Release hub showing “Release Management is in trial and available to all basic users.”
Recently, we have seen clients concerned that the licensed TFS version displays the message “Release Management is in trial and available to all basic users.”
In the Release hub, (Click image to enlarge, please)
This is by design. The reason behind the message displayed is,
In the earlier licensing model of RM version, only ‘Advanced users’ should be able to create release definitions. However, we want to make it easy for users to be able to use RM without having to purchase an entire VS Enterprise or Test Pro subscription. The goal is to provide an ala-carte extension for that.
However, we are still working through those details; so as not to block users who did not buy VS Enterprise/Test Pro subscriptions are also to be able to use RM, i.e this is made available to all Basic users for now during trial period.
Since this is temporary, we call it as Trial. More information can be found in the blog post below:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/visualstudioalm/2016/03/31/release-management-in-tfs-2015-update-2/
Irrespective of its availability for Basic users, the usage is still governed by a security model. You can restrict who can create release definitions by setting the permissions appropriately.
Rest assured, the article https://www.visualstudio.com/docs/release/overview is a good a place to get started with Release management for TFS 2015.2 and above versions.
Hope you like it! Feel free to comment below if you have any comments, feedback and concerns.
Cheers!
Content: Sinduja Karruppiah
Review: Vimal Thiagaraj