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Currently our development team uses shared databases for development :(

We're checking to see if we can use VMWare so that each development branch can have its own database. We have the SQL scripts to create the databases and populate them with test data.

Is it possible to add a trigger to TFS so that upon branching it triggers some external code (perhaps powershell) to create the VM and the database? And on the flip side when the branch is deleted, remove the VM automagically? If not, any other suggestions on how I can accomplish something similar? Our branches are relatively short lived (maybe a couple months at most), which is why we want to automate the process of spinning up a VM and loading the databases it.

Unfortunately we have some legacy databases that are intertwined with other databases and have circular references so a database project is out of the question (they are impossible to build). We will source control our database through other means.

Chris Klepeis
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2 Answers2

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Normally I would say you could write an ISubscriber plug-in. But I don't think a Branch operation is an event you can subscribe too.

Another approach is to write a little utility that your team uses when they want to branch. Instead of creating a Branch in VS, they use a custom utility which will both create the TFS Branch and tell VMware to provision your environment.

Dylan Smith
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I'd start with this problem by writing a batch/powershell script or small application that can create or tear down your VMs. Initially this could be executed "by hand" as part of the branch creation/deletion process.

From there you would have 2 options:

  • Using tf.exe or the TFS API it would be pretty trivial to also make the script/application create/destroy the branch, in which case the process of creating or destroying the branch might just be "run our internal tool, giving it the branch name" (as opposed to doing it from within Visual Studio), and it could deal with everything)

  • I believe you can write an addin for your TFS server which will be called on events when a branch is created or destroyed (this is alluded to here and here), and it would use your script/application to handle the VM in reaction to branching events

Community
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Jason Williams
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