On-premises installations of TFS can include reports to help you manage your software development projects. However, you need a report server as part of your deployment in order to use them. If you don't have one, you can add SQL Server Reporting Services to your deployment.
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If you're using Team Foundation Service (http://tfs.visualstudio.com/), adding a report server isn't an option for you at this time. Additionally, if you installed TFS on a client operating system, such as Windows 7, you can't add reporting as described here, because it isn't supported on client operating systems. |
 |  Upload reports |  Grant permissions |  Review team activities |
What do I need to know before adding a report server?
Q: What kind of report server can I add?
A: You'll need to add SQL Server Reporting Services to provide a report server for TFS. This can be added to the SQL Server instance that is supporting TFS, or to a different instance.
Q: What permissions do I need?
A: You need to be a member of the local administrators group on the server, the Team Foundation Administrators group in TFS, and the sysadmin group in SQL Server, or have the equivalent permissions. If you don't have them, get those permissions now.
Q: Can I add reporting if TFS is installed on a client operating system?
A: If it's a client operating system, you can't add reporting and analysis services directly. Your choices aren't easy. If you still want to add reporting, either move the team project collection to a deployment of TFS that supports reporting, or restore your entire deployment to a different server that is running a server operating system and a version of SQL Server that supports reporting.
Q: How do I find out if I already have reporting available for TFS?
A: Look in the administration console for Team Foundation Server. If you see a reporting node and it shows that reporting is configured and enabled, it's already there.
Jump to the bottom of this topic to confirm that reports are available for the team project collection, and then move on to Upload reports to a team project.
Q: Do I need to back up my data first?
A: You should have a recent backup available. If you don't, you can install Cumulative Update 2, and make a backup using Scheduled Backups.
Verify your options and upgrade if necessary
Find out what version and edition of SQL Server you have by following the instructions here. If the answer is SQL Server Express, keep following these steps. If it's any other edition, but you don't see any version and edition information about reporting or analysis services, jump ahead to Add Reporting Services. If you do see information about these services, then your SQL Server already has them installed, and you can jump ahead to Add Reporting to TFS.
If your deployment is using SQL Server Express, upgrade to a different edition. For more information about the editions that support reporting in TFS, go here.
Add Reporting Services and Analysis Services to SQL Server
After you confirm that you have an edition of SQL Server that supports reporting (or you upgrade to one), add the reporting and analysis services features if they aren't already configured.
Open the SQL Server Installation Center to add features to an existing installation.
You might have to restart your computer during this process, particularly if you've just finished upgrading from SQL Server Express.
Once your server has passed all the setup rules checks, pick the instance to add features to. Tip: If you upgraded from SQL Server Express, you'll have a named instance called SQLEXPRESS.
In Feature Selection, add these features:
Analysis Services
Reporting Services - Native
Management Tools - Complete (not pictured)
Accept the defaults for service accounts in Server Configuration, unless your deployment has specific service account needs. Make sure all services are set to start automatically.
Add your user account in Analysis Services Configuration.
Choose Install and Configure for reporting services if you can; if not, choose Install Only. If you're adding features after upgrading from SQL Server Express, Install Only might be the only option available.
Finish the wizard, including any server restarts that might be required.
If you had to choose Install Only when you added reporting, you'll need to open Reporting Services Configuration Manager and do some additional configuration. If not, jump ahead to
Configure Reporting Services Manually
Open Reporting Services Configuration Manager and connect to your report server.
Once you've connected, make sure the service is started, then go to the Web Service URL page and apply all the defaults.
Now you'll need to create a database for reporting. On the Report Server Database page, the Change Database option will open the Report Server Database Configuration Wizard assist you in creating that database.
When you specify the database server connection, include the instance name as well as the server name, separated by a slash (\).
If you aren't using a named instance, you can just provide the server name.
Accept the default values on the rest of the pages of the wizard and wait for it to finish. This can take a few minutes.
Accept all the defaults on the Report Manager URL page.
You've now fully configured reporting on the SQL Server instance that supports TFS. It's time to add the reporting features to TFS!
Add Reporting to TFS
You'll need to add reporting in two places: to TFS itself, and then to your team project collection.
Open the administration console for TFS and go to the Reporting node to start the configuration process.
Select the Use Reporting check box. On the Warehouse tab, provide the name of the report server and instance for the warehouse database. Use the default name for the database (TFS_Warehouse), and test the connection.
Tip: Because you're configuring reporting for the first time, the databases don't exist yet. They will be created when you finish the configuration process.
Provide the same server and instance information for Analysis Services, but use the default name for the analysis database (TFS_Analysis). Provide an account name and password for a data sources account, a special account you've created just for this purpose. (You can read more about these accounts
Tip: Test the connection before continuing.
For Reports, provide the server name and the instance name in Server, separated by a slash. Use Populate URLs to automatically populate the next two boxes. Add the same data sources account information you provided on the previous tab.
Once you finish, databases will be created, and the warehouse will start building.
Now add the report server to the team project collection. Edit the information in Reports Folder.
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If you don't see the Reports Folder tab, you might need to refresh or restart the administration console. |
Unless you have reasons otherwise, use the example provided, and make sure you include the collection name.
Now that you've added reporting to the server and to the team project collection, you're ready to start adding reports to your projects.
Try this next
Dig deeper
Do you want to know more about installing and configuring SQL Server for use with TFS? Read about supported versions and editions, working with named instances, using SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn, as well as understanding how TFS, SQL Server, and Reporting all work together.
Do you want to add someone as an administrator of a team project collection or for all of TFS? Learn what you have to do in Set Administrator Permissions for Team Project Collections and Set Administrator Permissions for Team Foundation Server.
Do you need to change the data reader account you chose? Learn how to in Change the Service Account or Password for SQL Server Reporting Services, or read about Service Accounts and Dependencies in Team Foundation Server to better understand its requirements and what it does.
| Upload reports | Grant permissions | Review team activities |
