Using TFSAdminUtil Command-line Tool to assign a new TFS Service Account

Team Foundation Server includes several services and service accounts that run on either the data-tier server, or the application-tier server, or both. Your actual services will vary, based on which features of Team Foundation you have installed on your data tier and application-tier servers. For example, if youusesfor a single-server setup, you will have both data-tier and application-tier services that run on the same server.

If you must reset the service account password for the Team Foundation Server, you must change the password for several services on the Team Foundation Server application-tier servers by using the TFSAdminUtil command-line utility. You can also use the TFSAdminUtil command-line utility to determine which services are running under a named account. The following table lists the service names, what service account they use, and what tier these services run on.

To assign a new service account to all Team Foundation Server services :
1-From the command line, locate the TFSAdminUtil utility.
By default, it is located in :\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server\Tools.

Generally: you will find it under the following relative Path:

%programfiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server\Tools

At the command line, type
TFSAdminUtil ChangeAccount [oldAccount] [newAccount] [newPassword]

and then press ENTER.

You must enter the user name for the old Team Foundation Server service account (oldAccount), in addition to the user name and password for the new account (newAccount and newPassword).
The TFSAdminUtil utility iterates through the services and only changes those that run under the old account.

Important Note:


Before you assign the new account by using TFSAdminUtil Changeaccount command, the account must have the Log on as a service permission on the application-tier server. For more information please read the related article.

If you need to know the full view of Changing TFS Accounts please read my related article

Breaking News: Somasegar Announces the VSTS as well as VS.net 2008 RTM availability during this month

Today, During his key note speech of the Tech Developer 2007, SomaSegar (Microsoft Vice President) Has announced that VSTS as well as VS.net 2008 will be available for download as an RTM during this month (November 2007).

He also announced that starting from now the Premier partners will have the availability to see the source code of the VS.net. Moreover, partners will be permitted to use VS.net over other platforms rather than Windows.

Actually, the announcement of open the source for the premier partners will give the opportunity for Microsoft to avail the source code of VS.NET for some governments (as I think) who refuse to invest into anything but the open source.

For the RTM Release, Let us wait to celebrate :)

New Power Tools release is now available

A new version of the Power Tools is now available.

I would like to give in a nut shell fast steps of installing Power Tools along with its prerequisites:

1- Install Domain Specific Lanaguage Redistributable package.

2- Install the PowerShell 1.0 for windows 2003 (this is important because alot of the Power tools command lines
use PowerShell commands in order to get processed).To be more specific: One part of the Power Tools is:
The TFS Best Bractices Analyzer (TFS BPA) This PBA Needs Powershell to be initially installed

3-Install the TFS Service Pack 1 Hot Fix KB Article# KB919156

4-Install TFS Service 1

6- Install Power Tools

7- Install Web Access Power Tools(if you are interested)

8-In order to Install DB Pro Power Tools:
a- The DB Power Tools supports SQL Server 2005 SP2 Enhancements. In order to make the
Team Edition-DB Professional Support the SQL 2005 SP2 too you have to install Service Release 1 (SR1) update for Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals.
It fix some problems at the initial relaease of the DB Professional such as:
- The Decimal Problem in the Data Comparison.