Error while configuring the test controller - "Failed to remove this test controller from TFS Team Project Collection"

Recently one of our customer was getting an error "Failed to remove this test controller from TFS Team Project Collection" while configuring the test controller to capture the load test result on a database.

However the Test Controller option to "Register test controller with Team Project Collection" check box was unchecked. We tried all possible combination to configure the test controller and we were hit back with the same error on the screen.

Assuming the Team Foundation Server cache might be the culprit, we cleared both the server and client side cache. Still we were getting the same error while configuring the test controller. We went ahead and repaired the test controller, this action also didn’t help us.

At the same time we had another test controller which is working connecting to the Load testing database and though of comparing the settings with this controller. While doing this comparison we notices that the test controller version installed on both machines are different. The test controller which is working fine is 2012 RTM and test controller giving error is 2012 update 4.

You can find the version of test controller in you Program and Features option under control panel. You can compare the team foundation server version in this blog https://blogs.msdn.com/b/tfssetup/archive/2013/11/21/what-version-of-team-foundation-server-do-i-have.aspx to find the test controller version.

All the test controller connecting to the same load test database should of same version. Hence we uninstalled the test controller 2012 update4 from the machine and installed the test controller 2012 RTM on this machine to match the test controller version on both the machines. This time the test controller configuration succeeded without any error and we were able to configure the test controller in testsettings file for remote test execution.

Conclusion: When you need to configure multiple test controller to the same load test database, make sure the versions of all test controllers are the same.

Content created by – Sinjith Haridasan Reeja
Content reviewed by – Romit Gulati