TFS 2018 Update 2 RC1

Erin Dormier

March 28th, 20180 0

We have released Team Foundation Server 2018 Update 2 RC1. Update 2 is the first “feature” update for TFS 2018 based on our updated release approach.

Here are some key links: TFS 2018.2 RC1 Release Notes TFS 2018.2 RC1 Web Installer TFS 2018.2 RC1 ISO TFS 2018.2 RC1 Express Web Installer TFS 2018.2 RC1 Express ISO

RC1 is a go-live release that is fully supported for installation in your production environment. We’ve tested and used it in our own environment in addition to having run it on VSTS. RC1 is available in all languages, but you may notice that some strings are still in English. We expect to have all the strings localized by RC2. We’d love for you to install and use it in production and report any problems on Developer Community. As with all our Updates, it should be a seamless upgrade – no breaking changes, no changed pre-reqs, just a better product. We expect to release an RC2 and then the final RTW release.

Update 2 is the last “feature” release for TFS 2018. The only other update planned for TFS 2018 is Update 3, which will be a roll up of bug fixes, much like Update 1 for 2018. Our next major release will be TFS 2019 in November.

Update 2 includes many VSTS features from our September 5 to March 5 deployments (sprints 123 – 131). You can see the details of the features in the release notes. Here are a few highlights:

Pull Requests

There have been many updates to pull requests, including pull request labels and mentions for pull requests. Also, the PR notifications now include the thread context. When a reply is made to a PR comment, the prior replies show in the body of the notification, so you won’t need to open the web view to get the context.

Work

There are now two new macros for queries. @MyRecentActivity shows the work items you’ve viewed recently and @RecentMentions returns the items you were mentioned in over the 30 days.

We have also added support for the Not In query operator. You can query for work items “Not In” a list of states, IDs, or many other fields, without nested “Or” clauses.

Build and Release

We have made several enhancements to multi-phase builds. You can use a different agent queue for each build phase, run tests in parallel, give scripts access to the OAuth token for each phase, and run a phase only under specific conditions.

In Release, you can now use release gates to react to health checks in your release pipelines.

Package

You can now set retention policies in package feeds to automatically clean up older, unused package versions. Also, the Packages page has been updated to use the standard layout and filter bar.

Wiki

There are a bunch of improvements to the wiki, such as search, referencing work items, and pasting rich text. You can also preview the wiki page as you’re editing.

RC1 includes all the features we have planned for Update 2. Please report any problems on Developer Community or call customer support if you need immediate help. We’d love for you to install RC1 and we’re looking forward to your feedback.