TFS vNext builds do not have a concept of build quality unlike the old XAML based builds. This is an issue for us as we used the changing of the build quality as signal to test a build, or to mark it as released to a client (this was all managed with my TFS Alerts DSL to make sure suitable emails and build retention …

I like web deploy as a means to package up websites for deployment. I like the way I only need to add 1/p:DeployOnBuild=True;PublishProfile=Release as an MSBuild argument to get the package produced as part of an automated build. This opening up loads of deployment options I recently hit an issue packaging up a …

A couple of months ago I wrote a post on using PowerShell scripts to deploy web sites in Release Management vNext templates as opposed to DSC. In that post I provided a script to help with the translation of Release Management configuration variables to entries in the [MSDELPOY].setparameters.xml file for web sites. …

I have just had a guest post published on the Microsoft UK developers site nUnit and Jasmine.JS unit tests in TFS/VSO vNext build

DDDNorth is on again this year, back in it’s more northern base of the Sunderland University on the 24th of October You can submit your session proposal in here

Background We upgraded our production TFS 2013.4 server to TFS 2015 RTM this week. As opposed to an in-place upgrade we chose to make a few change on the way; so whilst leaving our DBs on our SQL 2012 cluster We moved to a new VM for our AT (to upgrade from Windows 2008R2 to 2012R2) Split the SSRS instance off the AT …

In my last post I discussed how you could wire TCM tests into a Release Management vNext pipeline. The problem with the script I provided, as I noted, was that the deployment was triggered synchronously by the build i.e. the build/release process was: TFS Build Gets the source Compiled the code Run the unit tests …

Also see Part 2 on how to address gotcha's in this process When using Release Management there is a good chance you will want to run test suites as part of your automated deployment pipeline. If you are using a vNext PowerShell based pipeline you need a way to trigger the tests via PowerShell as there is no out the box …

A few days in and I have solved the few problems I have had Can apply update Security Update for Windows 10 for x64-based Systems (KB3074683) My system tried to apply the KB3074683 patch a couple of time, rolling it back each time. A search of the forums found the answer to this one. As in the forum post I have an …

I have just done an in place upgrade on my Lenovo W520 from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Something I had not tried during the beta programme, sticking to running Windows 10 in VMs (mostly on Azure). I have to say the process was pretty smooth. I only hit one issue, and this was the usual NVidia Optimus problems I saw …