A while ago I migrated a lot of builds to the Visual Studio Team Services Hosted Agents. This works great. We reduced the number of build servers and agent on-premises and can now easily scal up and down. But .. as it goes… there is always that next thing on the list. In my case […]
Continue reading
Tag Archives: Xpirit
Only trigger a release when the build changed
May 1, 2017 
1 Comment
I created a Build task for this purpose as well. Check it out here! Back in the early days, when we used XAML builds in TFS (wow that seems like ages ago!), we had the possibility to NOT execute a build when nothing changed in the source code repository. This checkbox “Build even if nothing has changed” […]
Continue reading Installing a VSTS Build agent on Mac OSX
February 13, 2017 1 Comment
Today I needed to install the VSTS Build Agent on a Mac Mini in the office so we can build the IPhone App. The great part of the new build infrastructure in VSTS is that it is Cross Platform and we CAN do that. Just download the agent and run the command provided in the interface. […]
Continue reading Migrate a complete Git Repository from TFS to VSTS
February 10, 2017 4 Comments
I am migrating some Git repositories from a TFS server to VSTS. Moving a Git repo including all the history is very simple fo course. Since Git is a Distributed Source Control repository. But I always forget the syntax of moving the “complete” Git repository at once. With all the branches, tags etc. So here […]
Continue reading Run Functional (Coded) UI Tests in your VSTS Release Pipeline
February 1, 2017 2 Comments
Today I was trying to run some CodedUI test from my VSTS Release pipeline. The process is quite straightforward but there were some tiny catches I’d like to share with you Let me first show the pipeline I have created
Continue reading Programmatically promote your package quality with Release Views in VSTS
January 16, 2017 5 Comments
A short while ago, Package Management in VSTS became publicly available. Agreed, the features in the initial version are not overwhelming, but the potential is very high. If you are not familiar yet, with Package Management in VSTS , I highly recommend you take a look at the documentation on the Visual Studio site, to […]
Continue reading Running a Linux SQL Server in a Docker Container
January 6, 2017 2 Comments
I just reinstalled my PC and needed a database for some simple work. I did not like the idea of installing a full SQL Server on my PC. Too heavy and takes too long. The I remembered that Microsoft recently announced that they can run SQL Server on Linux and they even have a Docker […]
Continue reading Order your VSTS Product Backlog based on the order within your Feature Backlog
December 30, 2016 Comments Off on Order your VSTS Product Backlog based on the order within your Feature Backlog
I know, the title is crap but I just don’t know how to call it properly. Let me just give me the real life example. I have this pretty straightforward Product Backlog But I also have this feature hierarchy. Within the features I prioritize my Backlog items. The features also are ranked from most important to less […]
Continue reading Change VSTS release variables at queue time
October 27, 2016 2 Comments
When creating and queueing new build, a feature that I often use is the “allow change at queue time” checkbox next to the build variables Allowing me to change it at Queue time Sometimes you also want this for releases, but there is no such an option. However, you can do it, and it is described […]
Continue reading Shrink the physical size of an Azure Virtual machine VHD
October 25, 2016 Comments Off on Shrink the physical size of an Azure Virtual machine VHD
At a customer I am helping to set up a pipeline to spin up a complete new environment every night. The environment consists of multiple machines. 2 of the machines are preconfigured and cannot be automated (not now at least) with ARM and DSC to create everything from code (which is of course the best […]
Continue readingContact me @ Xpirit
Join the Dutch MS ALM meetup
I speak at Techorama Netherlands
- MIND MATTERS: THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTIVATING A DEVOPS MINDSET
- Knowledge Driven Culture
- Remove the [External] Tag in Outlook
- Aligned Autonomy in Practice
- Building an Engineering Culture
-
Using Personal Access Tokens to access Visual Studio Online
- Changing the product backlog in TFS 2012
-
Use Visual Studio as your Diff and Merging Tool for local files
-
Using Custom Reports in TFS: Part 3 – How to set up my reporting environment and structure
-
TFS as perfect tool for Scrum (Part 5) – Sprint Review and Retrospective
The Road to ALM 