RAP as a Service for. Team Foundation Server. Prerequisites

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1 RAP as a Service for Team Foundation Server Prerequisites Download the latest prerequisites from: Last modified: Oct 12, 2017 Internet connectivity is needed to: Access the RAP as a Service portal. Activate your account. Download the toolset. Submit data. Data submission to Microsoft online servers and displaying your results on the online portal uses encryption to help protect your data. Your data is analyzed using our RAP expert system. How to prepare for your RAP as a Service for Team Foundation Server The Tools machine is used to connect to each of the servers in your Team Foundation Server environment such as Team Foundation Server, SQL Server, SharePoint. and retrieve configuration and health information from them. The Tools machine retrieves information from the environment communicating over Remote Procedure Call (RPC), Server Message Block (SMB), and Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). Once data is collected, the Tools machine is used to upload the data to the Microsoft Premier Services portal for automated analysis, followed up by manual analysis by one of our expert engineers. This upload requires internet HTTPS connectivity to specific sites. Alternatively, you can also export the collected data from the Tools machine and use a different machine to submit it. You need to ensure the machine used to upload the data also has the RAP as a Service client tool installed and has internet connection. At a high level, your steps to success are: 1. Install prerequisites on your Tools machine and configure your environment 2. Collect data from your environment 3. Submit the data to Microsoft Premier Services for assessment A checklist of prerequisite actions follows. Each item links to any additional software required for the Tools machine, and detailed steps included later in this document. Checklist Please ensure the following items have been completed before accessing the RAP as a Service Portal for the first time and starting your engagement. 1. General Use A Microsoft Account is required to activate and sign in to the RAP as a Service portal. If you don t have one already, you can create one at To learn more about Microsoft Accounts, see: US/windows-live/sign-in-what-is-microsoft-account 1

2 Ensure access to Ensure the Internet browser on the data collection machine has JavaScript enabled. Follow the steps listed at How to enable scripting in your browser. Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11 are the supported and recommended browsers for this offering. Most other modern HTML5 based browsers will also work. The site provides access to the Support Forum and Knowledge Base Articles for RAP as a Service 2. Activation Ensure access to Ensure access to 3. Data Collection a. Tools machine hardware and Operating System: Server-class or high-end workstation machine running Windows Server 2016/Windows Server 2012 R2/Windows Server 2012/Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows Server 2008 or Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows7 Note: Windows Server 2003 is not supported as Tools machines. Minimum: 4GB RAM, 2Ghz dual-core processor, 5 GB of free disk space plus up to 500MB per analyzed server and 1-5GB per web server in the assessed environment during data collection. Joined to the same domain as the environment servers or a trusted domain. b. Software for Tools machine: Microsoft.NET Framework 4.0 installed Windows PowerShell 3.0 or later installed Log Parser 2.2 installed Team Explorer 2012 or standalone TFS 2012 OM Installer c. Account Rights: Administrator access to all servers to be assessed in Team Foundation Server environment Administrator role in all products that make up Team Foundation Environment to be assessed such as Team Foundation Server, SharePoint, SQL Server, SQL Reporting Services, etc. d. Additional Requirements for Windows Server 2008 (and later) servers: Configure all server firewalls for Remote Event Log Management The Appendix Data Collection Methods details the methods used to collect data. 4. Submission Internet connectivity is required to submit the collected data to Microsoft. Ensure access to *.accesscontrol.windows.net this URL is used to authenticate the data submission before accepting it. The rest of this document contains detailed information on the steps discussed above. Once you have completed these prerequisites, you are ready to use the RAP as a Service Portal to begin your assessment. 2

