Planning for Team Foundation Server
The Team Foundation Server planning guide describes the operational and administrative requirements for Team Foundation Server. It addresses hardware requirements, software requirements, deployment topologies, process guidance, and integration with other software. It does not provide deployment guidance or how-to steps. It is designed to help business decision-makers and network administrators plan for Team Foundation Server.
Purpose of this Planning Guide
This guide will help you plan for adding Team Foundation Server to your business, whether you are already using Visual Studio Team System or not. After reading this guide, you should be able to create:
A hardware plan (including dates to order equipment if necessary).
A software integration plan.
A task list for the administrator who will maintain the systems in your organization and create initial projects.
Terminology
The following terms are used throughout this planning guide:
Visual Studio Team System
A software life cycle product family that provides an end-to-end solution for software development teams that build service-oriented applications using the .NET Framework.
Team Foundation Server
The product name given to the set of source control, work item tracking, build, team project portal, reporting, and project management features for Windows Server 2003.
Team Foundation application-tier, Team Foundation application-tier server
The logical designation of a subset of Team Foundation Server features that consists primarily of ASP.NET Web services running under Internet Information Services (IIS). It also includes the TFS Scheduler service and the Build Services service, which are Windows services. The physical grouping of these Team Foundation Server features on a single computer is referred to as Team Foundation Server (services). The logical Team Foundation application tier and its prerequisites (for example, Windows SharePoint Services) can be installed on one server or more than one server, depending on your business needs. However, the services that form the core of the Team Foundation application tier must be installed on the same physical server.
Team Foundation data-tier, Team Foundation data-tier server
The logical designation of a subset of Team Foundation Server features that consists of all persistent data in Team Foundation, including all SQL databases and the files and directories used to store work item attachments. The physical grouping of these Team Foundation Server features on a single computer is referred to as Team Foundation Server (databases). The logical Team Foundation data tier and its prerequisites (for example, SQL Server Analysis Services) can be installed on one server or more than one server, depending on your business needs.
Role-based client
One of the Visual Studio Team System client applications specifically targeted to a role in the software development life cycle. There are four role-based clients in Visual Studio Team System: Visual Studio Team System Architecture Edition, Visual Studio Team System Development Edition, Visual Studio Team System Test Edition, and Visual Studio Team System Database Edition.
Team Explorer
A Visual Studio-based client application for software project management and analysis. Team Explorer is not considered a standalone role-based client such as Development Edition.
See Also
Concepts
Team Foundation Server Planning Roadmap
Team Foundation Server Planning Checklist