It's been over 3 years since I am using TFS 2012 for source code management, reporting and project management. However, until now, I've never installed from scratch any version of TFS.
In order to use SSRS 2016, I need to install TFS 2015, and by doing so, I have learned that I need first to install an instance of SQL Server. This fact surprised me.
My question is: Does this mean that TFS will actually create its internal tables, where I have information about each Project/Work Item (TaskName, CreatedBy, AssignedTo, Priority, OriginalEstimate, Remaining, Completed, Description, etc...) and that these tables will be public?
I thought that this DB was internal to TFS, and that I could never access it directly. I wonder if my interpretation is valid.
TFS uses SQL server to store its persistent data. So Source code, work items, build definitions etc are all held in the SQL DB.
When you install TFS it will create the schemas required. You should treat these databases as a black box as each version of TFS modifies the schema.