3 Machine Requirements and Account Rights 1. Hardware and Software Server-class or high-end workstation computer equipped with the following: Minimum single 2Ghz processor Recommended dual-core/multi-core 2Ghz or higher processors. Minimum 4 GB RAM Recommended 8 GB RAM. Minimum 5 GB of free disk space plus up to 500MB per analyzed server and 1-5GB per web server in the assessed environment during data collection. Windows Server 2016/Windows Server 2012 R2/Windows Server 2012/Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows Server 2008 or Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7. Windows Server 2003 is not supported as a data collection machine. Note: To successfully gather Performance data, ensure the data collection machine s Operating System (OS) matches, or is a higher version of the highest versioned OS target machine used within the environment. Typically, this means that Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 is acceptable to use. Can be 32-bit or 64-bit operating system. At least a 1024x768 screen resolution (higher preferred). A member of the same domain as the servers being reviewed or a member of a trusted domain. Microsoft.NET Framework Windows PowerShell 3.0 or higher Windows PowerShell 3.0 is part of the Windows Management Framework download/details.aspx?id=34595 The execution policy for PowerShell should be set to remotesigned on the tools machine The execution policy settings can be verified using get-executionpolicy list in a PowerShell command window Log Parser 2.2 installed IIS optional Team Explorer 2012 or standalone TFS 2012 OM Installer Networked Documents or redirected Documents folders are not supported. Local Documents folder on the data collection machine is required. 2. Accounts Rights A domain account with the following: Local administrator permission on all servers to be assessed. 3

4 Internet connectivity is needed in order to complete this RAP as a Service offering Sysadmin on all SQL Instances that host Team Foundation Server databases. System administrator of Analysis Services instances where Team Foundation Server warehouse is located. SharePoint Farm administrator and Site Collection administrator for the SharePoint Farm where Team Project portals are running. System administration and Home folder Content Manager of Reporting Services instance where Team Foundation Server reports are located. Team Foundation Server Administrator. Ability to run PowerShell scripts on the machine running the RAP as a Service Client. The Windows PowerShell execution policy must be set to RemoteSigned or a policy that provides an equivalent ability to run local scripts You will require access to the following sites and URLs: For general use: For token activation and authentication: For data collection: For data submission Note: Some of these URLs cannot be opened using a web browser. NOTE: Usually the account used to install the Team Foundation Server environment (often called TFSSetup) has these permissions. However, sometimes these permissions may have been revoked after the installation. Verification of permissions is still needed even if the account used during Team Foundation Installation is used. WARNING: Failure to provide the required permissions can prevent collection of data needed for proper analysis. WARNING: Do not use the Run As feature to start the client toolset as the discovery process and collectors might fail. The account starting the client toolset must logon to the local machine. A Microsoft Account for each user account to logon to the Premier Proactive Assessment Services portal ( This is the RAP as a Service portal where you will activate your access token, download the toolset and fill out the operational survey. This is also the URL that hosts the web service that coordinates the data submission If you don t have one, you can create one at Contact your TAM if the token in your Welcome has expired or can no longer be activated. Tokens expire after ten days. Your TAM can provide new activation tokens for additional people. 3. Network and Remote Access Ensure that the browser on the Tools machine or the machine from where you activate, download and submit data has JavaScript enabled. Follow the steps listed at How to enable scripting in your browser. Review the article below for complete information regarding these URLs: knowledgebase/articles/ whatdo-i-need-to-open-in-my-firewall-proxy -to-use Internet Explorer is the recommended browser for a better experience with the portal. Ensure Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration (ESC) is not blocking JavaScript on sites. A workaround would be to temporary disable Internet Explorer ESC when accessing the portal. Unrestricted network access from the Tools machine to all servers. This means access through any firewalls and router ACLs that might be limiting traffic to any of the servers. This 4

5 includes remote access to DCOM, Remote Registry service, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) services, and default administrative shares (C$, D$, IPC$). Remote WMI access must be enabled on the analyzed servers. Note that this is by default on server OS but not on client OS which is often the case for build servers. See desktop/aa393266(v=vs.85).aspx and for more information. Firewall should not block WMI on the servers or anywhere in between for example on the servers in Windows Firewall Advanced Configuration enable this Inbound rule for domain: Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI-In) Administrative shares (i.e. C$) need to be enabled on the analyzed servers for remote collection of files (configs, logs) from these servers. If this is not possible, then as a workaround the locations can be temporarily shared only to the account that is used to run the collection. Ensure that the machine you use to collect data has complete TCP/UDP access, including RPC access to all servers. The tools computer should be able to resolve the TFS servers through DNS using the configured server names - should be in the same domain or able to resolve other domain servers. As a workaround hosts file can be modified. IIS Management Scripts and Tools feature must be installed on TFS Application Tier, TFS Proxy and SharePoint servers this is necessary for collection and analysis of IIS logs. The following services must be started on the target servers: WMI Remote Registry service Server service Workstation service File and Printer Sharing service Automatic Updates service Performance Logs and Alerts service Configure the server firewall to ensure all servers running Windows Server 2008/R2 and higher have Remote Event Log Management enabled: RAP as a Service Client might be unable to collect event log information from a Windows Server 2008/R2 or higher SQL Servers hosts if Remote Event Log Management has not been allowed. When Remote Management is enabled, the rules that allow Remote Event Log Management are also enabled. To test if the tool will be able to collect event log data from a Windows Server 2008 R2 SQL Server host you can try to connect to the Windows Server 2008/R2 server using eventvwr.msc. If you are able to connect, collecting event log data is possible. If the remote connection is unsuccessful you may need to enable the Windows built-in firewall to allow Remote Event Log Management. 5

