundation Server in an Active Directory Domain and Managing Team Foundation Server in a Workgroup.

Port and Protocol Requirements

To better suit your business needs, you can customize some ports and protocols required by Team Foundation Server. Other required ports cannot be changed. For more information about ports and protocols, see Team Foundation Server Security Architecture.

In This Section

• Application-Tier Server Requirements for Team Foundation
  Describes the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for installing the Team Foundation application-tier.

• Data-Tier Server Requirements for Team Foundation
  Describes the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for installing the Team Foundation data-tier.

• Team Foundation Server Proxy Requirements
  Describes the minimum and recommended hardware requirements for installing the Team Foundation Server proxy.

See Also

Concepts

Team Foundation Server Planning Roadmap

Team Foundation Server Planning Checklist

Team Build Requirements for Team Foundation

Test Rig Requirements for Team System

Clients for Team Foundation Server

Other Resources

Team Foundation Server Planning

Requirements for Team Foundation

Change History