Monitoring TFS 2008: Team Foundation Server Management Pack for SCOM 2007 — Best PracticesMonitoring a Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2008 environment with the Team Foundation Server Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 helps ensure high availability, timely detection of issues, and reliable development infrastructure for your organization. This article covers best practices for planning, deploying, configuring, and tuning the management pack, plus guidance on alert handling, reporting, and ongoing maintenance.
1. Overview: Why monitor TFS with SCOM
Team Foundation Server is a central piece of ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) — it hosts source control, builds, work item tracking, reports, and more. Failures or performance degradations in TFS directly affect developer productivity and delivery pipelines. Using the TFS Management Pack for SCOM 2007 provides:
- Visibility into TFS service health and availability
- Proactive alerts for service, performance, and configuration issues
- Service-level monitoring for build controllers, application tiers, and data tiers
- Integration into existing IT operations processes via SCOM
2. Pre-deployment planning
Before installing the management pack, perform the following planning steps:
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Inventory the TFS environment
- Document TFS roles: application tier(s), data tier (SQL Server), build controllers/agents, reporting services, SharePoint integration, proxy servers.
- Note version details: TFS 2008 SP1 status, SQL Server version, SCOM 2007 (and rollup/service pack) level.
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Confirm SCOM prerequisites
- Ensure SCOM 2007 is healthy, properly sized, and updated to a supported rollup.
- Verify the SCOM agent version on TFS servers and SQL Servers is compatible.
- Confirm run-as accounts and profiles exist for the management pack’s tasks.
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Define monitoring objectives
- Decide which components you need monitored (core services, build infrastructure, SQL operations, reporting/SharePoint).
- Define alert thresholds, noise tolerance, and maintenance windows.
- Map alerts to operational owners and escalation paths.
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Capacity and performance considerations
- Estimate the number of monitored objects (servers, TFS components) and expected alert volume.
- Plan SCOM database storage and management server capacity accordingly.
3. Installation and configuration best practices
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Use a test environment first
- Deploy the management pack into a non-production SCOM environment that mirrors production to validate configurations and impact.
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Import only required management packs
- The TFS pack may depend on other Microsoft or SCOM core management packs (Windows Server, SQL Server, IIS, etc.). Import dependencies deliberately; avoid unnecessary packs that increase noise.
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Configure Run As accounts securely
- Create least-privilege accounts for monitoring tasks, following the management pack’s documented permissions.
- Use SCOM Run As Profiles to map credentials only to appropriate monitored objects.
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Discovery tuning
- Use discovery rules selectively to avoid over-discovering components. Disable discovery for roles or servers you do not wish to monitor.
- Schedule discovery to run during off-peak hours for large environments.
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Secure communications
- Ensure SCOM agent communication and any remote access needed by the management pack follow your security policies (firewalls, certificates, service accounts).
4. Alert management and tuning
Avoid alert fatigue by tuning alerts and workflows:
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Prioritize alerts
- Categorize alerts by severity and business impact (Critical, Warning, Informational).
- Map critical alerts (service down, SQL connectivity) to immediate notification channels (SMS/pager/phone).
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Alert suppression and maintenance mode
- Use SCOM maintenance mode during planned changes (patching, backups, upgrades) to prevent false alerts.
- Implement suppression for known, low-impact transient conditions.
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Threshold tuning
- Adjust performance thresholds where the default values are noisy or not aligned with your environment.
- For example, tweak build queue-related thresholds if build servers temporarily spike during nightly runs.
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Alert correlation and aggregation
- Create rules or workflows that correlate dependent alerts (e.g., SQL server alert causing multiple TFS application tier alerts) so operators see root-cause first.
- Use SCOM’s knowledge articles and connector features to include remediation steps.
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Runbooks and playbooks
- For common alerts, create runbooks that detail triage and remediation steps (restarting a TFS service, checking SQL jobs, clearing build queues).
- Automate simple fixes where safe (service restart) using SCOM tasks or System Center Orchestrator.
5. Monitoring key TFS components and metrics
Focus monitoring on components with high operational impact:
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TFS application tier
- Monitor IIS application pools hosting TFS web services (availability, recycle events).
- Watch for w3wp.exe crashes, unhandled exceptions, and request queueing.
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TFS services and Windows services
- Ensure core Windows services (TFSServiceHost, TFSBuildServiceHost for build controllers) are running.
- Monitor service restarts and account-related failures.
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SQL Server (data tier)
- Monitor SQL availability, response time, blocking/locking, transaction log sizes, backups, replication (if applicable).
- Watch the TFS databases’ growth, cleanup jobs, and index fragmentation.
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Build controllers and agents
- Monitor agent availability, queued builds, build failures, and workspace issues.
- Alert on unreachable agents or persistent build agent errors.
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Reporting and SSRS
- Monitor SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) health and report processing failures.
- Track report execution times and scheduled report job failures.
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SharePoint integration
- Monitor SharePoint availability and site health if TFS uses SharePoint for project portals.
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Security and authentication
- Monitor authentication failures, domain controller availability, and errors in identity-related operations.
6. Dashboards, views, and reporting
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Tailored dashboards
- Create SCOM dashboards oriented to different audiences: operations (infrastructure health), application owners (TFS service health), and development leads (build status trends).
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Service-level views
- Model TFS as a service in SCOM with dependencies to SQL, IIS, and SharePoint so service health reflects root-cause.
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Historical reporting
- Use SCOM reporting for trend analysis: service outages, build failure trends, performance metrics over time.
- Leverage SQL Server Reporting Services to publish executive summaries and detailed runbook-linked reports.
7. Automation and remediation
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Automated recovery actions
- For repeatable, safe issues implement automated tasks: recycle IIS app pool, restart a stuck build service, clear temporary files.
- Test automation thoroughly in staging to avoid unintended consequences.
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Integration with change management
- Tie maintenance mode changes and automated remediation to change management records to maintain auditability.
8. Security and compliance considerations
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Least privilege
- Run SCOM and management pack actions using the least privileged accounts necessary.
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Auditability
- Enable logging for automated tasks and critical alerts. Keep an audit trail for changes made by operators or automation.
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Data protection
- Secure credentials stored in Run As accounts and protect the SCOM database with appropriate access controls and encryption where required.
9. Ongoing maintenance and lifecycle
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Keep management packs updated
- Apply updates, hotfixes, or replacement packs from Microsoft (or vendors) when available to address bugs and improvements.
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Review alert tuning regularly
- Quarterly review of alert thresholds and noise sources helps keep the monitoring value high.
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Capacity planning
- Reassess SCOM and TFS infrastructure sizing as the number of projects, team members, and build frequency grows.
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Training and documentation
- Keep runbooks, escalation matrices, and knowledge base articles current. Train both operations staff and development leads on interpreting alerts and dashboards.
10. Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
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Over-monitoring and alert noise
- Avoid importing every possible rule unmodified — tune discovery and thresholds first.
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Missing dependencies
- Ensure all required dependent management packs (IIS, Windows, SQL Server) are present and configured; missing dependencies can cause blind spots.
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Poorly secured run-as accounts
- Do not use domain admins; follow least-privilege principles.
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Lack of root-cause correlation
- Without dependency modeling alerts appear scattered; model TFS as a service with dependencies so operators can find root causes faster.
11. Example: Tuning a noisy build-agent alert
Problem: Build agent CPU utilization alerts spike nightly due to scheduled builds, causing alert fatigue.
Steps:
- Identify baseline utilization during scheduled build windows using historical graphs.
- Raise threshold for CPU utilization alerts during the known build window, or configure a scheduled override/maintenance window.
- Alternatively, create a monitor that only alerts when high CPU persists beyond X minutes to filter brief spikes.
- Document the change in runbook and monitor effectiveness for one release cycle; revert or refine if necessary.
12. Checklist before going live
- Inventory and document all TFS components and owners.
- Validate SCOM agent connectivity and required Run As accounts.
- Import management pack and dependencies into a test SCOM first.
- Tune discovery rules and disable undesired discoveries.
- Configure alert severity, notification channels, and escalation paths.
- Create dashboards and service views for stakeholders.
- Implement maintenance windows for planned operations.
- Create and test runbooks and automated recovery tasks.
- Schedule regular reviews for tuning and capacity planning.
Conclusion
Monitoring TFS 2008 with the Team Foundation Server Management Pack for SCOM 2007 requires careful planning, targeted discovery, alert tuning, and continuous maintenance. Focus on monitoring the components that directly impact developer productivity (application tier, SQL data tier, build infrastructure, and reporting), reduce noise through threshold and discovery tuning, and implement runbooks and automation for common remediations. With appropriate deployment and ongoing governance, SCOM 2007 and the TFS management pack can deliver robust, actionable monitoring that keeps your development pipeline healthy and responsive.
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