6 Configure the server firewall to ensure all servers have Performance Logs and Alerts enabled: RAP as a Service Client might be unable to start performance counters collection if this rule is disabled. Connectivity Testing Event Log: To test if the tool will be able to collect event log data from a Windows Server 2008 R2 server, you can try to connect to the Windows Server 2008/R2 server using eventvwr.msc. If you are able to connect, collecting event log data is possible. If the remote connection is unsuccessful you may need to enable the Windows built-in firewall to allow Remote Event Log Management. Registry: Use regedit.exe to test remote registry connectivity to the target servers (File > Connect Network Registry). File: Connect to the C$ and Admin$ shares on the target servers to verify file access. 6

7 Appendix A: RAP as a Service Client Targets Parameters When running client toolset, you will be asked for some parameters to identify targets in your environment: Only URL is a mandatory parameter but in some configurations you may need to provide a few more. When hovering over each input box you will get a description tooltip but more detailed description is provided in the following table: URL TFS Proxy servers TFS Reporting Services Servers TFS SharePoint Servers Build, Test and other Servers Advanced Options URL of your TFS Instance for example This is used to connect to your TFS and get information about the components that compose your environment - Application and Data Tier servers, SQL Instances and databases, Team Project Collections etc. TFS catalog usually does not contain information about TFS proxy servers. If you want to analyze some of your TFS proxy servers specify their names separated by semicolon. The only information TFS catalog contains regarding Reporting Services configuration is the URL. The discovery will try to find out the server by parsing this URL but if it does not work you may provide the server name(s) explicitly through this parameter. The only information TFS catalog contains regarding SharePoint configuration is the URL. The discovery will try to find out the server by parsing this url but if it does not work you may provide the server name(s) explicitly through this parameter. If you want to have some of your build, test or other servers assessed as well you can provide their names separated by semicolon here. You can use wildcard * for getting all of them automatically but remember the overall number of analyzed servers should not exceed the service limit see datasheet. A list of additional semicolon separated options that can impact the way how the data are collected. See the table on the next page for the list of available options. In most cases it is recommended to start with URL parameter and if needed build servers only and then review the details of the discovery results. If some of the mentioned servers are missing you can provide some of the optional parameters and rerun the discovery. Make a note of the parameters that worked for your discovery for the next assessment runs. 7

