VSTS 2010 Infrastructure Changes
As more information is released about VSTS 2010, it is so easy to get caught up in the excitement of new features and the infrastructure planning for your upgrade ends up falling behind and eventually implemented at the last minute. Brian Harry blogged not too long ago about some of the major infrastructure and technology changes coming in VSTS 2010 as well as hints at the release post VSTS 2010.
In summary, here is the breakdown of minimum and recommended configuration changes for VSTS 2010 and post VSTS 2010 preparation.
Minimum Configuration Changes
| Component | Version |
| SQL: | SQL Server 2008 |
| SharePoint: | WSS 3.0 |
| Office: | Office 2007 |
The major change is of course requiring SQL Server 2008 due to the much improved version of Reporting Services. Along with a minimum of WSS 3.0, SharePoint as a whole is becoming an optional component, which is great news for many organizations who do not use the functionality and do not want to dedicate the resources to maintaining it through upgrades. That being said, Microsoft is also extended MOSS support as an integral part of the reporting platform so the SharePoint benefits are continually growing. Office integration is of course an optional component as it stands today but both Excel and Project are widely used interfaces to TFS outside of Team Explorer and Team System Web Access and Office 2003 will not integrate with VSTS 2010.
Recommended Configuration Changes
| Component | Version | Reason |
| OS: | Windows Server 2008 64 bit | Post VSTS 2010, Server 2003 support is unlikely. 64 bit is fully supported on the application tier in VSTS 2010 and will be dropped in further releases. |
| SQL: | SQL Server 2008 | Required |
| SharePoint: | MOSS 2007 | With VSTS 2010, the benefits of a MOSS installation are being taken advantage of and the new reporting features will be useful. |
| Office: | Office 2007 | Required |
Now that 64 bit will be supported on the application tier in VSTS 2010 and 32 bit support dropped in subsequent releases as well as Windows Server 2003 support unlikely in the future, the VSTS 2010 timeframe is a good time to upgrade to Windows Server 2008 64 bit. Taking advantage of Hyper-V within Windows Server 2008, you may also want to virtualize much of your VSTS 2010 infrastructure.
Also of note is full support and integration with Project Server 2007 with VSTS 2010. Project Server is of course optional but is another complex product that takes additional resources and planning for implementation alongside VSTS 2010.
Where to Start
There is a lot to think about when it comes to VSTS 2010 for not only these configuration changes and requirements here but the new features that will inevitably increase the size of your infrastructure. A couple features that easily stand out as needing increased resources are lab management and historical debugging. VSTS 2010 is a shift to a more scalable product and to take advantage of all the new features, you need to ready your environment and inevitably, your budget.
In preparation for the VSTS 2010 release, you should seriously consider upgrading to TFS 2008 SP1 and SQL Server 2008 to minimize the amount of change required at one time and manage the risk associated with upgrading. Microsoft did a great job improving the installation and upgrade of TFS 2008 and 2010 is looking even better but known quantities of controlled change are always my preferred approach.
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