{"id":3431,"date":"2012-03-27T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T05:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/bharry\/2012\/03\/27\/announcing-a-build-service-for-team-foundation-service\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T12:55:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T19:55:37","slug":"announcing-a-build-service-for-team-foundation-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/announcing-a-build-service-for-team-foundation-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcing a Build Service for Team Foundation Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today in my VS Live keynote, I announced and demonstrated a new cloud based build service for our Team Foundation Service on Azure<\/a>.\u00a0 From the beginning with tfspreview, you\u2019ve been able to do builds, but \u2013 you had to install, manage, patch, etc the build machines yourself.\u00a0 With this new service, we\u2019ve made it possible to skip that and just use a pool of build machines that we manage in the cloud (though you can still install and manage build machines if you like).\u00a0 And, of course, you can do more than just build \u2013 like with on-premises TFS, you can run a default workflow that includes, compilation, testing, etc or you can create a custom workflow that does whatever you like.\u00a0 This represents the next step in getting your project\/team started and productive in the shortest time possible.<\/p>\n

Our new build service works by maintaining a pool of Azure VM roles that can expand and shrink as needed.\u00a0 When you start a build, a VM is allocated from the pool to run your build.\u00a0 Your build is run, the build output is copied off the build machine then the VM is restored and it is returned back to the pool for someone else to use.<\/p>\n

After my announcement today, we will be enabling the new build service for all new and existing accounts on Team Foundation Service.\u00a0 It will take a few hours to enable them all but you should expect to see it available on your account by early afternoon.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have an account but would like to try it out, you can request access.<\/p>\n

Visit http:\/\/www.tfspreview.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Click Create Account<\/p>\n

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If you have an invitation code (you can get one from someone who already has an account), you can just sign up or, if not, click the \u201cClick here to register\u201d link and it will take you to a page where you can leave an email address.\u00a0 How much demand we see will influence how fast we send out new invitation codes.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been fulfilling them within 1 to 2 weeks and I hope we can continue at that rate.<\/p>\n

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Using Team Foundation Service<\/h3>\n

Using Team Foundation Service is very much like using an on-premises TFS server \u2013 it looks the same from Visual Studio (or Team Explorer Everywhere in Eclipse, for that matter).\u00a0 The only difference is that you use LiveID to login rather than a Windows login.\u00a0 Once you are in, it\u2019s transparent to you.\u00a0 This includes the new build service.\u00a0 You can create a new build definition, queue a build, etc the same way you would if you managed the infrastructure.\u00a0 The one difference is that you need to pick the \u201cHosted Build Controller\u201d in your build definition rather than a local build controller.<\/p>\n

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And (because we don\u2019t have UNC shares in the cloud), you configure the build output local (Staging location) to be a path in version control ($\/BuildsTests\/Drops) in the example above.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ll continue to have version control be the only drop location for the service but for now, it was an easy solution that provides an efficient place that is secure and easy to manage.\u00a0 In addition it enables you to use the Team Foundation Server Proxy locally to improve download speeds for teams.\u00a0 Build retention policies still work and will clean up old, unwanted drops.<\/p>\n

The Build VM Image<\/h3>\n

The only major limitation is you don\u2019t control the build machine.\u00a0 That simply means that if you have an external dependency in your project that is not in the default VM image, you will either need to check it in, enable your solution to download it from a public NuGet feed, or install it as part of your custom workflow.<\/p>\n

The exact set of supported frameworks will continue to be refined, however with this release we have the following installed on the build image:<\/p>\n