Lab Management System Requirements
[This documentation is for preview only, and is subject to change in later releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]
To use Visual Studio Team Lab Management, your system must meet the hardware, software, network, and user account requirements described in this topic. For more information about the system requirements for Team Foundation Server, see the Team Foundation Server Installation Guide.
Machines
A basic setup of Lab Management includes:
Hyper-V hosts
System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)
Library servers
Team Foundation Server
Visual Studio Team System Clients
The following diagram illustrates how these machines interact with each other.
.png "Components of a basic Lab Management setup")
Lab Management uses several different computers on the same network. The following table summarizes the machines that you will need for a basic setup of Lab Management.
Name |
Description |
|---|---|
HyperVHost |
The name of the physical machine that is the host for running the virtual machines created by Lab Management. In a typical lab, you might have multiple Hyper-V hosts. |
VmmMachine |
The name of the machine where System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) will be run. You can use the HyperVHost as your VmmMachine also. |
LibraryMachine |
The name of the physical machine that acts as a library server for Lab Management. In a typical lab, you might have multiple library machines. By default, VmmMachine is also a LibraryMachine. In a basic setup, you do not need a separate LibraryMachine. |
TfsMachine |
The name of the machine where Team Foundation Server will be run. |
ControllersMachine |
The name of the machine where the Visual Studio test agent controller and build controller are installed. These controllers are used to integrate with the other capabilities of Visual Studio Team System. In a basic setup, the ControllersMachine can be the same as the TfsMachine. |
To verify the setup, you will also need access to a ClientMachine that has Microsoft Test and Lab Manager installed on it. This is available as part of Microsoft Visual Studio Test Elements 2010 Beta2 or Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Beta2
In a minimal setup, the HyperVHost, VmmMachine, and LibraryMachine can all be the same physical machine. In addition, the TfsMachine can be a virtual machine. For this minimal setup to perform adequately, you should have at least 8GB of memory on the physical machine.
In a more typical setup, each of these machines would be different. The number of Hyper-V hosts and library servers that you need depends on the number of virtual machines and their capacity requirements. For more information about how to plan the capacity of Hyper-V hosts and library machines, see Planning Your VMM Deployment.
Hardware Requirements
The following table summarizes the minimum and recommended hardware configurations for the machines used with Lab Management.
System |
Processor |
RAM (min/ recommended) |
Hard disk (min/ recommended) |
|---|---|---|---|
HyperVHost |
64-bit with hardware virtualization enabled |
4GB / 8GB |
120GB / 230GB |
VmmMachine |
64-bit |
4GB / 8GB |
80GB / 120GB |
LibraryMachine |
64-bit with hardware virtualization enabled |
2GB / 4GB |
120GB / 230GB |
TfsMachine |
32-bit x86 64-bit x64 |
2 GB / 4GB |
120GB / 230GB |
ControllersMachine |
32-bit x86 64-bit x64 |
2GB / 4GB |
120GB / 230GB |
For more information about how to enable hardware virtualization on 64-bit machines, see How to turn on Hardware Assisted Virtualization.
Network Requirements
The machines used with Lab Management must communicate with each other across the network. To improve your experience using Lab Management, do the following:
Join all the machines used with Lab Management to a common Active Directory domain. In the rest of this topic, the Active Directory domain is referred to as the domain.
Wherever possible, use a gigabit network connection between the LibraryMachine and a HyperVHost. The faster network speed will help improve performance when you copy large files between machines.
For more information about how Lab Management uses the domain network, see "Networking Basics for Lab Management" on the VSTS Lab Management team blog Networking Basics for Lab Management.
Software Requirements
The following table summarizes the supported operating system and the additional required software for the machines used with Lab Management.
System |
Supported Operating Systems |
Additional Software |
|---|---|---|
HyperVHost |
Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system with Hyper-V 64-bit, Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions Windows Server 2008 R2—Server Core installation, Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions Windows Server 2008 operating system with Hyper-V 64-bit, Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions with Service Pack 2. Windows Server 2008—Server Core installation, Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions with Service Pack 2 |
|
VmmMachine |
Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system 64-bit Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions Windows Server 2008 operating system Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions with Service Pack 2. |
System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2 RTM. .gif "Important note") Important
Do not use any other version of VMM.
|
LibraryMachine |
Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system 64-bit Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions Windows Server 2008 operating system Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions with Service Pack 2. |
|
TfsMachine |
Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) Windows Server 2003 R2 Windows Server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system 64-bit Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions |
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta2 Microsoft Visual Studio Team Lab Management 2010 Beta2 |
ControllersMachine |
Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) Windows Server 2003 R2 Windows Server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system 64-bit Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions |
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Agents 2010 Beta2 |
User Accounts
The following table summarizes the user accounts that are required for using Lab Management.
Account |
Description |
|---|---|
domain.yourcompany.com |
The name of the Active Directory domain to which the machines are joined. Use the actual name of the domain in your setup, for example, seattle.corp.contoso.com. |
domain\tfssvc |
The account under which Team Foundation Server is running. If Team Foundation Server is running as network service, this account is of the form domain\TfsMachine. |
domain\tfsadmin |
The name of a user in the Active Directory domain who is added as an Administrator on the TfsMachine used in the setup. Replace this with the actual account of a user in the Active Directory, for example, contoso\albert. |
domain\pcadmin |
The name of a user in the Active Directory domain who is added as an Administrator on a team project collections setup. Replace this with the actual account of a user in the Active Directory, for example, contoso\albert. |
domain\bcuser |
The account under which Build controller service used for Workflow integration capability of Lab Management is running. |
agentsvc |
A local account that is created on TfsMachine and shadowed on ControllersMachine and virtual machines used in Lab Management. For more information, see How to: Create Accounts to Enable Testing and Workflow Integration. |
For more information about how to create or change these user accounts, see Managing Permissions.
Checklist
To help you keep track of the names and other information for machines and accounts, print the following tables and fill in the details as you follow the setup process.
Machine |
Description |
Computer name |
Administrator |
|---|---|---|---|
HyperVHost 1 |
Physical machine on which virtual machines are deployed. |
||
HyperVHost 2 |
Physical machine on which virtual machines are deployed. |
||
HyperVHost 3 |
Physical machine on which virtual machines are deployed. |
||
VmmMachine |
Machine on which SCVMM is installed. |
||
LibraryMachine |
Machine that acts as a library server. |
||
TfsMachine |
Machine on which Team Foundation Server is installed. |
||
ControllersMachine |
Machine on which test and build controllers are installed. |
Account |
Description |
Credentials |
|---|---|---|
domain\tfsadmin |
Team Foundation Server administrator. |
|
domain\tfssvc |
Service under which Team Foundation Server is running. |
|
domain\pcadmin |
Project collection administrator. |
|
domain\bcuser |
Account for build controller. |
|
agentsvc |
Account for test controller, test agent, and build agent. |
Variable |
Description |
Value |
|---|---|---|
domain |
Active directory domain to which all machines in lab are joined to. |
|
PreferredNetworkLocation |
Network location of all Hyper-V hosts in the lab. |