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Keith Sirmons
Asked: 2010-04-27 13:41:22 +0800 CST

Are these the correct instructions to backup TFS 2010?

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I am working on a backup plan for TFS 2010. I found this site http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms253070(VS.100).aspx that details a complex backup solution.

Has anyone tested these procedures and can confirm they are accurate?

There are a couple of steps that violate the SharePoint rule "Do Not Modify the Database!"

Thank you, Keith

team-foundation-server backup-restoration wss-3.0

4 Answers

  1. Install TFS Powertools on your TFS Server!!!

    Powertools has a add-in that automates this whole process, and can be managed and scheduled from within the TFS management tool.

    EDIT: When you install TFS powertools on your server, the docs are not very clear. After you do this, open up TFS admin tool, and you will notice a Backups section that was not there before. From there, you can define your backup model, tell it what to back up (it will walk you thru a wizard), and it will schedule the backup for you. It basically automates all the steps in the MSDN doc you reference.

    Located here: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/c255a1e4-04ba-4f68-8f4e-cd473d6b971f

    As a side note, install powertools as a base install on every machine that uses TFS as well. It has the shell extentions, and a ton of functionality that is very useful for TFS users, not just administrators.

    It might even make you love TFS, if that's possible. We are successfully using it for full SDLC - work items, source code, workflow management, build management, etc.

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  2. Sounds like an awful lot of work for something so important as backup... I just make copies of the databases right now. I do run the risk of loosing some data then I suppose, but currently we're "just" using TFS for source control and running on SQL Server Express..

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  3. If your TFS installation is on the virtual machine, you could backup entire VM perhaps?

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  4. Those instructions look accurate.

    I'm not sure what you mean about SharePoint violations. The topic lists all the data in a TFS deployment which includes SharePoint, but it specifically says you should NOT use marked transactions in any of the SharePoint DBs ("You should not use marked transactions when you back up or restore the databases that SharePoint Products uses") and offers a recommendation to use the SharePoint guidance to figure out how to coordinate backups for SharePoint ("If your deployment uses SharePoint Products, you should follow the guidance for the version of that product") with a similar note for Project Server. Good luck with your backup.

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