On our Team Foundation Server, the job to process to Data Warehouse failed with a TF221122 error and I was unable to manually process the Data Warehouse.

Rebuilding the Data Warehouse from the Team Foundation Server Administration console did not work either so I decided to backup the TFS_Analysis database and to delete it. Next, I tried to rebuild it through an elevated command prompt with the RebuildWarehouse command. This command also fails at some point throwing an Unhandled ArgumentNullException:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Tools>tfsconfig rebuildwarehouse /all /reportingdatasourcepassword:*********
Logging sent to file C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Team Foundation\Server Configuration\Logs\CFG_CFG_RPT_0429_134558.log
Command: rebuildWarehouse
TfsConfig - Team Foundation Server Configuration Tool
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
The warehouse relational database was successfully rebuilt.

Unhandled Exception: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: name
   at System.Security.Principal.NTAccount..ctor(String name)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Warehouse.OlapCreator.AddAccountToRole(Role role, String accountName, Boolean throwOnError)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Warehouse.OlapCreator.AddAccountsToRole(Database database, String roleName, IEnumerable`1 accountNames, Boolean ignoreAccountResolutionFailures)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Warehouse.OlapCreator.CreateOrUpdateRoles(Serverserver, Database database, IEnumerable`1 serviceAccountNames, Boolean ignoreServiceAccountResolutionFailures, IEnumerable`1 readerAccountNames, Boolean ignoreReaderAccountResolutionFailures)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Warehouse.OlapCreator.CreateOlapSchema(Boolean rebuild, IEnumerable`1 serviceAccountNames, IEnumerable`1 readerAccountNames, String dataSourceAccount, String dataSourcePassword, Boolean ignoreServiceAccountResolutionFailures, WarehouseConfig warehouseConfiguration, Int32 olapLCID)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Warehouse.WarehouseConfigurationService.ConfigureOlapDatabase(String reportingConfigurationIdentifier, String serverName, StringinstanceName, String databaseName, String warehouseServerName, String warehouseInstanceName, String warehouseDatabaseName, IEnumerable`1 serviceAccountNames, IEnumerable`1 readerAccountNames, String dataSourceAccountName, String dataSourceAccountPassword, Boolean ignoreServiceAccountResolutionFailures, Int32 translationLCID, Boolean createDatabase, Boolean generateSchema, Dictionary`2 processingParameters, Boolean checkAndUpdateJobs)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Configuration.CommandLine.CommandRebuildWarehouse.ExecuteCommand()
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Configuration.CommandLine.ConfigurationCommandLine.RunCommand(String commandName, String[] args, Boolean& showExitCode)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.CommandLine.RunCommand(String[] args)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.CommandLine.Run(String[]& args)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Configuration.CommandLine.TfsConfig.Main(String[] args)

Going back to the Team Foundation Server Administration Console, in the Reporting section, I noticed that the account for accessing the data sources was no longer filled in.

Also notice the message on the bottom of this dialog that states that a new database will be created and populated for use with Team Foundation Server. The database will be created when you click the OK button.

The next thing I did was manually process the Data Warehouse and I was glad to see that the jobs run successfully this time:

The Team Foundation Server Power Tools that supports Team Foundation Server 2010 has been released to web.

Download

On our TFS server I have been seeing a lot of these messages:

The location in the registry for the TFS Services to look at is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Services

I saw that the path was incorrect. It was namely still pointing to the  EventLogMessages assembly of v4.0.30128 of the .NET Framework, which is the RC bits. The correct path for the final version of .NET Framework 4.0 should be:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\EventLogMessages.dll

This is the result and you don’t need to reboot to see it:

I had to change it for the following keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\Team Build Service
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\Team Foundation Error Reporting
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\Team Web Access
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Build
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Deployment Rig
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Lab Management
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Migration Service
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Proxy Server
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Scheduler
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Services
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Test Management
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Test Rig
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Version Control
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS Warehouse
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\TFS WorkItem Tracking
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\VSTF Coverage Analysis
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\VSTF Test Tools Adapter

When you upgrade TFS 2010 RC to TFS 2010 RTM, you will notice that when you create a new Team Project that the RC Process Templates can still be selected from the dropdown:

It seems that after the upgrade we need to delete the RC Process Templates. Fortunately we don’t have to fire up SQL Server Management Studio and start manipulating the database for collection (btw the templates are stored in the table dbo.Templates of the Team Project Collection database). You need to be a Team Foundation Server Administrator to be able to delete Process Templates.

The Process Templates can be managed with the conveniently named Process Template Manager, which can be launched from within the Visual Studio 2010 IDE.

Note: It is possible to use Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 to connect to TFS 2010 with the Team Explorer Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010. But managing process templates is only possible from within the Visual Studio 2010.

• Visual Studio Team System 2005 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010
• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010

Process Template Manager

The Process Template Manager can be started by selecting the menu item Process Template Manager… from the submenu Team Project Collection Settings of the Team menu:

As mentioned before, it is possible to launch the Process Template Manager in earlier versions of Visual Studio that connect to TFS 2010:

But as you can see from the screenshot, this will give you a read-only view of the installed Process Templates:

Back in the Visual Studio 2010 IDE, delete the RC Process Templates one by one. Deleting a Process Template does NOT affect existing team projects based on that Process Template.

When you delete a Process Template, you will be notified that the next Process Template in the list will be the default template when creating new Team Projects:

When you now create a new Team Project, you will get to see the limited list of Process Templates:

The Power Tools for Team Foundation Server 2010 Release Candidate are available for download. Download the power tools here.

Available power tools:

• Process Template Editor
• TFS Best Practices Analyzer
• Check-in Policy Pack
• Work Item Templates
• Alert Editor
• Windows Shell Extensions
• PowerShell Support
• TFPT Command Line
• Team Members

IMHO Visual Studio 2010 Lab Management is a l33t product. At this point in time, there is no word on the pricing but I going through the Visual Studio 2010 Licensing White Paper I don’t think that it will be cheap, furthermore I am also a bit  afraid that in a lot of companies it will be a bit hard to sell because of company politics as it is possible that your company is already using for example VMware vCenter Lab Manager and they might not be willing to just throw that away (yet).

David Baliles, the Enterprise Tools Strategist @ Microsoft posted on his MSDN blog a whole bunch of Visual Studio 2010 Lab Management videos which are worth checking out.

Click here for the videos.

Conchango released the 2nd beta of the 3rd version of their fantastic Scrum for Team System. This beta is compatible with Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2.

Download