TFS build server backup options

Question

At our office we have Team Foundation Build machine (visual studio 2010) that we are looking to move to either a new physical server or possibly a VM. Although I have found a lot of information regarding the backup of Team Foundation Server I have not been able to locate much information on backing up a Team Foundation build machine so we can restore it on another machine/VM.

Any advice or a link would be most appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

There is no TFS specific data stored on the build machine, so from a TFS perspective there is nothing to backup/restore.

To setup a new build machine, just install the TFS build software, and point it to your TFS Collection.

The thing that will take time to reconfigure is any software or SDK's you may have installed on your build server that are required by your build. This has nothing to do with TFS, and is difficult to backup and restore to a different machine.

One option is to use a P2V tool to convert your physical machine to a VM, then you can move it to any host.

Otherwise, you are probably looking at just rebuilding a build server and redoing the installs necessary. This time be sure to do it in a VM so you can easily move it around between hardware in the future.

Answer 2

I prefer to avoid the Magical Build Machine Anti-Pattern and focus on writing the 'build the build server' scripts. Even if it's just a simple batch file, have a way of starting from basic windows and build your environment. Whenever you add a dependency, update it. This also helps you scale out. (At a previous company we had over 75 build servers.)