Installing TFS 2013 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with SQL Server 2014 CTP1

In this post, I’ll guide you trough the process of installing Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2014 CTP1, and on top of that the brand new TFS 2013 that was released in preview yesterday at Build. The reason I do this post? Well, I just love using the latest bits and finding out the different compatibility options. So, be aware that this post will mainly consist out of screenshots, many screenshots.

Let’s go. What I did was creating a new Hyper-V machine on my existing Windows 8 host. Give it some memory (4096MB seems to be enough for this basic installation). Boot the machine using the Windows Server 2012 R2 image. Just follow the wizard.

NOTE: you can of course also create a brand new Windows Azure Virtual Machine using the Windows Server 2012 R2 template. Just just ignore the first part of this post.

Windows Server 2012 R2

Select your language

Click the install button

Select the second option (with the GUI)

Select the disk

Perform a restart

A brand new loader screen

Select an administrator password

There you have it, Windows Server 2012 R2. Did you notice the “new” start button?

Active directory domain controller (optional)

Allthough this step is optional, I decided to install a AD DC controller on this machine. I just wanted to know if there were any changes to this process, comparing to 2012. To start, select ”Add Roles and Features” and add the role “Active Directory Domain Services”.

Wait for the installation to complete

One last step, promote your server to a domain controller

Select a domain name

Complete the wizard, and verify the prerequisites

Your machine will be restarted.

And that’s it. Your machine is an AD controller. What you can do now is adding some AD service accounts like SQLService, SQLRS, SQLAS, TFSService,..

SQL Server 2014 CTP1

Next step, the installation of SQL Server 2014 CTP1. But first, a big “do not forget”: You need to have .NET 3.5 enabled. I was hoping that the SQL Server installation wizard would handle this, but you have to install it manually. Otherwise, you will get this great warning:

Ok, assuming that .NET 3.5 has been installed successfully, start the SQL Server wizard

Validate the support rules

Select the following features

Set the correct account names. In my case, I used the AD accounts that I created in a previous step.

Add the current user as Administrator

Add the current user as Adminstrator

Install and configure Reporting Services

There you go

And including a new SQL Server 2014 management studio

Team Foundation Server 2013 Preview

And now finally the installation of TFS 2013 Preview. Not a difficult one, as with the previous components, it’s as easy as completing the wizard. Start the installer:

Select the ‘Advanced‘ option, as I want to select my SQL Server, Reporting and Analysis Services

Enter your service account. I did it the “right” way and used an Active Directory account
Use the default settings
Configure reporting
Populate the URL’s from your Report Server installation
Test the SQL Server Analysis Services instance
Enter your “Report Reader” account (again, I used an AD account)
I did not configure SharePoint, as it’s only a lab environment
Create a new Team Project Collection
Verify the “Readiness Checks“
Configure everything
There you have it! TFS 2013 Preview has been installed
To verify, open the TFS Administration Console

To test the installation, I’ll just create a new Team Project using the new Visual Studio 2013 Preview, I used GIT as version control system: