Operating systems
TFS can be installed on a Windows server or client operating system. TFS 2017 and TFS 2018 only support 64-bit operating systems. For earlier versions of TFS, you can use either the 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems when a 32-bit version is available. We recommend using a server OS unless your TFS instance is for evaluation or personal use.
Server operating systems
| TFS Version | Supported server operating systems |
|---|---|
| TFS 2018 | Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2012 R2 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) Windows Server 2012 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) |
| TFS 2017 | Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2012 R2 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) Windows Server 2012 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) Windows Server 2008 R2 (minimum SP1) (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter) |
| TFS 2015 | Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2012 R2 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) Windows Server 2012 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) Windows Server 2008 R2 (minimum SP1) (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter) |
| TFS 2013 | Windows Server 2012 R2 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) Windows Server 2012 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) Windows Server 2008 R2 (minimum SP1) (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter) |
| TFS 2012 | Windows Server 2012 R2 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) Windows Server 2012 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) Windows Server 2008 R2 (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter) Windows Server 2008 (minimum SP2) Windows Small Business Server 2011 (Standard, Essentials, Premium Add-On) Windows Home Server 2011 |
| TFS 2010 | Windows Server 2008 R2 (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter) Windows Server 2008 (minimum SP2) Windows Server 2003 R2 Windows Server 2003 (minimum SP2) |
The server core installation option is supported for TFS 2017 and TFS 2018, but not for earlier versions. Windows Server, version 1709is not supported. Eventually we do plan to support Windows Server releases from the Semi-Annual Channel.
Client operating systems
| TFS Version | Supported client operating systems |
|---|---|
| TFS 2018 | Windows 10 (Professional, Enterprise) Version 1607 or greater |
| TFS 2017 | Windows 10 (Home, Professional, Enterprise) Windows 8.1 (Basic, Professional, Enterprise) Windows 7 (minimum SP1) (Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate) |
| TFS 2015 | Windows 10 (Home, Professional, Enterprise) Windows 8.1 (Basic, Professional, Enterprise) Windows 7 (minimum SP1) (Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate) |
| TFS 2013 | Windows 8.1 (Basic, Professional, Enterprise) Windows 7 (minimum SP1) (Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate) |
| TFS 2012 | Windows 8.1 (Basic, Professional, Enterprise) Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate) |
| TFS 2010 | Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate) Windows Vista SP2 |
While TFS supports installation on client OSes, we don't recommend this except for evaluation purposes or personal use. TFS installations on client OSes don't support integration with SharePoint products or reporting. The TFS proxy can't be installed on client OSes. If you need to use any of these features, install TFS on a server OS.
System requirements for Team Foundation Server Proxy
The proxy feature is available only if you installed Team Foundation Server on a server operating system.
Review these hardware recommendations to determine the optimal hardware to use for Team Foundation Server Proxy. Unlike operating system requirements, hardware recommendations for proxy are different than those for setting up the application tier of Team Foundation Server. The application tier of TFS requires more robust hardware than the proxy feature does.
These recommendations are guidelines for Team Foundation Server Proxy. Recommended hardware is based on the size of the team that will use the proxy server. Usually this is the team in your remote office. The larger the team, the more robust your hardware must be.
| Remote team size | Hardware recommendations (CPU/RAM) for Team Foundation Server Proxy |
|---|---|
| 450 or fewer users | 1 processor, 2.2 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM |
| Between 450 and 2,200 users | 2 processors, 2.0 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM |
| Between 2,200 and 3,600 users | 4 processors, 2.0 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM |
Additional requirements for GVFS proxy
The Git Virtual File System (GVFS) proxy feature is I/O-heavy. In addition to the basic requirements for the Team Foundation Server Proxy, GVFS proxying requires a fast, large disk to operate efficiently on the repository. Recommended hardware is based on the size of the repository that the GVFS proxy will serve.
| Hardware | Recommended value |
|---|---|
| RAM | As large as the tip of a typical branch |
| Disk space | Four times as large as the repository's entire size |
| Disk hardware | SSD (Solid State Drive) |
For example, assume a repository has 50GB at the tip of master and 200GB of history. We recommend 50GB of RAM and 800GB of SSD-based storage.
Virtualization
Microsoft supports the virtualization of Team Foundation Server in supported virtualization environments. For more information, see the following pages on the Microsoft website:
- Microsoft server software and supported virtualization environments
- Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software
- Support partners for non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software
- Server Virtualization (officially supported products)
SQL Server
Use one of the following versions of SQL Server for TFS:
| TFS version | Support SQL Server version |
|---|---|
| TFS 2018 | SQL Server 2017 SQL Server 2016 (minimum SP1) |
| TFS 2017 Update 1 | SQL Server 2016 (minimum SP1) SQL Server 2014 |
| TFS 2017 | SQL Server 2016 SQL Server 2014 |
| TFS 2015 Update 3 | SQL Server 2016 SQL Server 2014 SQL Server 2012 (minimum SP1) |
| TFS 2015 | SQL Server 2014 SQL Server 2012 (minimum SP1) |
| TFS 2013 Update 2 | SQL Server 2014 SQL Server 2012 (minimum SP1) |
| TFS 2013 | SQL Server 2012 (minimum SP1) |
| TFS 2012 | SQL Server 2012 SQL Server 2008 R2 |
| TFS 2010 | SQL Server 2008 R2 SQL Server 2008 |
SQL Server on Linux is not supported.
If you're using SQL Server 2016, we require a Visual C++ runtime update to be installed.
SQL Server 2014 has increased hardware requirements compared with previous versions. Certain configurations might hurt TFS performance. For more information, read TFS 2013 Update 2: performance considerations using SQL Server 2014.
If you're using SQL Server 2012 with SP1, we recommend you also apply cumulative update 2 on top of SP1 to address a critical SQL Server bug around resource consumption. This isn't a requirement because the bug only affects a small number of instances, but we wanted you to be aware of it. If you don't apply CU2, you should apply a SQL Server hotfix (KB2793634) to addresses another (different) issue where SQL Server 2012 with SP1 might request an excessive amount of restarts.
TFS 2013 additional information
| Category | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Required for TFS | Database Engine Services Full-Text and Semantic Extractions for Search |
| Required for reporting | Reporting Services – Native Analysis Services |
| Collation settings | Must be accent sensitive Must not be case sensitive Must not be Binary Must not be Binary - code point For more information, see SQL Server Collation Requirements |
| Authentication | Windows authentication |
| Service account | You can use a domain account or a built-in account. |
Your limits on database read operations
Microsoft does not support any read operations against the TFS databases that originate from queries, scripts, .dll files, and so on, not provided by Microsoft or its support teams. If Microsoft Support determines that those read operations prevent them from solving your problem, the entire database will be unsupported. To return the database to a supported state, all unsupported read operations must stop.
SQL Server High Availability features Supported by Team Foundation Server SQL Server 2012 offers a new high availability (HA) feature that requires a Team Foundation Server-specific configuration. For more information, see: Use SQL Server 2012 Always On Availability Groups with Team Foundation Server
| SQL Server HA feature | TFS support | Requires TFS Configuration |
|---|---|---|
| Always On Failover Cluster Instances | Yes | No |
| Always On Availability Groups | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Mirroring | Yes | No |
| SQL Replication | No | No |
| SQL Log Shipping | No | No |
SQL Server editions
TFS supports Express, Standard, and Enterprise editions of SQL server. The Express edition is only recommended for evaluation purposes, personal use, or for very small teams. We recommend Standard or Enterprise for all other scenarios.
Hardware recommendations
Team Foundation Server can scale from an Express installation on a laptop used by a single person all the way up to a highly available deployment used by thousands of people and comprising multiple application tiers behind a load balancer, multiple SQL instances using SQL Always On, etc. The following recommendations should apply to most TFS deployments, but your requirements may vary depending on the usage of your team. For example, if you have particularly large Git repositories or Team Foundation Version Control branches, you may need higher spec machines that what are listed below. Note that all of the machines discussed below could be either physical or virtual.
Single Server deployment
A single machine, with one dual-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a fast hard disk drive. This configuration should support up to 250 users of core source control (TF VC or Git) and work item tracking functionality. Extensive use of automated build, test, or release would likely cause performance issues. Use of search or reporting features would not be recommended with this configuration.
Scaling a single server up can enable it to handle a larger number of users; increased use of automated build, test, or release; and/or use of search or reporting features. For example, increasing RAM to 8 GB should enable a single server deployment to scale up to 500 users.
For evaluation or personal use, you can use a a basic configuration with as little as 1 GB of RAM, but clearly this would not be recommended for a production server used by more than one person.
Multi Server deployments
Scaling beyond 500 users; enabling extensive use of automated build, test, or release; enabling use of Code Search; enabling use of reporting features; or enabling SharePoint integration typically requires expanding to a multiple server deployment.
For a team of more than 500 users, consider:
- An application tier with one dual-core processor, 8 GB of memory, and a fast hard disk drive.
- A data tier with one quad-core processor, 8 GB of memory, and high performance storage such as an SSD.
For a team of more than 2,000 users, consider:
- An application tier with one quad-core processor, 16 GB or more of memory, and a fast hard disk drive.
- A data tier with two or more quad-core processors, 16 GB or more of memory, and very high performance storage (SSD, high performance SAN, etc.).
If you plan to extensively use build, test, or release automation, we recommend using higher spec application and data tiers to avoid performance issues. For example, a team of 250 might use a multiple server deployment that is more in line with the recommendations for a team of 500-2,000 users. We also recommend that you keep an eye on your automated processes to ensure that they are efficient – for example, retrieve data from source control incrementally during builds whenever possible, rather than fully refreshing on each build. NOTE: except for very small teams with extremely limited usage of these features we do not recommend installing build, test, or release agents on your TFS application tiers.
If you plan to use Code Search, we typically recommend setting up a separate server for it. For more details, see hardware requirements for Code Search.
If you plan to use reporting features, we recommend setting up a separate server for your warehouse database and Analysis Services cube or using a higher spec data tier.
If you plan to use SharePoint integration, we recommend setting up a separate server for your SharePoint instance or using a higher spec application tier.
If you want to guarantee high availability, you should consider multiple application tiers behind a load balancer and multiple SQL instances with your TFS DBs in an Always On availability group.
SharePoint
Important
TFS 2018 discontinues support for the TFS Extension for SharePoint. For more information, see Discontinue SharePoint integration: TFS 2017 and earlier versions.
SharePoint is a collaboration product is not a TFS requirement, but some teams find SharePoint integration useful. If you want to use SharePoint Products, you must use a supported version that has the TFS extension for SharePoint installed.
| TFS version | Supported SharePoint versions |
|---|---|
| TFS 2018 | No longer supported |
| TFS 2017 | SharePoint 2013 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) SharePoint 2010 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) |
| TFS 2015 | SharePoint 2013 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) SharePoint 2010 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) |
| TFS 2013 | SharePoint 2013 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) SharePoint 2010 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) |
| TFS 2012 | SharePoint 2013 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) SharePoint 2010 (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Standard, Enterprise) Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 |
| TFS 2010 | Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Standard, Enterprise) Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 |
Authentication: NTLM is the recommended authentication provider. Team Foundation Server Extensions for SharePoint Products does not support Basic authentication or anonymous authentication. In SharePoint Server 2013, Microsoft deprecated Windows classic-authentication in favor of claims-based authentication. TFS supports both, but for claims-based authentication, the authentication provider must be NTLM. TFS will only support NTLM-based claims.
You can configure the TFS extension for SharePoint Products on your SharePoint server from the TFS administration console.