Create a Team Project Collection
You can organize your projects into groups that meet your business needs by creating team project collections. For example, you can create a collection for all projects that relate to a particular code base, or you can create a collection for each business unit in your organization. For more information about team project collections and how you can use them to organize your server, see Organizing Your Server with Team Project Collections.
Before you create a team project collection, you will need the following pieces of information:
The name and the instance of SQL Server that you want to host the database for the collection. You might also want the name of an empty database to use for the collection.
The SharePoint Web application, if any, that will host portals for team projects in this collection. If your user account does not have permissions to create sites on that SharePoint Web application, you will also need the name and the relative path of a site that a member of the Farm Administrators group created for you.
Important
You can use an existing SharePoint site or site collection instead of creating one when you create a collection. However, you must perform a more complex set of procedures when you configure your deployment. Certain extensions must be installed and configured on the server that is hosting the site, and system administration will be more complex. Unless your business infrastructure requires that you use an existing SharePoint site, you should use the default option in the Create a Team Project Collection Wizard.
The server that is running SQL Server Reporting Services and that will host any reports for team projects in this collection, if such a server has been configured for the deployment and you want to use it for the collection. If your user account does not have permissions to create folders on that server, you will also need the name and the relative path of a folder that an administrator created for you on that server.
Important
You can use an existing folder when you create a collection, but the process is more complex. Unless security restrictions in your business infrastructure prevent the creation of a folder as part of creating a collection, you should use the default option in the wizard that creates the folder as part of creating the collection.
Required Permissions
To perform these procedures, you must be a member of the following groups:
The Team Foundation Administrators group, or you must have the Create team project collection permission set to Allow.
The Windows SharePoint Server Site Administrators group and the SharePoint Administration group in SharePoint Products.
The SQL Reporting Services Content Managers group and the SQL Reporting Services Project Content Managers group.
The serveradmin or sysadmin group on the server that will host the database for the team project collection.
If you want to create a site collection, a report folder, or a database as part of creating a team project collection, the service account that the Visual Studio Team Foundation Background Job Agent uses (also known as the service account for Team Foundation Server or TFSService) must have certain permissions. For more information, see Service Accounts and Dependencies in Team Foundation Server and Team Foundation Background Job Agent.
For more information about permissions, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.
To create a team project collection
Open the administration console for Team Foundation.
For more information, see Open the Team Foundation Administration Console.
Under Team Foundation, expand the name of the server, expand Application Tier, and click Team Project Collections.
In Team Project Collections, click Create Team Project Collection.
The Create a Team Project Collection wizard opens.
In Name, type a name for your collection. Under Description, you can optionally type a brief description of your collection and its purpose. Click Next.
Note
You cannot use certain characters, such as slashes, in names of collections. For more information, see Naming Restrictions in Team Foundation.
In SQL Server Instance, type the name of the server that is running SQL Server. If you want to use a named instance to host the database for this team project collection, you must also specify the name of the instance as in the following example:
ServerName**\**InstanceName
In Database, perform one of the following steps:
If you want to create a database for this team project collection, click Create a new database for this collection.
Important
The service account that the Visual Studio Team Foundation Background Job Agent uses must have permissions to create a database on the instance of SQL Server where you want to create the database.
If you want to use a database that already exists on the instance of SQL Server, click Use this existing database, and type the name of the database in the box.
Note
To use this option, you must specify an empty database that exists on the instance of SQL Server and to which you have been granted write permissions.
Click Next.
If you have configured one or more SharePoint Web applications to support your deployment, in the Web application list, click a SharePoint Web application, and perform one of the following steps:
- If you want to use the default option of creating a site collection, click Next.
A SharePoint site collection will be created, and the name of the collection is used as the name of the sub-site of the root site that is configured in the SharePoint Web application.
If the service account for Team Foundation Server is not a member of the Farm Administrators group, you cannot create a site collection as part of this wizard. You must use an existing site collection that a member of the Farm Administrators group created for you. In that case, expand Advanced configuration, click Specify a path to an existing SharePoint site, and type the relative path of the site collection that was created for you. Click Verify Path, and if the path is correct, click Next.
