I spent the last couple of days, installing and configuring TFS 2010. Getting TFS up and running is really easy and went smoothly. I’m really impressed what MS did with the installation experience.

However, when you want to make TFS and TFS web access accessible over https it’s not that easy anymore. I also couldn’t find any detailed instructions so it was a bit of trial and error…

Lessons Learned:

• When you use a self-signed certificate, make sure that the CN is the same FQDN as used in Visual Studio to connect to your TFS. Invalid certificates are accepted as long as you have installed the certificate in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store. A name mismatch (the CN of the certificate doesn’t match the name of the host you are trying to access) is not accepted. Internet Explorer let’s you decide if you want to continue or not, Visual Studio not – it’s just blocking…
• Import the self signed certificate into your computer accounts personal store.
• Add another binding to the TFS site in IIS for https with the self-signed certificate
• Change the notification URL to the https://FQDN/tfs
• Open the web.config “C:\Program Files\Team Foundation Server 2010\Application Tier\Web Access\Web\web.config” and uncomment/adjust the remarked section “tfServers”:
   

PowerWF is a very cool visual powershell workflow designer with the ability to create OpsMgr management packs with just a click. Very impressive tool, see for yourself:

A bit expensive for my taste and when you look at Apple’s Automator it should be a product by MS included in Windows…

If you are a SCOM geek, want to get some attention and win some cool prizes, come over to the www.systemcentercentral.com site and enter the Management Pack Extension Contest! There are four separate contest categories:

• Reporting pack extensions
• Diagram or SLM pack extensions
• Visio or Dashboard pack extensions
• Tuning pack extension

You can submit one extension for each category. The contest started a couple of days ago and ends at June 7, 2010.  Click here for more details: http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/pages/system-center-management-pack-extension-contest.aspx

See you on the other side ;-)