8 In the following table you can find the list of Advanced Options that you can use to impact the data collection process: IISLOGSALL IISLOGSSKIP TOPTPC:n TPC:<tpc1>,<tpc2> PERF:n IIS Logs are not collected if their size is more than 10 GB per server for the last 7 days and any analysis based on these logs are skipped. This limit can be removed by specifying this option. Note that transferring large files may impact the servers performance and network bandwidth. Specify this option if for any reason you want to avoid collecting IIS Logs but be aware that IIS Logs analysis will not be performed. By default only data for the top 50 (by size and activity) Team Project Collections and their databases are collected and analyzed. Moreover very small collections are skipped as well. If you want to change the limit you can provide any number in place of n. Note that analyzing large number of collections can collect large data. Similar to TOPTPC but instead of number of Team project Collections you provide list of names that should be analyzed. The names need to be separated by comma without spaces. By default we run performance monitoring for 4 hours. You should not change that for the first data collection that will be analyzed by Microsoft engineer but in future submissions you can specify shorter interval if you do not want to wait so long. These are allowed values for n: 0 - performance collection will be skipped completely minutes. Short performance collection just for sample analysis and reporting hour performance collection TFSBPA:<path> If you use TFS Best Practices Analyzer from TFS Power Tools you can have your BPA report imported as well. This way BPA errors and warnings can be reviewed on the portal and will be included in the report. The path must point to a valid and recent TFS BPA report accessible from the tools machine by the account running the tool. It can be a local or UNC path. Typically the report path is: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\TfsBpa\TfsBpa.<timestamp>.data.xml BPA gives you option to export it to another location, it can be copied to the tools machine etc. SCOPETFS BRANCHESHISTO- RYSKIP The tool s discovery process can include non-tfs web sites, SQL Instances or even servers that can create some noise in the assessment. This option excludes these entities and focuses on analyzing only the real TFS entities. It is not recommended for some highly distributed environments specifically SQL Server on Cluster or SQL Server AlwaysOn. If you have a large Version Control branch structure you can use this option to reduce the data collection time by skipping branch history and pending changes for Unused branches analysis Examples: Force collection of large IIS logs, analyze only 10 largest TPCs and include TFS BPA report: IISLOSALL;TOPTPC:5;TFSBPA:\\ATServer\C$\Users\xuser\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\TfsBpa\TfsBpa data.xml Analyze only specific TPCs, run performance collection for 1 hour and scope only to TFS entities: TPC:DefaultCollection,Experimental,Engineering;PERF:60;SCOPETFS 8

9 Appendix B: Data Collection Methods RAP as a Service for Team Foundation Server uses multiple data collection methods to collect information. This section describes the methods used to collect data from a Team Foundation Server environment. Data collection uses workflows and collectors. The collectors are: 1. Registry Collectors 2. File Collectors 3. Event Log Collectors 4. Performance Collectors 5. SQL Collectors 6. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Collectors 7. TFS Client Object Model Collectors 1. Registry Collectors Registry keys and values are read from servers in scope of the RAP as a Service for Team Foundation Server. They include items such as : TFS installation data from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\TeamFoundationServer\10.0 \InstalledComponents\Tools and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\TeamFoundationServer\11.0 \InstalledComponents\Tools Windows Performance counters from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\PerfLib Debugger settings from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug Operating System information from HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion This allows to determine Operation System information such as Windows Server 2003, 2008 or File Collectors IIS logs. Note that IIS logs can be quite large thus impacting the duration of data collection and network performance in addition to requiring sufficient free disk space on the Tools machine IIS application host config file (ApplicationHost.config) HTTP sys error log files (systemroot\system32\logfiles\httperr) TFS release manifest file (ReleaseManifest.xml) under TFS installation directory Various TFS config files such as TFSJobAgent.exe.config, web.config file for TFS web access, web.config file for TFS web services, and proxy.config file for TFS version control proxy. TFS logs 3. Event Log Collectors Collects event logs from servers in scope of Team Foundation Server. We collect the last 7 days of Warnings and Errors from the Application and System event logs. 9

10 4. Performance Collectors Collects Key Performance Indicators from your Team Foundation environment. They include items such as: % Processor Time Avg. Disk sec / Read TFS Work Item Tracking TFS Version Control TFS Services TFS File Container Service 5. SQL Collectors Database information from the SQL Servers in TFS environment. They collect data such as: Statistics about commands or requests processed and logged by TFS Various statistics and data about work item tracking, version control, team build, and test management TFS registry settings Table sizes, SQL lock and process information, file I/O, database backup information SharePoint and SQL Analysis Services version information 6. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) WMI is used to collect various information such as: Disk configuration: WMI_Win32_Volume, WMI_Win32_LogicalDisk, WMI_Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition IIS application pool settings: IISApplicationPoolSettings OS hotfix and TFS patching information: Win32_QuickFixEngineering, Win32_Product, Win32_PatchPackage 7. TFS REST API and Client Object Model Collectors Custom collectors use the Team Foundation Server REST API and client object model SDK to gather various data from the TFS environment. Some of the data collected include: Build and Release Management data such as definitions, build and release status, start, finish and duration times TFS job data such as jobs, their status, history TFS security groups TFS event subscriptions Branch information from version control TFS Lab Management data 10