Fixes for TFS 2012 Update 1 (aka Cumulative Update 1 for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 Update 1)

Buck Hodges

We have now released a patch with a set of fixes for TFS 2012 Update 1. Many of you saw that we released a patch in early January and then pulled it down. This is the re-release.

Shipping major changes to the server on this much faster cadence has been a learning experience for us. Brian wrote about some of the lessons we learned here. It turns out, we still had more to learn in Update 1, as we were not ready to service the product (when you can’t install a patch for the non-default location, you aren’t ready!). We found other issues through testing, including installing the patch on the Developer Division server. Our experience with our own heavily-loaded production server lead directly to identifying the instructions necessary to ensure a successful installation. We also had a number of customers install the patch (I got a number of emails, and all of those folks were very helpful!). The result will be changes in the next update for TFS 2012 to make servicing better.

If you installed the original patch, you can and should install this patch. This one fixes a few additional issues, as detailed in the KB (issues 6-8). You do not need to uninstall the original patch – just install this one to update your server.

It is important to follow the instructions. Please take a moment to read these. I have copied them here from the KB article. If you tweet, blog or share the link for the patch, please use the KB article link. We still need to get the download page updated with the latest info from the KB article.

This patch only contains fixes for the server, so you do not need to install it on your build, version control proxy, or SharePoint computers.

Installation information

Before you install the update:

• Close any instances of Event Viewer that are running (EventVwr.exe).
• Close any instances of Server Manager that are running (ServerManager.exe).
• Close the Team Foundation Administration Console (tfsmgmt.exe).

If you have multiple load-balanced application tiers (ATs):

1. Shut down all the ATs except for the one on which you will install the update. Make sure that you close the Admin Console on all these ATs.
2. Remove the AT from the load balancer.
3. Install the update (as discussed earlier).
4. After you install the update to the first AT, install the update on the other ATs one at a time.
5. Add the ATs back to the load balancer.

If you are using SQL Mirroring or SQL AlwaysOn features for your databases:
This update requires your SQL Databases to be set to simple recovery mode.  To make sure that the update can set simple recovery mode for your databases, do the following before you apply the update:

• If your databases are in a SQL AlwaysOn Availability group, you must remove them from the availability group before you apply the update.
• If the databases are part of a SQL Server database mirroring, you must remove (break) the mirror before you apply the update. 

As soon as the update process is complete, you may return the databases to the AlwaysOn group or re-enable database mirroring.

Thanks again for your patience, and we apologize for the disruption!

Buck Hodges Director of Engineering, Azure

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