Important
Unless your business infrastructure requires that you use an existing site collection, you should use the default option to create a site collection.
If you have configured a server that is running SQL Server Reporting Services to support your deployment, perform one of the following steps:
In Reports, review the information for the server and the folder that will host reports for this collection, and click Next.
If your user account does not have permissions to create a folder on the server that is running Reporting Services, you must use a folder that an administrator created for you on that server. In that case, expand Advanced configuration, click Specify a path to an existing folder, and type the relative path of the folder that has been created for you. Click Verify Path, and if the path is correct, click Next.
Important
Unless security restrictions in your business infrastructure prevent the automatic creation of a folder as part of the wizard, you should use the default option to create a folder.
In Lab Management, click Configure Lab Management, and click Next.
Important
If Lab Management is disabled in the list of wizard pages, you must first configure Lab Management in the administration console for Team Foundation. For more information, see Configuring Lab Management for the First Time.
If you do not use Lab Management in your deployment, skip to step 16.
In Library Shares, click Add and Verify, click one or more virtual machine manager (VMM) library shares that should be used to store virtual machine images for team projects in this collection, and then click Add.
You can also change the name of the library share to a friendly name by double-clicking it. For more information, see How to: Change the Library Share for Your Team Project Collections.
Select or clear the Auto Provision check box for each library share, and click Next.
If you select this check box, Team Foundation Server automatically adds the library share to the team projects you create in this collection. For team projects that have not yet been created, the share is added when the New Team Project wizard creates the project.
Important
You must add at least one Library Share to team project collection to enable Lab Management.
Click Next.
In Host Groups, click Add and Verify, click one or more VMM host groups that should be used to deploy virtual machines for team projects in this collection, and then click Add.
You can also change the name of the host group to a friendly name by double-clicking it. For more information, see How to: Change the Host Groups for Your Team Project Collections.
Important
To enable Lab Management, you must add at least one host group to a team project collection.
The verification process now confirms the following changes:
The service account for Team Foundation Server has been added to each host in the host groups that you have specified so that Team Foundation Server can communicate directly with the hosts on the host group.
The network adapter that will be used to connect to the virtual machines is specified.
If the service account for Team Foundation Server (TFSService) has not been added to the administrators group on one or more hosts in these host groups, you must provide a domain account that has administrative permissions on all hosts in the host groups that you have added. This step allows the service account for Team Foundation Server (TFSService) to communicate directly with the hosts on the host group.
If you have one or more Hyper-V hosts that have multiple network adapters and if Team Foundation Server cannot determine which adapter should be used to connect the virtual machines, the Multiple Network Adapters dialog box appears for each of these hosts. In the list, specify the network adapter that corresponds to your network location that you want to use.
Select or clear the Auto Provision check box for each host group.
If you select this check box, Team Foundation Server automatically adds the host group to the team projects in this team project collection. For team projects that have not yet been created, the host group is added when the New Team Project wizard creates the project.
To specify the user account to use for communication between the test agents and build agents and between the test controllers and Team Foundation Server, click Service Account.
Warning
For this service account, you must specify a domain account that has limited permissions. You must specify an account that does not have any administrative permissions and that is not used by any trusted service, including the build controller and the test controller. You should consider creating two accounts to use for this service account. For more information about these two accounts, see How to: Configure the Service Account for the Testing and Workflow Integration.
On the Service Account tab, type the name of your account in Account Name and the password in Password.
To check whether the user account is valid, click Test.
Click Next.
In Review Configuration, review your data. If you want to make any changes, click Previous until you reach the page that you want to change. If all the information is correct, click Verify.
In Readiness Checks, review the status of the checks.
A blue underlined Error indicator appears next to any configuration that contains an error. You can click the indicator for a detailed message about the problem. You must address all errors before you can continue.
After all readiness checks have passed, click Create.
The process of creating a team project collection starts.
After the wizard finishes, click Close.
See Also
Concepts
Configuring Your Server Using the Team Foundation Administration Console